Is Yunus flexing street power to counter Bangladesh army chief's ultimatum?

India Today

23-05-2025

Bangladesh's interim government chief adviser, Muhammad Yunus, stung by army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman's stern instructions to hold early elections, is now playing the victim to rally his supporters on the streets — an attempt to retain power.On Thursday, Nahid Islam, Yunus's close lieutenant who leads the nascent National Citizens Party, told reporters that Yunus had expressed his desire to resign. "After what happened on Wednesday, Dr Yunus feels he cannot continue as chief adviser of the interim government,' he said. However, as of now, there has been no indication of the Nobel laureate doing anything like that.advertisementA March in MayOn the contrary, his supporters are getting ready to fight on all fronts - in the streets, on social media, and on the global stage - to save the Yunus regime.
While many of his detractors compared this to Dharmendra's suicide threat in the film Sholay, his supporters announced a 'March for Yunus' at Dhaka's Shahbagh on Saturday. Posters around the city called on people to join the march with slogans like "Keep Yunus in power for five years' and 'Reforms first, elections later'.Shahbagh is a popular protest spot in Dhaka, made famous by the 2013-14 rallies demanding punishment for the 1971 war criminals — Islamist radical leaders who supported the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War. But now these leaders are the strongest backers of Muhammad Yunus's interim regime, trying to use him as a front to pursue their agenda of turning Bangladesh into a theocracy. They are calling for the abrogation of the 1972 secular Constitution by announcing the July Declaration, a proclamation that could be followed by toppling President Mohammed Shahabuddin Chuppu and possibly replacing him with Yunus.advertisementYunus's critics allege that he intends to be president until his death, like North Korea's Kim Jong Un.Yunus promises to turn Bangladesh into another Singapore — but only if he continues to rule without being elected. His backers in the West, who attacked Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for 'murdering' democracy, now seem to have no problem with an unelected leader blocking elections with all possible excuses. This is only because he seems to be playing along with their strategic agendas, such as the proposed UN-US Rakhine corridor.General Waker, Major ChallengeOn Wednesday, army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman rubbished Yunus's reform agenda and called for elections by December. He also insisted that the unelected interim government not take any important decisions that could impact stability and Bangladesh's sovereignty, leaving such issues to an elected government in the future.Analysts say General Waker's Wednesday speech was the "first major challenge" to Yunus's authority and a direct riposte to his unconcealed desire to stay in power without facing elections.The army chief has time and again made it clear that he is against a military takeover. All he expects of Yunus is to hold 'free, fair, and inclusive elections' to ensure a smooth, peaceful transition of power to an elected dispensation, after which the army can go back to the barracks. But on Wednesday, he also made it clear that the army will no longer tolerate mobocracy and anarchy, any interference in military matters by the interim government, and any attempt to bypass the military in decisions crucial for Bangladesh's sovereignty and stability. The General insisted that military leadership be consulted in all security and strategic matters and nothing be done 'behind its back'.advertisementOn Friday, Yunus looked to his supporters, especially radical Islamist groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Hifazat-e-Islam, capable of mobilising large bands of students from madrassas, and even criminals from Dhaka's underworld.Around the same time, leaflets allegedly circulated by junior commanders in the army attacked the unelected interim government, blaming it for betraying the spirit of the pro-democracy agitations last year. "No longer will the military, the defenders of the nation, tolerate any mass vendetta campaign that is ripping the country apart and taking it towards chaos and anarchy," said one such leaflet.Blowing SmokeIn the meantime, Yunus supporters were active on social media, trying to float new narratives in defence of the interim government. Yunus's special adviser, Faiz Tayeb, wrote on Facebook, "The army should stop interfering in politics and be mindful of the civilised norms," arguing for Yunus's continued stay in power to implement important reforms.advertisementYunus's colleague in his council of advisers, Syeda Rizwana, contested General Waker's argument that the interim government was put in place to conduct free and fair elections, saying that bringing about reforms and getting justice for 'victims of fascism' was as much part of their agenda as holding the elections. Again, a case of shifting the goalposts.Former army chief Iqbal Karim Bhuiyan warned against 'any repeat of 1/11', a reference to the takeover of the government by a military-backed caretaker in 2006. Bhuiyan, who played an important role in motivating officers to avoid the suppression of last year's anti-Hasina agitation, said in his brief post that the army should avoid getting entangled in any "unconstitutional act" that would only undermine its institutional standing.Sources close to General Waker say that Bhuiyan is missing the wood for the trees because the present army chief is actually trying to restore democracy through participatory elections, unlike Yunus. In fact, Bhuiyan's reference to 1/11 brings back memories of Muhammad Yunus's first attempt to grab power with military backing when he unsuccessfully tried to float a new political party that some derisively referred to as the "King's party". Back then, the military-backed caretaker again tried to extend his tenure by avoiding the constitutional task of conducting elections. Finally, then-army chief General Moeen Uddin Ahmed succumbed to global pressure and organised polls that were swept by Hasina's Awami League.advertisementThe Nobel laureate's king-sized political ambitions are well known, but he lacks the capacity and patience for establishing a political party and carrying it to power through elections. And what was so far unknown to many, including his admirers, was the extent to which he could and would go to hang on to power. In the Bengali countryside, they speak of people who want to bathe without getting wet — Yunus clearly fits that bill.(Subir Bhaumik is a former BBC and Reuters correspondent and author who has worked in Bangladesh as a senior editor with bdnews24.com)(Views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author)Must Watch