Muhammad Yunus, the head of the interim government in Bangladesh, threatened to resign if all the parties didn’t offer him their full support. This came a day after Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman called for elections to be held by December and the BNP sought a road map for polls. Yunus’ resignation buzz is being seen as a ploy to launch a fresh agitation in Dhaka.
In a desperate bid to garner support after being cornered, the head of the interim government in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, threatened to resign. This came after protests by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on Thursday and a stern warning by Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman a day earlier. Student leaders are meanwhile rallying youths and Islamists to protest in Dhaka and march to the Army Cantonment, especially after the Friday prayers, according to sources in government departments and posts on social media.
The buzz around Yunus’ resignation is being seen as a ploy to launch an agitation against the Army chief who wants elections to be held. Elections, whenever held, will end Yunus’ term as the de facto prime minister of Bangladesh.
From getting the Awami League banned to stalling women’s reforms to gutting Mujibur Rahman’s Dhanmondi 32 residence, mobs of students and Islamists have had their way in Bangladesh. In every case, Yunus was complicit in silence if not in the planning.
Yunus’ threat to resign comes as dramatically as he assumed the office of the Chief Adviser to the interim government of Bangladesh after a students-led agitation against job reservation turned into an anti-Sheikh Hasina movement, forcing the Prime Minister to flee Dhaka on August 5, 2024.
Nahid Islam, one of the leaders of last year’s agitation and Convenor of the National Citizen Party (NCP) floated by the students, told BBC Bangla that Muhammad Yunus had threatened he would resign as he was unable to carry on with his work amid the current political environment and protests.
“I am being held hostage… I can’t work like this. Can’t all the political parties reach a common ground?” Nahid Islam quoted Yunus as saying.
Nahid resigned from Yunus’ Cabinet in February to head the newly floated NCP.
Another top NCP leader, Ariful Islam Adeeb, who was present during the meeting with Yunus on Thursday evening at Jamuna, the state guest house, told AFP that Nahid urged him to continue in office.
Nahid told BBC Bangla that he met Yunus after the buzz that the chief adviser was planning to resign.
Yunus asked the student leaders to form another interim government as he didn’t want to continue, Bangladesh daily Prothom Alo reported, quoting sources.
Not just Nahid Islam, some other members of Yunus Cabinet like Information and Broadcasting Adviser Mahfuj Alam and Adviser for the Ministry of Youth and Sports Asif Mahmud also met him.
“He [Yunus] wanted to tender his resignation, but his Cabinet members persuaded him not to,” a source told AFP.
YUNUS CORNERED BY ARMY CHIEF AND BNP ON ELECTIONS
Muhammad Yunus’ threat to resign if parties didn’t offer him full support came after a day of protests by the BNP and the demand for a clear road map for elections.
“The highest priority should be placed on announcing a clear road map for the election,” BNP leader Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain said on Thursday.
This was the BNP’s first large-scale protest against the interim government. Other than the demand to declare its candidate mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation, the party also pressed for the resignation of two members of Yunus Cabinet members seen close to the NCP and that of the National Security Adviser, Khalilur Rahman.
With the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League banned from political activities, the BNP, the only other major party in Bangladesh sees it as its clear chance to win the election and assume power.
There is already a King’s Party in the form of Nahid Islam’s NCP, and the BNP has genuine fears that further delays could be used to deny it the opportunity to form the government.
There is a feeling among Bangladesh watchers that Yunus is using the students and Islamist mobs as his foot soldiers and trying to cling on to power without holding elections.
Though Yunus has said elections will be held by June 2026, there is a growing impatience among political parties, including the BNP.
Even Bangladesh Army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman issued a stern warning on Wednesday that the Yunus-led interim government would have to hold elections by December.
During a show of unity in the armed forces, General Zaman also lashed out against the Yunus government for trying to take a unilateral decision on the “bloody” Rakhine corridor and interfering in military matters.
YUNUS, BANGLADESH STUDENT LEADERS AND ISLAMISTS
Experts and commentators have expressed fear that Yunus might try to use the July Proclamation to cling on to power by declaring a new Republic, repealing the 1972 Constitution and removing General Zaman.
There are suspicions that Yunus might try to use Islamist mobs and his NSA in a bid to remove General Zaman, a rare Bangladeshi General who is the beacon of democracy in a country where all other institutions have failed.
Knowing fully well that students and Islamists might try to take to mob violence to make Yunus’ and their demands heard, General Zaman said the military would take a tough stance on public disorder.
“Violence and chaos in the name of mass mobilisation will no longer be tolerated,” he was quoted as saying by Dhaka Tribune.
Students and Islamists are trying to mobilise protesters to march to the Dhaka Cantonment and Bangladesh Secretariat, among other areas, after Friday prayers, sources in Bangladesh departments told India Today Digital late on Thursday evening.
They said the student leaders were busy planning massive agitations.
Videos of torch marches in Dhaka have also been circulating on social media on Thursday evening.
Some social media posts, meanwhile, appealed to people to not join in the Friday street protests called by “traitors”, claiming the Yunus had “limited time only”.
Dhaka, which has seen incessant street protests since July 2024, might become witness to yet another bout of agitation.
