Latest news with #BNP
Time of India
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Will Yunus go too far with the India bashing?
Will Yunus go too far with the India bashing? Swapan Dasgupta TNN Updated: May 31, 2025, 20:52 IST IST Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh's interim leader, faces criticism for overstaying his welcome and pursuing personal agendas despite lacking popular support. He's in a power struggle with the army and BNP over election timelines, aiming for a 'reset' of Bangladesh, potentially involving controversial economic reforms and foreign policy initiatives. If there is one thing the chief adviser of Bangladesh's interim administration has clearly shown since the resignation drama of May 24, it is that he is no pushover. In the nine months at the helm, Nobel Prize winner and NGO icon Muhammad Yunus has slipped from being the man the country welcomed as a potential saviour to being regarded as a crafty, divisive figure with a bagful of personal agendas. Yet, lacking a political base of consequence and despite a steep fall in popularity, Yunus has pitted diverse groups against each other and clung on to power — although at a huge cost to Bangladesh. The latest political crisis to envelop Bangladesh centres on the timetable of the national election that will install a democratic government in Dhaka. In a paradoxical twist, the army has advocated elections by the end of 2025, a demand strongly endorsed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), now led from London by Begum Khaleda Zia's son Tarique Rahman. On his part, Yunus has said he wants until end-June 2026 to first bring about unspecified reforms, and also bring the arrested leaders of the Hasina regime to justice. Activists of the National Citizen Party — derisively called the King's Party — have even suggested that Yunus should be in office for the next five years.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
a day ago
- Politics
- First Post
How Yunus's bowing to foreign powers, Islamist backers is destroying Bangladesh's future
Muhammad Yunus is at best a toothless figurehead, unable to quell the chaos, and at worst a pliable pawn in the hands of foreign powers; his government's failures—amnesty for rioters, media crackdowns, and delayed elections— are paving the way for a darker, divided Bangladesh read more Not long ago, Bangladesh was rocked by massive protests under the guise of student rights, demanding reform of a job quota system but spiralling into chaos that ousted Sheikh Hasina, branded a dictator, and unleashed vicious anti-Hindu violence. What began in July 2024 as university students challenging a 30 per cent job reservation for 1971 war veterans' descendants turned into a deadly anti-government uprising by August, forcing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India. As law enforcement collapsed, mobs targeted the 8 per cent Hindu minority, seen as Awami League allies, with 2,010 attacks across 52 districts, including 157 Hindu homes looted or burnt, 69 temples vandalised, and at least five Hindus killed. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate once celebrated as the 'banker to the poor', was thrust into Bangladesh's interim leadership on August 8, 2024, as the answer to Sheikh Hasina's authoritarian tenure, a saviour who would heal a nation torn by protests and restore faith in governance. Student leaders and activists saw the 84-year-old economist's global reputation and microfinance legacy as a ticket to stability and fair elections, a 'second Victory Day' in his own lofty words. Leaders may have also used Yunus as a symbolic mask to present a favourable image to the West. But to call Yunus a disappointment is far too generous—his tenure has been a masterclass in failure, letting anti-Hindu violence rage unchecked while rolling out repressive policies that have plunged Bangladesh into fresh chaos. For more than a week, Dhaka's streets have been choking under the weight of massive rallies led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party's (BNP's) youth wings—Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, Jubo Dal, and Swechchhasebak Dal—demanding political rights for the young and a clear path to elections. As Muhammad Yunus jetted off to Japan, lakhs of supporters, draped in green, yellow, and red, flooded Nayapaltan, waving flags and chanting for BNP's exiled leader Tarique Rahman, who railed against the interim government's failures via a virtual address. The air crackled with frustration—roads from Shahbagh to Motijheel were paralysed, commuters stranded for hours, as the youth vented their rage against Yunus's delays, accusing his regime of clinging to power while sidestepping the 'democratic' roadmap. This wasn't just a rally; it was a warning shot, a sea of voices shouting that Bangladesh's patience is wearing thin. The protests didn't stop at Nayapaltan—anger boiled over at Dhaka's heavily guarded secretariat, where government employees revolted against Yunus's draconian ordinance allowing swift dismissals for 'misconduct', a move reeking of Hasina's old playbook. Torch-lit marches and sit-ins erupted, with bureaucrats slamming the law as a gag on dissent, their shouts echoing through the capital's gridlocked streets. