Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Nearly 20 days after taking charge as the Chief Advisor to the Interim Bangladesh Government, Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84, is discovering “mountain-like challenges” he is facing, and urged the restive people to observe patience.
Few may, however, be listening to his fervent appeals. For, students are clashing with para-military forces in Dhaka in a highly surcharged and polarized polity after their uprising toppled the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5.
Bangladesh seems to be slipping back into what it was until 1971: East Pakistan. The pre-1971 planks of ‘Bangla unity’ are in tatters and the Jamaat-i-Islami-led Islamist militants are systematically attacking and grabbing the temples, institutions, and properties of the minority Hindus and others across the country.
When a delegation of Hindu leaders raised this issue with him on Monday on the occasion of Janmashtami, Yunus said Bangladesh is “a large family where the responsibility of the government is to protect the rights of every citizen,” the media reported.
He said he wants to build a Bangladesh where everyone can practice their faith without fear.
This was the second meeting between leaders of minority communities and Yunus, who visited Dhaka’s Dhakeswari Mandir on August 13 to address the concerns of Hindus and other minorities.
The Hindu leaders praised Yunus’s comments at Dhakeswari Mandir, one of the country’s oldest temples, and said this will “help build a non-communal society in the country and ensure religious harmony in the society”, an official statement said.
“They raised the issue of Hindu property grabbing, including the land of Hindu temples,” the statement said without giving details.
“Our responsibility is to establish the rights of every citizen. Our job is to ensure justice for every citizen,” he told them at the state guesthouse Jamuna. “There can’t be any divisions among people in our country. We are equal citizens. The interim government is determined to protect the rights of every citizen of the country.”
No one will be discriminated against based on their religion in Bangladesh, he asserted.
In a televised address to the nation ahead of the national holiday on the occasion of Sri Krishna Janmashtami, Prof. Yunus assured that his government would deliver on the promises made to the students and the common people.
As he exchanged greetings with the Hindu leaders on the occasion of Janmashtami, which marks the birth of Lord Krishna, the Hindu leaders said they had sought the blessings of Lord Krishna for the harmony and prosperity of Bangladesh and the interim government, and that they had suspended Janmashtami celebrations in flood-stricken regions of the country and sent food and relief to flooded regions. Devastating floods in eastern Bangladesh have displaced millions of people and killed about 20.
The Hindus and other minorities, who comprise only 8 percent of the 170 million population, are not the only issue at hand.
Yunus on Sunday appealed to the people to have “patience” as it is difficult to address the “mountain-like challenges” overnight while promising them a free, fair, and participatory election after implementing key reforms in different sectors.
He urged the people to refrain from storming institutions, putting pressure to accept cases and the tendency to do some kind of trial in advance by attacking people while taking them to the courts. These incidents will fade the glory of the successful struggle to build a new Bangladesh.
About Bangladesh’s foreign policy, he said “We will maintain friendly relations with all countries.”
“Mutual trust and cooperation will be the base of our foreign policy. We are respectful of all international laws, including human rights. We have taken steps to become signatory to the international convention on enforced disappearances,” he was quoted as saying by the official BSS news agency.
Yunus said the timing of the election is a political decision and people will decide how long this interim government will remain in power.
He assured the nation that his interim government would hold free, fair, and inclusive elections in the country after undertaking reforms in various sectors.
“After completion of required reforms in administration, judiciary, election commission and electoral system, law and order, and information flow systems — a free, fair and inclusive election will be held to give the student-people mass protests a successful consequence,” Yunus said.
A committee has already been formed to prepare a white paper on corruption, money laundering, anti-people agreements, and looting that took place in the last 15 years.
“The goal will be to introduce an accountable political system,” he said but did not give any deadline for the tenure of his interim government, as he acknowledged that “everyone is interested to know when our government will leave.”
“The answer lies with you when you will give us the farewell. None of us (council of advisers) are the ones to rule the country. We are happy with our professions. We took charge, responding to the students’ call during a national crisis,” he said.
Yunus said that his government would “put in all our efforts” to discharge the duty he has been entrusted with as all sections of people had welcomed his government.
Then he slammed Hasina’s “fascist autocratic regime,” saying they destroyed every institution of the country, crippled the economy and education system, and gauged people’s voices through intimidation and torture.
Yunus said the main aim of the forthcoming election is to introduce an accountable political system against corruption, looting, and mass killing.
Local government institutions, he said, must be strengthened and decentralization of power should be ensured to consolidate democracy.
Claiming that the government has taken a strong stance against corruption, he said all the advisers to the interim government will disclose their wealth statements within the quickest possible time.