How An Anti India And A Western Stooge Was Cut To Size In Bangladesh
An anti India, would be politician in Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus was cut to size by PM Sheikh Hasina. Yunus had conspired in 2006 with some in the powerful military of Bangladesh to exile the nation’s top two politicians, while prepping himself to join politics and become the Prime Minister.
As per Bangladesh Constitution, an interim Govt is put in place prior to a General Elections. Yunus had expressed his desire to head this Interim Govt.
However Abdul Jalil, general secretary of the Awami League, had already publicly refused to accept Yunus as non-party interim government chief to supervise parliament polls.
Then a few months later Yunus won or rather given the Nobel Prize for Peace. Though the Awami League, the political party led by Hasina, had already put Yunus in the dock long before he had expressed his political desires or won the Nobel Prize. This was nearly a month before Yunus received the prize and five months before he revealed his intention to join politics.
Jalil’s comments had come a day after Yunus told a civil-society forum in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, that he would be pleased to be the chief adviser of the caretaker administration.
Jalil not only dismissed the possibility, but also opposed the Grameen Bank founder’s ideas to reform Bangladesh’s governance. Awami League’s was very clear towards Yunus. Hasina had received enough information and evidence from India.
Though New Delhi and Washington were on the same page regarding Bangladesh on almost everything, except for one: India opposed giving theocratic Jamaat e-Islami political space in Bangladesh.
But the United States feared that Jamaat could turn highly radical if it was pushed underground.
However USA forgot that it was not Grenada or Some Caribbean island but Bangladesh, a close friend of India located totally within India’s core interest area.
Delhi also had some inkling that Washington wanted Yunus to replace Hasina, a staunch Indian ally. Rumours were rife in Dhaka that America wanted neither Hasina nor former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to win the election set for 2007.
Sources continued to report that the United States was positioning the 2006 Nobel prize winner to run in the election.
Many Bangladeshi elite speculated that America “fixed” the award for Yunus. People in Dhaka suspected that the United States arranged for Yunus to win the prize to enhance his political credentials.
New Delhi was thus quite concerned about Washington’s “lack of conviction” regarding Jamaat’s links to terror. India therefore had to defend its turf and show the USA its rightful place. Therefore India flatly refused to “ understand” the American view that entry into the political mainstream would moderate Jamaat.
It was rightly observed that America was biased toward the anti-India Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by Zia, and Jamaat.. Hasina too perceived Yunus to be a pro-BNP element, even though Yunus denied having any links with any political party.
Hasina’s suspicion deepened in 2006 when she learned that Yunus had been nominated by the BNP to be an adviser of the interim government. Hasina found Yunus’ close connection with America problematic, too.
She even told her cabinet that Yunus was engaged in a conspiracy to undermine her government with help from his American friend, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. However USA could do nothing against India’s wish.
No wonder Yunus faced Hasina’s direct ire after she returned to power in early 2009. This was because Yunus again made the mistake of asking America to push the prime minister to change a law that gave her control over his position as Grameen Bank chief. The interim government had removed it, but Hasina refused to ratify.
All attempts by Yunus through her cabinet members had been rebuffed by Hasina. On 10 May 2009, Yunus sought input from the U.S. ambassador on the best way to ask Hasina to reverse her refusal.
The envoy pledged to arrange a meeting for Yunus with the prime minister and put in a good word to her for him. Hasina never agreed to meet Yunus, and ousted him from the Grameen Bank in 2011 when she won a court order, culminating a two-year political guerrilla war.
Hasina was miffed by Yunus when he said that 8.5 million Grameen Bank members who represented 40 million Bengalis, or 25 per cent of the nation’s total population, according an estimate by Yunus were not only citizens but also voters.
This was a veiled threat that these voters could punch a mega hole in the Awami League’s ballot box. Her ire at Yunus stemmed also from the professor’s public criticism of politicians as corrupt.
Soon after winning the Nobel, Yunus angered the politicos by saying, “political leaders should give up revengeful politics and spiteful activities to offer a better political environment to the nation.” Yunus believed that the political system was hindering Bangladesh’s progress.
He offered an alternative agenda and announced his plan to launch a political party, drawing a sharp public rebuke from Hasina.
The question, however, remains if Yunus wanted both Hasina and Khaleda out of politics, why didn’t the BNP leader go ballistic? Khaleda rather exhorted Washington and London to protect Yunus from Hasina’s fury.
This overture cemented Hasina’s impression that Yunus was in bed with Khaleda, politically speaking, and doomed the professor. His hobnobbing with the military and flirting with the idea of entering the messy world of Bengali politics just broke the camel’s back.
However one thing has been made very clear by India or rather should be very clear to everyone that NO ONE IS PERMITTED TO MEDDLES IN THE AFFAIRS OF Bangladesh, SriLanka, Maldives, Bhutan and even Burma. Very soon this will include Afghanistan too !!!
