World
Yunus Has No Interest In Defending Bangladesh’s Hindus — India’s Expectations Are Delusional
- Yunus is confident that he can resist pressure from India concerning religious minorities in Bangladesh.
Head of Interim Government in Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus (X) (Representative Image)
It is futile for New Delhi to expect Muhammad Yunus and the interim government he leads in Bangladesh to protect religious minorities, particularly Hindus.
No number of statements from India’s MEA will influence Yunus or push him to restrain Bangladesh’s Islamic extremists, who have unleashed horrific attacks on Hindus since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on 5 August.
That is because Yunus has been installed in power by the anti-Indian left-liberal lobby in the United States (US) and is critically dependent on the support of radical and Hinduphobic Islamists in his country.
It is important to understand how the uprising against the Sheikh Hasina government was orchestrated by external forces, primarily the US and Pakistan’s ISI (read this and this).
The Biden administration, which was controlled by the left-liberal lobby in the US, was angry with Sheikh Hasina. This lobby, which has strong links with Islamists, scripted the uprising against Hasina.
The Clintons and Obamas, along with figures like Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, reportedly played key roles in a political lobby that moved swiftly to install Muhammad Yunus in power in Dhaka after Sheikh Hasina's departure from Bangladesh.
Tlaib and Omar, are both dyed-in-the-wool Islamists, and also members of an informal group of lawmakers belonging to the Democratic Party known as ‘The Squad.’ This group is viscerally anti-Jewish and anti-Hindu and pushes a left-Islamist agenda.
What Pushed Yunus Towards Islamists
After gaining power in Dhaka, Yunus sought unconditional backing from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which emerged as the dominant political force following the collapse of the Awami League after Sheikh Hasina's dramatic departure from the country.
However, the BNP at the very outset wanted Yunus to commit himself to a firm timeframe for holding elections. It is widely anticipated that the BNP will sweep the polls and its acting chairperson, the London-based Tarique Rahman, will head the next elected government.
Yunus, however, insists that the people of the country have entrusted him with the task of reforming the constitution, the political and electoral system, the police, the judiciary, the country’s financial system and other aspects of governance. Elections, he says, will be held only after the necessary reforms are carried out.
The BNP disagreed with Yunus' stance, arguing that only a democratically elected government, not an interim one, can implement vital reforms. The party has warned Yunus that it will oppose him unless elections are held within a "reasonable" timeframe.
Yunus quickly realized he could not rely on the BNP for support. Consequently, he turned to Islamist groups like Jamaat-e-Islami, Hefazat-e-Islam, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, and Ansar al-Islam to secure their backing.
Pakistan Gets Involved
Pakistan’s ISI, which also played a substantial role in inciting the uprising against Sheikh Hasina, has strong links with all these Islamist groups in Bangladesh and is even believed to be sponsoring some of them.
At Pakistan’s prompting, Islamist groups in Bangladesh promised Yunus their support in exchange for a free hand. In turn, Yunus agreed to withdraw charges against Islamists, including Mohammad Jashimuddin Rahmani, leader of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, who was accused of plotting attacks on India.
ABT is an affiliate of the Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) and is also linked to Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami, a Pakistan-based terror group.
Yunus, who had been projecting himself as a liberal, had no qualms about giving the Islamists a free hand to spread their influence in Bangladesh. He also aligned himself with Pakistan and, according to Indian intelligence agencies, has committed himself to improving military and strategic ties with Islamabad (read this and this).
Pakistan, leveraging its Islamist allies in Bangladesh, has convinced Yunus that allowing the ISI to instigate unrest in India's northeast would be advantageous for both Bangladesh and his regime.
Pakistan’s ISI will, as it has done before, woo militant groups in the Northeast, providing them shelter, training and arms at bases in Bangladesh. This tactic would keep India preoccupied with internal issues, preventing it from pressuring Bangladesh.
