Why Bangladesh protesters want Mohd Yunus to lead next govt

The interim government in Bangladesh should have Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus as the chief advisor – this is a strong demand made on Tuesday by the key organisers of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement who even warned that “any government other than the one we recommended would not be accepted.”

Nahid Islam, a key coordinator of the movement, also emphasised that “no military government, or one backed by the military, or a government of fascists, will be accepted.”

Prof Yunus has said to have given consent considering the present situation in Bangladesh.

Sheikh Hasina ‘destroyed’ legacy of her father

In an interview with The Print, Yunus blamed former prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, for destroying the legacy of her father ‘Bangabandhu’ Mujibur Rehman.

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Hasina resigned from the post of Bangladesh Prime Minister on Monday and fled Dhaka. She landed at Hindon airport near Delhi in the evening and is expected to travel to the UK soon.

‘Bangladesh is liberated’

“We were an occupied country as long as she (Hasina) was there. She was behaving like an occupation force, a dictator, a general, controlling everything. Today all the people of Bangladesh feel liberated… We are a free country now,” Yunus said.

“They (people of Bangladesh) are feeling the sense of liberation and joy that we can start all over again… We wanted to do it in the first round when we became independent in 1971. And we missed it because of all the problems we have right now,” he further said.

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Yunus’ commitment to students in Bangladesh

“We now want to make a fresh start and create a beautiful country for ourselves. That’s the commitment we make and students and young people will be leading our future,” Yunus said.

Highlighting the plight of protesting students, some of whom were killed in clashes with police, Yunus slammed the government-led by Hasina and said: “People are being killed by our own soldiers, our own police. They don’t feel good about it at all, but they are being ordered to do something and kill people… what kind of government you have, which decides to kill its own people instead of protecting people’s lives.”

Why people in Bangladesh are angry?

Yunus also pointed out as to why people in Bangladesh were angry and frustrated by Sheikh Hasina-led Bangladesh government. He said: “A very simple thing, you took away their (people’s) right to vote. All the anger that they accumulated could not be expressed in any political way. So that came out as a simple demand for quota changes. It immediately caught up because the government behaved the same way, attacking them rather than listening to them because they are not in a listening mood at all.”

“Only one person in the country decides everything. Her word is the law,” Yunus said.

Hasina to be blamed for Mujibur Rehman’s statue damage

Yunus said the damage to a statue of Majibur Rehman, former prime minister of Bangladesh, was an expression of the “damage she (Hasina) has done.”

“It says what they feel about Hasina, what she did to herself and her father… it’s not the fault of the young people who are doing this,” he said.

Muhammad Yunus has wide acceptability

“We have decided that the interim government would be formed in which internationally renowned Nobel Laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus, who has wide acceptability, would be the chief adviser,” Nahid announced.

He further urged the president to take steps as soon as possible to form an interim government headed by Dr Yunus and made a demand that the process should start rolling by Tuesday morning.

“And we will also announce the names of the remaining members of the interim government by morning,” Nahid further said.

Students will remain on streets till…

Nahid went on to say that till the interim government is formed, the students will have to remain on the streets to “safeguard” their uprising.

“We have given our blood, been martyred, and we have to fulfill our pledge to build a new Bangladesh,” he said.

Who is Muhammad Yunus?

Yunus has been charged by the Hasina government in over 190 cases. In January, he was convicted for violating Bangladesh’s labour laws and is currently out on bail.

He is the founder of the pioneering microfinance system that lifted millions of poor out of poverty in Bangladesh.

Yunus is now in Paris and will soon be returning to Bangladesh to continue to work for the people the way he did earlier.

With inputs from agencies