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Bangladesh: How Muhammad Yunus is pandering to Sheikh Hasina’s rival BNP, one step at a time

By facilitating the end of Tarique Rehman's self-exile, the release of Khaleda Zia and the glorification of Ziaur Rehman, Muhammad Yunus is making the path clear for the revival of the BNP in the mainstream politics of Bangladesh.

Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor of the interim government of Bangladesh, has been furthering the agenda of Sheikh Hasina’s rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

Following the fall of Dhaka on 5th August 2024, the Chairperson of BNP Begum Khaleda Zia was released from prison.

Until then, she was in jail for embezzling $250,000 in donations meant for an orphanage. Yunus welcomed her warmly in November last year during the Bangladesh Armed Forces Day.

“Khaleda Zia, the wife of martyred President Ziaur Rahman, has come here. She did not get a chance to attend the event for almost a decade. We are proud to offer this opportunity to her,” he was heard saying.

One of BNP’s major allies happens to be Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI). Muhammad Yunus saw to it that the ban on the radical Islamic outfit and its student wing Islami Chhatra Shibir was lifted within days of coming to power.

Recently, he tried to re-invent the history of Bangladesh’s Independence movement to remain in the good books of the BNP.

The Yunus regime has introduced new textbooks for primary and secondary students which falsely claim that the first declaration of independence of Bangladesh was made by Ziaur Rehman, the founder of BNP.

The ‘Nobel laureate’ has made it clear that he is willing to distort the nation’s history to forge strong ties with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

The BNP is now pressing the Yunus regime to create a ‘conducive environment’ for the safe return of Tarique Rehman to Bangladesh.

For the unversed, Tarique Rehman is the son of Khaleda Zia and Ziaur Rehman. He has been the acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party since 2018. He has been living in ‘self-exile’ in London for 17 years.

OpIndia reported on 4th August 2024 about the involvement of Tarique Rehman in the so-called student protests, which ultimately led to the undemocratic ouster of Sheikh Hasina.

Our sources in Dhaka have told us that Tarique Rehman will soon return to Bangladesh.

By facilitating the end of Tarique’s self-exile, the release of Khaleda Zia and the glorification of Ziaur Rehman, Muhammad Yunus is making the path clear for the revival of the BNP in the mainstream politics of Bangladesh.

The Islamist party, which was shoved into a corner during Sheikh Hasina’s tenure, is now strategically gaining ground in the country.

BNP leaders and Muhammad Yunus are ‘natural allies’

Muhammad Yunus and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party are united through their common dislike for Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League.

After Hasina fled Bangladesh, Yunus described the moment as ‘Second Liberation Day.’ BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia had also hailed ‘brave children’ for their struggle that made the ‘impossible possible.’

Both the BNP and Yunus regime did not hold back from making their anti-India agenda clear. Prior to Hasina’s ouster, BNP was openly supporting the boycott of Indian goods and products.

Although Yunus couldn’t afford to openly endorse the ‘India Out’ campaign, he tried to temporarily placate the anti-India Islamists by not exporting Hilsa fish to India.

When Khaleda Zia was politically active, she would openly support insurgents in India’s North East by hailing them as ‘freedom fighters.’

Her anti-India sentiment was recently echoed by one of the advisors of the Yunus regime, Mahfuz Alam.

BNP has always promoted a ‘Bangladeshi identity’ based on Islam. Its politics centred around the majoritarian form of Islamic nationalism that had no place for Hindus and other religious minorities in the story of Bangladesh.

The party had also been involved in anti-Hindu atrocities. While Yunus has not directed Muslim mobs to run rampage, he has strategically remained tight-lipped on their activities.

His regime has released Islamic hardliners and convicted terrorists and tried to downplay attacks on Hindu minorities as ‘fake‘, ‘exaggerated‘ or ‘politically motivated‘.

The smokescreen of BNP-Yunus friction

There have been a few issues over which the Bangladesh Nationalist Party has publicly expressed a difference of opinion with the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus.

For instance, the BNP opposed the proposal of the interim government to ban the Awami League. Party’s secretary general Mirza Fakrul Islam had said, “Unlike Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League, we don’t believe in the politics of banning a political party to settle scores.

One of the public grievances against the Hasina regime was her alleged ‘undemocratic’ ways of running the government. The BNP, in its pursuit of winning over people, was trying to position itself as a democratic alternative to the Awami League.

It is with that motive in mind that the Islamist party opposed the ban on Awami League, knowing well that the latter would not be able to put up a fight in the absence of Sheikh Hasina.

Another bone of contention between the BNP and the Yunus regime was over the suggestion by the latter to reduce the minimum age for voting to 17 years. This has the potential to delay the national election process.

These issues are trivial at best in the background of the ideological similarity between the Yunus regime and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

According to our sources in Dhaka, BNP leaders and advisors to the interim government of Bangladesh are ironing out their differences through back-door meetings to ensure public spat in future.

Yunus has so far venerated both Khaleda Zia and BNP founder Ziaur Rehman.

It now remains to be seen how the political dynamics change with the potential arrival of Tarique Rehman in Bangladesh and the announcement of national elections in the near future.

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Dibakar Dutta
Dibakar Duttahttps://dibakardutta.in/
Centre-Right. Political analyst. Assistant Editor @Opindia. Reach me at [email protected]

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