B'desh politics heats up, Yunus on the back foot
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rally in Dhaka on Wednesday is a sign of the continuing political ferment in Bangladesh nearly 10 months after the Sheikh Hasina government was deposed and a caretaker administration under Muhammad Yunus took charge. The shake-up was meant to usher in political reforms, democratise the polity, and herald a 'new republic' under an amended Constitution. But the picture from Dhaka is of a nation adrift. The political consensus that enabled the appointment of the interim government has frayed with Yunus, the chief advisor and head of the caretaker administration, at odds with the major political parties and the army.
Yunus wants political reforms first, whereas parties such as BNP and the army are restive about the lack of a firm time-frame for the election. Army chief Waker-Uz-Zaman has repeatedly said crucial decisions impinging on national security should be left to an elected government. Both BNP and the army want polls by December and a new government by February next. Besides, Draconian restriction of the freedoms of government employees are hardly the reforms the people called for.
Beneath the political divide, some issues threaten to force a realignment of Dhaka's relations with its neighbours. A plan reportedly mooted by the country's National Security Adviser, Khalilur Rahman, a civilian appointee of Yunus backed by the US and UK, to have a 'corridor' to engage with the Rohingya population in the Arakan province of Myanmar has been staunchly opposed by the army; the latter fears that the move will draw the attention of China, which backs the Tatmadaw in Naypyidaw. Yunus's strategy to cover up his administrative failings has been to exacerbate fears of an Indian hegemony. That a stable, democratic Bangladesh is in India's interest is hardly of concern to Yunus. His attempt to pivot Dhaka away from New Delhi and into the orbit of Islamabad and Beijing can only hurt Bangladesh's economic and political stability.
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