New Delhi: Muhammad YunusIn his farewell speech as chief adviser to Bangladesh’s interim government, he mentioned the northeastern states without acknowledging them as part of India, prompting harsh criticism from a Bharatiya Janata Party official, Mahesh Jethmalani, who said the country he led looked increasingly “out of control”.“Bangladesh should have serious statecraft. Instead, it has a headline-seeking temporary figure who sees India as its backbone. The chameleon of Soros’s lackey is called Yunus,” the senior advocate said. He slammed Yunus’ televised address to the nation on Monday, calling it yet another unwarranted sermon against India.
BNP chief Tarique Rahman was sworn in as Bangladesh’s prime minister on Tuesday, marking the end of the Yunus-led interim government that came to power after the collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s government following violent protests in 2024.“The headline-seeking leader added the familiar sovereignty/dignity drama to his televised address and slyly mentioned northeastern India and the seven sister states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura without calling them part of India,” Jeetmalani said. “When you can’t govern, you resort to grandstanding. When you can’t stabilize your country, you try to create an external villain — preferably a neighbor who actually makes a difference.”Instead of being elected, Yunus fomented a precarious interim position, and the Bangladesh he leads has since looked increasingly unstable, he said. Jeetmalani said, speaking as if he were Bangladesh’s eternal conscience, the irony was almost comical.“He will be remembered only as a hopeless arrogant whose ideological transformation was the answer. One day, he behaved like a global icon; the next, he was a local strongman, using the same old innuendo to win applause. This is what happens when your politics is sustained through networks and patronage rather than empowerment and performance,” he said.