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD General Waker-Uz-Zaman, the army chief, piled on the pressure, publicly demanding December elections, while BNP leaders like Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury warned of a deepening crisis without a vote. Caught between calls for reform and the clamour for polls, Yunus's government—despite planning adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud's insistence that he won't quit—looks increasingly like a ship adrift, its promises of stability drowned out by the growing roar of a nation fed up with waiting. Muhammad Yunus's interim government, despite its lofty promises of a democratic dawn, reveals a shaky commitment to those very values, casting doubt on the true motives behind the 2024 uprising that ousted Sheikh Hasina. The student protests, initially cloaked in the noble garb of reform, now seem a façade for something more sinister—a power grab dressed up as revolution. The so-called student protests that convulsed Bangladesh in July 2024, toppling Sheikh Hasina's government, were not the spontaneous outcry of a generation seeking justice but a meticulously orchestrated operation by the CIA, with Pakistan's ISI playing a willing accomplice. Hasina's refusal to grant the United States access to Saint Martin's Island in the Bay of Bengal for a military base—a strategic foothold to counter China's growing influence—had irked Washington. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Declassified cables from 2023 reveal US pressure on Dhaka for a naval facility, met with Hasina's firm stance to preserve Bangladesh's sovereignty, citing the island's ecological sensitivity and tourism value. Enter the CIA, adept at engineering unrest, and the ISI, Pakistan's seasoned hand at destabilising neighbours. The protests, sparked over a job quota system, were amplified by coordinated social media campaigns—fanning student anger into a full-blown uprising. Pakistan's defence minister Khawaja Asif's candid admission in an interview, 'We've been doing this dirty work for the United States for decades,' lays bare the playbook: just as Pakistan funnelled US funds to radicalise Afghanistan in the 1980s, it now bankrolled chaos in Bangladesh, training agitators in Chittagong camps and funnelling $10 million through NGOs to fuel the protests. The CIA emerged triumphant, neutralising a leader who defied its geopolitical ambitions, while Pakistan tightened its grip over Bangladesh, a nation it once ruled as East Pakistan. The real losers, however, were Bangladesh's youth, duped into believing Hasina was a Stalin-esque tyrant crushing their rights. They were pawns, their idealism weaponised by foreign hands promising progress but delivering ruin. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Post-Hasina, radical Islamic forces—emboldened by the power vacuum and ISI-backed networks like Jamaat-e-Islami—have surged, torching homes and temples while liberal Muslims face death threats for speaking out. Yunus's interim government, far from a democratic saviour, has ceded ground to these extremists, its amnesty for rioters and media crackdowns proving the revolution was never about reform. Bangladesh, once on a path to stability, now teeters on the edge of radicalisation, its youth betrayed by the very forces they thought would set them free, while the CIA and ISI watch their gambit unfold with cold satisfaction. India's principled decision to grant refuge to Sheikh Hasina in August 2024 stands as a testament to its commitment to regional stability and moral clarity, recognising her role in keeping Bangladesh's radical forces at bay while fiercely guarding its sovereignty against foreign encroachment. Hasina, for all her flaws, held the line against extremist groups like Jamaat-e-Islami, curbing their influence and fostering economic growth, while rejecting US demands for a military base on Saint Martin's Island. By forcing her out, protestors backed by the CIA and ISI have hurled Bangladesh into a vortex of perennial instability, with anti-Hindu violence surging and radical Islamists gaining ground. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Muhammad Yunus, the interim chief advisor, is at best a toothless figurehead, unable to quell the chaos, and at worst a pliable pawn in the hands of foreign powers, his government's failures—amnesty for rioters, media crackdowns, and delayed elections—are paving the way for a darker, divided Bangladesh, while India stands firm as a beacon of reason amid the region's self-inflicted wounds. The writer takes special interest in history, culture and geopolitics. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
The Hindu
a day ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Sheikh Hasina Needs to Step Back From Bangladesh Politics: Sreeradha Datta
Published : May 29, 2025 15:14 IST - 12 MINS READ In this episode of Latitude, host Nirupama Subramanian spoke to Sreeradha Datta, a professor of international relations at O.P. Jindal Global University who specialises in South Asia. Datta discusses developments in Bangladesh where Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor, conveyed through a representative a few days ago that he was going to step down because of non-cooperation by various stakeholders. While the 84-year-old Yunus has since stepped back from the decision, the uncertainty continues amid reports that differences have developed between him and the Bangladesh army. Datta also discusses India-Bangladesh relations and what can be done to restore the bilateral ties that existed before Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ouster in August 2024. Edited excerpts: What do you make of this sudden announcement by Muhammad Yunus that he wished to quit, and then, equally quickly, his withdrawal of that decision? Was this just a trial balloon, a pressure tactic, or did he really mean it seriously? I would think it's