By weaving an external interference narrative against India, Yunus plans to delay polls and show that reforms, trials against Hasina-led Awami League come first
Bangladesh’s interim government’s Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus used his latest US visit to launch an anti-India tirade, blaming India for the failure of SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) as a regional platform to encourage 'continuous misinformation' to ruin the image of his government.
Yunus, in an interview, alleged that the Indian media has portrayed him as "chief Taliban", ending the conversation with a cheap quip that he has left behind his beard at home. The interviewer was relentlessly questioning Yunus on the delay in holding elections in Bangladesh, unlike in Nepal, where the interim administration, formed in the wake of the Gen Z protests, has already declared a date for the polls immediately after taking charge.
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Hesitant to relinquish power
That is when Yunus emphasised the counterpoint, highlighting his desire to remain in power without facing elections.
“There are many who want us to stay in power for five, even 50 years, so that we can thoroughly reform the system," he said, once again stressing that holding parliamentary elections was third in his list of priorities – reforms and trials of "fascists" ( meaning Awami League) being the first two.
Yunus is clearly upset over ousted PM Sheikh Hasina's ongoing efforts to reorganise her party ranks inside the country from her haven in India
Yunus is clearly upset over ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ongoing efforts to reorganise her party ranks inside the country from her haven in India. His government has even decided to ban some apps that Hasina is using to link up with her party faithfuls at the grassroots.
Painting India as a villain
When Yunus requested Narendra Modi during their only face-to-face meeting at Bangkok to stop Hasina's social media campaign, he was snubbed by the Indian prime minister, who reminded him that “anyone is free to use social media in India.”
During his New York visit, Yunus again raised the issue of Hasina being hosted by India, saying Delhi perhaps never reconciled with her ouster by the student movement last year.
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Bangladesh’s Home Affairs Advisor Lt Gen Jahangir Alam Chowdhury took the cue from Yunus and promptly found an "Indian hand" in the recent surge of violence in Chittagong Hill Tracts, between indigenous tribespeople and settlers from Bangladesh's plains.
At the root of the conflict lies an 'internal colonisation' programme initiated by Bangladesh's military rulers, Generals Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad, of largescale settlement of Muslim peasants to undermine the demography of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), where indigenous Buddhist and Hindu tribespeople constituted more than 90 per cent of the population in 1947, but now barely account for half of it.
While Yunus and his advisors have just been blaming India for much of Bangladesh’s woes, his Islamist allies have resorted to Pakistan-style threat to take on India
Tribal organisations in CHT allege that the Yunus government is now trying to push Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar into the Hill Tracts – a charge denied by Dhaka, which says it wants to send the one million plus Rohingya refugees back to Myanmar.
‘Holy war’ threat
While Yunus and his advisors have just been blaming India for much of Bangladesh’s woes, his Islamist allies have resorted to a Pakistan-style threat to take on India. Jamaat-e-Islami's ' Naib Emir' Syed Abdullah Muhammed Taher, while speaking at a reception of the Bangladesh American Association in New York, warned India of a “holy war” that 5 million Bangladeshi youths would be ready to join if "India invaded us once the Jamaat takes power in Bangladesh."
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Jamaat-e-Islami is a pro-Pakistan party that opposed Bangladesh's independence war in 1971, and its cadres fought alongside the Pakistan army. Some of its leaders were tried and executed for the 1971 war crimes. One such leader, Azharul Islam, was recently released by the Yunus government. The Jamaat's votes in elections have never been in double digits, but the party leadership feels recently encouraged by the victories of its student front in two university student union elections. Taher has accompanied Yunus during the recent US trip and could have taken the cue from him to whip up the anti-Indian tirade.
Desperate pursuit of Hasina
Yunus is clearly unnerved by the rising intensity of the Awami League protest rallies across Bangladesh. Despite huge repression that includes large-scale arrests, mostly in fake cases, the party's rank and file clearly seems undeterred. Public support, largely caused by Yunus' failure in both managing the economy and ensuring law and order, is also growing for the former ruling party.
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According to government insiders, Yunus is hoping for an early verdict against Hasina in one of the many cases filed in the Crimes Tribunal against the ousted prime minister.
Yunus may also be in the process of creating a new threat narrative – one of internal disruption by Awami League caused by external backing from India. This will help him delay elections
Yunus had already appealed to India to send back Hasina to face trial. In view of India's tense relations with the Trump administration, Yunus was perhaps using his US trip to build Western pressure on India to send back Hasina to face the inevitable. No wonder he prioritised the trials over the elections during one of his media interviews.
New threat narrative
The anti-Hasina agenda helps Yunus get the support of all anti-Awami League parties like the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami, and the newly formed National Citizens Party. Leaders of these parties accompanied Yunus on his US visit, whose stated purpose was to attend the UN General Assembly, but whose real intent was to ensure continued US support.
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Yunus may also be in the process of creating a new threat narrative – one of internal disruption (by Awami League) caused by external backing (by India). That may help him delay the parliament elections that he has promised to hold in February next year, but with the rider – if all important reforms are in place by that time.
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