By P.K.Balachandran/Daily News

Colombo, May 27 – Whether to hold elections to a new parliament in December or later in June 2026 is the main issue in Bangladesh these days. While the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the army are demanding elections by December, Yunus, the revolutionary students and non-political members of the government, do not want them before June 2026.

This deeply divisive issue recently forced the Chief Advisor of the Bangladesh government Dr.Muhammad Yunus, to contemplate quitting. The Nobel Laureate who was celebrated globally for bringing cheap credit to the poor, had reportedly found himself unequal to the task of running Bangladesh. He was eventually persuaded to abandon the idea of quitting as Bangladesh would be rudderless and descend into anarchy, if he quit.  

Yunus took charge in August 2024 riding a wave of mass goodwill. But nine months down the line, he finds that ruling a raucous, divided and demanding Bangladeshi population is a far cry from running the Grameen Bank, the NGO he ran earlier.

Committees set up for constitutional reforms to dismantle Sheikh Hasina’s “fascist” set up are moribund. This has led to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) to demand elections by December so that an elected parliament could legitimately decide on the reforms and that too speedily. But the non-political elements in Yunus government think that an elected parliament’s ideas will necessarily be partisan and not in tune with the “July 2024 revolution.”

Contrary to the Bangladeshi tradition, the army did not takeover, but insisted that there should be elections by December so that all political issues were settled democratically. The Bangladesh army knew that if it staged a coup, it would become ineligible for the lucrative UN Peace Keeping assignments.

Lacking in Perspectives  

Commentators says that Yunus lacks both a national and an international perspective. Nor has he shown administrative acumen. He has allowed chaos to prevail in all institutions of the State. Streets are blocked daily by protestors from one or the other social or economic sectors. Police are busy arresting and filing cases against thousands of former Awami Leagues leaders, cadres and even party supporters at the behest of the powers-that-be. The accused, some of them well known artistes, are charged with murder and rioting. The Judiciary, which has become a handmaiden of the regime, remands the suspects without even a preliminary inquiry. Bail is routinely denied.

But still, there are no protests about such repressive actions because of the fear of arrest and also because the anti-Awami League sentiment has been built to such a pitch that people dissidents fear mob justice. Yunus has legitimized such intolerance by banning the Awami League. It cannot exist even in the cyberspace.

The only functioning traditional political party is the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The other party is the new students’ party called the National Citizens’ Party (NCP) which was formed to represent the Jul 2024 revolution. The NCP wants the Yunus government to complete the July 2024 movement’s “anti-fascist or anti-Awami League” agenda before holding elections. The NCP dominates Yunus and wants him to stay.  

The other political party which will be in the fray is the Jamaat-i-Islami. The Jamaat is not keen on elections now as it fears that if a secular party like the BNP with grassroots support and political experience wins the elections, its radical Islamist agenda cannot be realised. The Jamaat also opposes the BNP’s idea that a new constitution should be drawn up by an elected parliament. The Jamaat knows that an elected parliament might not endorse its idea of a radical Islamist Bengali society. It is said that the Jamaat is using the current absence of political activity in the country to infiltrate the rural areas where people are traditionally conservative.

The NGO members of the government also do not want early elections because they will have no place in an elected government. The NGO leaders are propagating the view that any reforms carried out by political parties will be partisan as previous reforms were.  Yunus is the presiding deity of the NGO group as well as the NCP.

High Tension with India

At the international level, there is high tension with India. Students who rose in revolt against Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarianism, turned the “July Revolution” into an “anti-Indian” revolution, especially because Hasina fled to India and was sheltered there. And India is not sending her back to face trial.

India-Bangladesh relations have deteriorated to a point of no return. While the Indian media portrays Yunus and the July movement as one backed by the US, Pakistan and China, those in the Yunus government and the NCP openly say that Bangladesh should align with Pakistan and China to oppose India’s designs in the region.   

The first point of contention between India and Bangladesh was the persecution of Hindus and the arrest of its priests for sedition. This fired up Hindu nationalists in India. Simultaneously,  supporters of Yunus proposed the takeover of the “chicken neck”, a narrow strip at the tri-junction of India, Bangladesh and China, to cut off India’s North East States from mainland India. Yunus himself said that China should invest in the “landlocked North East States of India” and that Bangladesh will give them access to the Bay of Bengal. There was also talk about building an airbase at Lalmunirhat near the Chicken Neck which was allegedly inspected by the Pakistani military.

Trade War  

Bad relations resulted in an Indo-Bangla trade war. Since late 2024, Bangladesh has tightened the screws on Indian exports. On April 13, 2025, the Bangladesh National Board of Revenue (NBR) stopped the import of Indian yarn through land ports. This inflated costs for Indian exporters. The textile industry in Bangladesh, a crucial pillar of the nation’s economy, contributing 11% to its GDP, relies heavily on India. India exports 35% of its total cotton production to Bangladesh. If these imports are halted, the impact on Bangladesh’s textile sector would be severe.

Bangladesh barred rice imports through Hili and Benapole ports. Paper, tobacco, fish, and powdered milk also faced bans, while a steep transit fee made Indian goods crossing Bangladesh’s territory prohibitively expensive.

India then suspended the transhipment facility for Bangladesh’s exports. Bangladesh opened direct shipping lines with Pakistan. On May 17, India dropped a bombshell saying that Bangladeshi goods, long flowing freely across land borders, would face sweeping restrictions. This would cost US$ 770 million in trade—42% of Bangladesh’s exports to India. Ready-made garments, the lifeblood of Bangladesh’s economy, are now confined to two Indian seaports, Kolkata and Nhava Sheva, while a slew of consumer goods face curbs at land ports in India’s North Eastern States and West Bengal.

Illegal Immigrants 

Bangladesh complains that the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) is pushing hundreds of alleged infiltrators from Bangladesh back into Bangladesh. But the Bangladesh border guards say that these are Bengali speaking Indian nationals and that Dhaka will not accept non-Bangladeshis. India alleges that over the years, millions of Bangladeshis have infiltrated into India and have been working illegally.

And to add to the issues, there is the never ending tussle over sharing the waters of the Teesta river with West Bengal. The Teesta waters problem took a geopolitical dimension when Sheikh Hasina sought to develop the Teesta river basin with Chinese investment. India got hot under the collar and stopped the Chinese project.

Humanitarian Corridor Issue

The Yunus regime had a problem with the UN, the US and Myanmar also, over the US-backed UN plan for a “Humanitarian Corridor” from Bangladesh to the war-torn Rakhine state in Myanmar.

Bangladeshis, across the board (including the army), were against the corridor as it could open the floodgates to further infiltration of Rohingyas, drug dealers and armed men. The US plan would also alienate China which is a factor in Rakhine. Given the army’s explicit opposition, Yunus postponed implementation of the corridor.

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