actually a mix of all those three basic factors. Yes, there were a lot of different variant voices, at times divisive voices, also and different stakeholders who had a different point of view. Also, there was a problem of the road map for the elections. We've seen the BNP [Bangladesh Nationalist Party] and others [who] want early elections in December. The student leaders, the Jamaat-e-Islami, they want elections to be deferred because clearly their ground is not ready for it as yet. And the question of the reforms, which Dr. Yunus himself said in his early days, that anything from one year to three years, so it was kept widely open then. He's frustrated, he's exasperated, he's not happy trying to do this. But I think that all party meeting which took place two days ago was basically putting faith on him because at this point of juncture, if he steps down, this would be political mayhem again. All the stakeholders agreed that the best way forward is Professor Yunus. And I think that's what he mentioned yesterday, that he's not going to stay beyond June 30 next year. The BNP and the military have been demanding elections by December this year. Would they be happy about this extended timeline to June 30, 2026? The BNP is certainly because they know this is a good time for them. There's a huge wave in their favour at this point in time, which they don't want to miss out on. But again, he has mentioned reforms. The basic reform everybody agrees on is the electoral reform. The election commission has already got the voters' list out, where people can address the anomalies. But for these reforms to take shape, you would need all-party consensus. Many of the reform reports have been accepted by the interim government. But now they have to have a process where everybody is on board with it. And there is an opinion that an elected government is best suited for this purpose. Should Yunus not be really concentrating on holding the election? These reforms are best addressed by an elected government. Where is this coming from? If you recall, Bangladesh between 2006 and 2008 had a similar interim period when it was a caretaker government. At that point in time, there has been opinion among many Bangladeshis that many reforms that the nation needed weren't undertaken, the systemic problems that Bangladesh has. Similarly, now I have spoken to some of the advisors who talked about the very deep-rooted systemic problems that need to be addressed. But I don't think it's possible to address them overnight. The opinion of Yunus and some who back him suggests that, suppose it went to election straight away, the country was going to go back to the same chaos, the same mayhem of not being able to address the systemic problems. My argument is that even if you do bring in very strong reforms, what is to say a political party that has an overwhelming majority in the parliament is not going to come and overrule all of that. It's a political culture that needs to be addressed, and it can't be done just through paper. Also Read | BNP and Jamaat's London huddle stirs political pot in Bangladesh When Yunus said he wanted to quit because he was not being allowed to govern, what was actually happening on the ground in Bangladesh? What we saw immediately in the aftermath of the August 5 uprising, we've seen different stakeholders suddenly jump in. Students were the front face of that movement. Now, often we've seen when students campaign for change, the whole country awakens to the fact that if we all go to the streets in masses, we want to get our wishlist done. So we've seen all kinds of people on the road in that particular mood that we can do this through street power. I think Yunus gave them too much space, essentially because he felt the previous regime wasn't engaging, especially the youth. But at the same time, when we suddenly see a lot of these Islamist elements suddenly out and voicing - maybe at a political level, they probably have absolutely no space, but this social space was sadly too much. Those elements, their street power is immense. These Islamist elements, hopefully have absolutely zero electoral presence. But this street power, their social power is a lot. He seemed to suggest there were differences between the army and the interim administration. What really is that relationship? I would think they don't have to be on the same page on every issue. The main controversy which we saw in the public domain is on the humanitarian corridor. Can you please explain this humanitarian corridor? This is basically a space they wanted to create on the common border where Bangladesh would provide material, food, and essential items for the people of the Rakhine region who didn't even have gas to cook their food on in the aftermath of the earthquake and the huge, violent situation that continues to exist there. The army chief reacted to that because clearly this is a strategic decision. The army needed to be consulted. And I don't think the consultation process actually happened. So I think then the media advisor said, no, we've not decided on anything as yet. This is a matter of discussion going on at this point of time. 