In effect, fomenting trouble in India’s Northeast will be an effective way to keep New Delhi off Dhaka’s back. Yunus has agreed to this and Pakistan’s ISI has started getting active in Bangladesh.
This is another reason for Yunus to believe he can withstand pressure from India regarding religious minorities in Bangladesh. “Yunus feels he will be able to leverage any trouble in Northeast India to his advantage. He is confident that the presence of a huge number of Bengali-speaking Muslims, all of them illegal immigrants or their descendants from Bangladesh, provides a fertile playing ground for Pakistan and Islamists in Northeast India,” a strategic affairs expert with a prominent think-tank told Swarajya.
Yunus Wants To Leave A Legacy
When Yunus assumed the role of chief advisor in Bangladesh's interim government, he publicly stated that he had no ambition for power and would step down "at the earliest."
However, after having tasted power, Yunus is now reluctant to hold early elections as per the BNP’s demands. He wants to continue in power for at least the next three to four years.
According to BNP leaders, Yunus now feels that a four-year period will give him an opportunity to carry out substantive reforms and leave his mark on the country’s history. Yunus wants to leave his legacy instead of going down in history as a person who presided over a stop-gap administration.
BNP leaders familiar with Yunus told Swarajya that he is vain and craves personal recognition. This is evident in his lobbying with influential backers in the US and Western nations to secure the Nobel Peace Prize. Many consider Yunus an unlikely candidate for the honour.
This ambition—to leave a lasting mark on Bangladesh’s history instead of being a mere footnote—has driven Yunus into the embrace of Bangladesh’s Hinduphobic Islamists as well as Pakistan.
Trump’s Win Dims Yunus’ Hopes, But US Backers Assure Support
The only setback to this gameplan of Yunus has been the thumping victory of Donald Trump in the US Presidential elections last month. Trump, much to Yunus’ acute discomfiture, had condemned the “barbaric attacks” on religious minorities in Bangladesh (read this).
Trump’s resounding win sent alarm bells ringing in Dhaka. Yunus thought that India, with its proximity to Trump and growing global presence, would be able to influence the new US administration to force Dhaka to act on protecting religious minorities in Bangladesh and putting a check on the country’s Islamists.
However, the Democratic establishment, especially the powerful lobbies backing Yunus in the US, has assured him that President Trump will be too busy with more important matters and will have no time for Bangladesh.
Yunus has been told that Bangladesh will not be a priority in Trump’s agenda. As a result, he can continue his current policies and turn a blind eye to the attacks on religious minorities by Islamists in his country.
The Trump administration, Yunus has been assured, will not concern itself with India’s internal issues stemming from Bangladesh allowing Pakistan to use its territory to incite unrest in Northeast India.
Such assurances have emboldened Yunus to not only ignore India’s calls for protecting religious minorities in Bangladesh from attacks by Islamists but also pursue a marked anti-Hindu agenda.
Yunus is openly defying New Delhi. His latest egregious actions—getting the police to register cases of arson and violence against 70 Hindu lawyers in Chittagong to prevent them from applying for bail and representing arrested ISKCON monks Chinmay Krishna Das and two others.
Instead of releasing Das, arrested on trumped-up charges of sedition, Yunus asked his police force to detain two ISKCON monks—Adipurush Shyam Das and Ranganath Das Brahmachari—who had visited Chinmay Krishna Das in prison on 29 November.
Hundreds of Hindus have also been indiscriminately arrested in Chittagong for the violence following the ISKCON monk’s arrest and incarceration last week.
All this shows that instead of addressing New Delhi’s concerns and curbing the radical mullahs, Yunus has chosen to defy India and continue with the policy of persecuting religious minorities, especially the Hindus in his country.
Thus, it is clear that mere statements from the MEA, or strong messages delivered to Yunus by New Delhi through diplomatic and other channels, will not work.
New Delhi now has to step up and take strong punitive measures against Yunus and his administration.
