by Malladi Rama Rao*
Muhammad Yunus has played the ace up his sleeve – resignation. And appears to have reinvented his TINA factor.
He has gone through the charade primarily to checkmate the Army chief Wakar-uz Zaman and Begum Khaleda Zia’s BNP.
Well, it is the second manufactured spectacle staged by the economist turned politician, the first being the demos for banning Awami League.
By all accounts, Yunus found himself cornered for two reasons.
One: he has begun to depend on the students-led NCP and the religious pressure groups and parties like Jamaat, Hefazat-e-Islam and the Hizb-ut-Tahrir.
Two: he has burnt his bridges with Wakar and Khaleda alike.
Yunus tried, unsuccessfully though, to force the exit of Wakar, who still has two more years for superannuation.
The release of hundreds of convicted Islamist radicals and nearly 300 Bangladesh Riflemen convicted for their mutiny in 2009 has outraged the military.
Yunus regime has been ill-served by the advisory council, which comprises inexperienced advisors mostly drawn from the students’ movement that had unseated Sheik Hasina one year ago.
BNP has been demanding the scalp of at least three- four advisors besides a revamp of the poll body.
These demands have met with deafening silence thus far.
Early poll is not on the agenda of either Yunus or his main props.
For them, punishing Hasina and decimating her Awami League are a priority. Also, institutional reforms, which is a euphemism for cleansing traces of Hasina loyalists or sympathisers.
The Army and the BNP view the exercise as a deliberate attempt to sideline democratic process.
In fact, BNP has distanced itself from the demand to ban the Hasina party; it believes that now is Begum Khaleda’s turn to win since B’desh election is always a two Begum race.
The Army, BNP and the Left groups are opposed to establishing the US advocated humanitarian corridor from Cox’s Bazar to Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
Critics see the corridor as a conduit for Western powers to access an area of strategic importance.
But the corridor is the pet project of US born Yunus aide and National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman, who is pushing ahead ignoring the China factor also.
China is a big player in Rakhine with several Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects such as the Kyaukphyu Port. BNP has asked Yunus to sack Rahman.
Put simply, Yunus may have won the round with his resignation ploy but he has a tough task ahead to manoeuvre his way through a political mine field.
(*Malladi Rama Rao is New Delhi-based senior journalist and avowed watcher of subcontinental politics. He is currently senior analyst with the Deccan Council)