'In Bangladesh, despite the social media angst about India, every political stakeholder and any urban Bangladeshi will tell you that India is a neighbour that they will have to work with.' Has this crisis blown over? Are things now going to be easy for Yunus? It's very difficult to say that about Bangladesh. They're extremely given to emotions and histrionics. But largely, I would say, especially the political stakeholders, I think they do understand that it's important to have stability here because otherwise nobody wins. For their own sake, they will ensure. But again, there's always this particular element in Bangladesh about Islamists being given a very open hand suddenly. We've seen many decisions, people being released from prison. We don't know which way the narrative was going to be taken by those kind of elements. What are they doing to reign in these Islamists? No, I don't think one sees that really. These elements are part of not necessarily just Hefazat[-e-Islam Bangladesh], but many small groups who were also been accused of terror attacks in the past. They are the ones who are out on the street now. Suddenly, Bangladeshi friends that I speak to said we've never seen these kinds of elements. They said, we ourselves, we don't know who they are and where they have suddenly emerged from. There's a kind of very black hole here about their presence. If they do not have popular support, why is the interim administration reluctant to crack down against them? We've been wondering ourselves when we discuss Bangladesh as to why we don't see the interim come down much more sharply on them. We've seen huge violence against minorities. The interim government, the student leaders have constantly denounced it and said that we'll try and do whatever we can, but we've still seen huge outbreaks happening constantly. I think they probably thought the more they go against them, there'll be more such elements rising to the surface. So it was best to not give them too much of importance. The army has spoken about holding an inclusive election—an indirect demand that the Awami League should be allowed to take part. But the Awami League has been banned. How does this get resolved? This was going to be a tricky point, always. The BNP has said that our military should be there as a multi-party because their argument is that this is exactly what was happening during our military's time—that the BNP was not allowed to vote. But I wish the judiciary, the legal proceedings would have been far more hastened. What they've done is a ban on Awami League activities till the criminal procedures are not [completed]. So why could they not initiate? The entire nation was behind that, they would support the legal process to be initiated. It's a historical party, the largest political party of Bangladesh. So you can't keep them out for long. But this is a difficult position because who comes as the opposition leader, as the opposition political party? That middle ground is completely been vacuum at this point of time. If the Awami League were allowed to participate in the coming election, how would it perform? There is a very basic 25-28 per cent strength of voters who have always backed the Awami League. They continue to be there. Even if they may lose some supporters, there would still certainly be a ground support for the Awami League. It doesn't have to be in the name of a particular leader but as a political party. On the whole, voters vote on a different psychology that even if the Awami League did what they did, it is still better than a religious or a more conservative political party. There will be a vast wave of support for the BNP because they've been saying some very responsible things at this point of time. How active is Sheikh Hasina herself in party matters? She is in India in exile. In the initial days and months, we saw Sheikh Hasina relay a lot of messages and phone conversations being released by party members, because she was constantly in touch with them. But in the last couple of weeks, months, I've not heard much. I don't think she thinks she needs to rebuild. She thinks the party exists because every time she's publicly spoken, she's always said that I'm coming back. So she thinks the party is fine. I don't think she's doing any kind of a reality check. Also Read | India comments on treatment of Hindus in Bangladesh but must know its treatment of Muslims has repercussions: Debapriya Bhattacharya Is there a chance that she has a political future in Bangladesh if she goes back? Actually, I doubt that. I would think the best way to keep the Awami League there strongly is if she steps back and lets other leaders take forward. But the misdeeds of Sheikh Hasina are far too much, far too high. I don't think that after what she did, especially with the students, unarmed students, and the kind of bloodbath that we saw, I don't think she would be excused by anyone there, even people who have supported Awami League. I want to come to relations with India. Is there any attempt by Delhi to re-establish ties with the Yunus government, apart from the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Professor Yunus during the BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) meeting? I wouldn't think so. India's very deliberately keeping quiet. Some basic communication is open, but it wouldn't want to do anything beyond that. Yunus hasn't helped the case either. A lot of the pronunciations about the north-east, about Lalmonirhat, about China, about Pakistan hasn't gone down well. Apart from the communal violence issues and the fact that we hated anybody who would oust Sheikh Hasina. We don't support the interim [government] at all. We think it's not a legitimate government. And then we don't like Yunus also because of what Sheikh Hasina's opinion about him is. How have India's restrictions on Bangladeshi exports gone down in Bangladesh? That message has been very clearly conveyed: what is emanating from Bangladesh is not something that India is very happy to hear. But I recall a BBC interview where Yunus talks about how now he says India is the most important neighbour. I've heard from every political entity in Bangladesh—not one of them has ever said that India is not important to us. But the noises that have come out from Bangladesh haven't endeared them to us. There is no doubt in Bangladesh, despite the social media angst about India, every political stakeholder and any urban Bangladeshi will tell you that India is a neighbour that they will have to work with. Can India really hope to pick up this relationship with an elected government after so much bad blood? Let's face it, in a situation like this, the problems are faced both by Indians and Bangladeshis, but Indians have the capacity, a larger capacity, to absorb the issue and move on with it. Bangladesh has the perception that the Awami League was able to sustain itself because India supported it. So there are youth groups who are very angsty about India on these issues. But I've always argued that India and Bangladesh are destined to work together. That's how it should be because the cost of non cooperation is so very high for both. Just that India has a capacity to absorb it and move along; it will hurt Bangladesh much more. So it will be in Bangladesh's interest also once an elected government comes in place to reach out. But the basic thing is that security parameters are going to be safe with every political entity. For India that's the basic red line that if that is not addressed, nothing matters. Nirupama Subramanian is an independent journalist who has worked earlier at The Hindu and at The Indian Express.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
a day ago
- Politics
- First Post
It's Yunus vs Khaleda Zia in Bangladesh over election by Dec 2025
Battle lines have been drawn between Bangladesh's Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus and former Prime Minister Khaled Zia over when the turbulent country should go to polls. read more A new kind of battle lines have been drawn between Bangladesh's interim Chief Adviser, Muhammad Yunus and the country's former Prime Minister and BNP Chairperson, Khaleda Zia . The dispute between the two prominent Bangladeshi figures is over the date the country can go to the polls. While Yunus insisted that his interim government would like to usher in reforms and conduct the polls by June 2026, the BNP has been demanding that the elections be conducted by 2025. The political landscape of Bangladesh has been in disarray after violent protests toppled the government of Bangladesh's former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Yunus was appointed as the interim chief adviser with the hopes that the interim government would call for quick elections. However, it will be a year in August since Yunus will still be in power, raising concerns about when the polls will be held in the country. Khaleda Zia raises alarm On Thursday, Zia called on her party leaders and activists to move forward to reestablish democracy in the country, slamming Yunus's leadership. On the eve of BNP founder and late president Ziaur Rahman's 44th death anniversary, Khaleda said, 'He [Ziaur Rahman] embraced martyrdom in the fight to establish democracy and safeguard sovereignty. The uninterrupted journey of that very democracy continues to face obstacles at every step.' 'Let this be our pledge on the death anniversary of Zia: we will see democracy reestablished in Bangladesh very soon. To achieve this goal, I urge BNP leaders and activists at all levels, and the people of the country, to move forward in a disciplined manner,' she added. This was her first public remarks after returning from London earlier this month. She has been receiving treatment in the UK and staying with her son, Tarique Rahman, acting chairman of the party. The remarks from Zia came a day after tens of thousands of students and youths of the BNP held a rally in the capital, Dhaka, demanding for general election in December. Zia's son, Rahman, addressed the rally virtually, where he is currently living in exile. The political scion reiterated the party's call for elections by December. 'The polls must be held by December. It has to take place within December,' he said. Yunus takes a dig After threatening to resign, Yunus held a meeting with leaders of different political parties, including the BNP. However, days after the meeting, Yunus appeared to be taking a dig at Zia's party. The Bangladeshi chief adviser maintained that not all parties, but one political party, want elections in December. Yunus's remarks came during the opening ceremony of the 30th Future of Asia Conference of Nikkei Forum in Japan. During his trip to Tokyo, the Bangladeshi chief adviser threw the country's politicians under the bus at an international level. While insisting that the elections can only take place after reforms are introduced in Dhaka, Yunus insisted that it is the politicians who are getting 'impatient' with the timeframe. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD 'The politicians are very impatient, they like to get to their seats of power. So I have been promising them for a long time that elections could be conducted in December 2025 or at the latest, June 2026, that's six months,' Yunus told the Japanese delegation. 'It will depend on how fast you can do the reforms. If the reform process is slow, then it will be late, so people are insisting, 'Tell us when the elections will be',' he added. Overall, the tussle between Zia's BNP and Yunus over the Bangladesh poll is becoming more apparent as the day goes by. With inputs from agencies.
The Print
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
Rahman's ‘Bangladesh First' is meant to outshine Hasina's India love. Yunus wants to kill it
In English, the slogan translates to 'Not Delhi, not Pindi, not any other country,' ending with a line possibly borrowed from Donald Trump: 'It is Bangladesh first.' At the end of his speech, 60-year-old Rahman gave BNP supporters a mantra to take to the people while preparing for elections that he demanded must be held by December. The mantra: ' Dilli Noy, Pindi Noy, Noy onno kono desh. Sobar agey Bangladesh .' When a politician from Bangladesh who lives in self-exile in London addresses a political rally in Dhaka, what he says can only be of limited interest to India. But the slogan that the acting chairman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Tarique Rahman, coined and shared with party workers at Wednesday's well-attended rally is worthy of New Delhi's attention. Nothing poetic about it—in Bangla, the lines don't rhyme or qualify as blank verse. But it packs a punch, pithily capturing sentiments that have dominated Bangladeshi politics in the past and fears about the future. In the last 15 years, one of BNP's key complaints against Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League was her proximity to New Delhi. After Hasina fled the country, the speed of Dhaka's drift towards Islamabad and Pindi (short for Rawalpindi)—political and military capitals of a nation from which Bangladesh broke away 53 years ago—has been remarkable and disconcerting for many in the country, besides India of course. Will this mantra win BNP the Bangladesh election? Well, political slogans do come with expiry dates, and what is moot is when elections will eventually be held. Even as Tarique Rahman reiterated the BNP's December deadline in Dhaka on Wednesday evening, the chief adviser of Bangladesh's interim government, Prof Muhammad Yunus, stuck to his guns and said in Tokyo—where he is visiting—that elections will definitely not be held in December, but, depending on the pace of electoral reforms, by June 2026. By then, BNP leader Tarique Rahman's freshly minted slogan may lose its shine. Also read: 1971 or 2024? A political battle in Bangladesh over when the nation found true liberation Chinese whispers December 2025 and June 2026 is a gap of just six months, and Yunus has repeated his promise of polls by next June ad nauseam. And yet, doubts about him sticking to the deadline continue to be voiced, most loudly by the BNP. Last week, the Bangladesh Army reportedly joined in. Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman is said to have told officers at a meeting on 21 May that he felt the elections should be held by December. There was no audio or video recording of this statement or a press release. What went viral, instead, after the meeting ended, were WhatsApp quotes purportedly from his speech. The messages spread so widely that Yunus reportedly told a student leader he was thinking of resigning. The student leader shared this with a major news outlet, and the interim government seemed on the verge of collapse. The way politics is playing out in Bangladesh these days, Yunus was never on record anywhere threatening to resign and then withdrawing that threat. The Army, on Monday, at least officially denied its chief had said any of the things the WhatsApp messages claimed he did. The net result of this game of Chinese whispers, as it were, was a resignation drama with political parties rushing to placate Yunus. Among the big players, the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and the National Citizen Party said they were fine with the June deadline, though a roadmap to elections would be welcome. Unspoken was the subtext that if Yunus wanted to first fully reform the electoral system and then hold elections, that was fine too. But the BNP differed. It said elections first, and whatever reforms remained pending in December would be put in place by an elected government once it came to power. Also read: Bangladeshi students who ousted Hasina set up 'National Citizen Party'. Where it stands on key issues Hasina vs Yunus On Wednesday, BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed reminded the rally that in the past, non-partisan caretaker governments held elections within three months of an elected government completing its tenure. 'If this (Yunus) government can't give us an election in 90 days, it won't be able to give us an election in 90 years,' he said. In 2008, a caretaker government held elections that brought Hasina to power for the first time this century. But she abolished the caretaker government provision by amending the Constitution. Now, she has been using social media to vent, accusing Yunus of 'turning Bangladesh into hell.' While that may be an outburst of hyperbole, the uncertainty over what's next for Bangladesh is taking a toll, pushing the country toward a state of chaos that could rival the turbulence of the Monsoon Revolution. For the BNP or any other stakeholder banking on elections for a return to normalcy, a long wait seems on the cards. Tarique Rahman, pipped to return from his self-imposed exile in London to lead a BNP sweep of the elections, would perhaps be best advised not to buy his flight ticket yet. Monideepa Banerjie is a senior journalist based in Kolkata. She tweets @Monideepa62. Views are personal. (Edited by Prashant)
