Dhaka, June 14, 2025 —
The Bangladesh Students’ League (BSL), the student wing of the ruling Awami League, has strongly condemned statements made by interim government head Muhammad Yunus during his recent visit to the United Kingdom, particularly during his appearance at the prestigious Chatham House in London.
In a sharply worded press statement, the BSL accused Yunus of “demeaning Bangladesh on the global stage” and described his comments as “elitist,” “anti-democratic,” and “deeply offensive to the Bangladeshi electorate.”
The BSL claims that Yunus’s visit to the UK lacked any official or diplomatic status, pointing out that he was not received by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer or other senior officials—continuing what they describe as “a pattern of humiliation” seen in earlier visits to France, India, the UAE, and Qatar.
At the Chatham House event, which was chaired by the institution’s director, Bronwen Maddox, Yunus faced questions about his proposed reform agenda. Maddox reportedly questioned his apparent reluctance to subject his reforms to a public vote or referendum. According to BSL, Yunus failed to provide a convincing justification, reinforcing perceptions of a top-down, undemocratic approach to governance.
The controversy escalated after Yunus described the Bangladeshi electorate in dismissive terms. Referring to voter behavior, Yunus was quoted as saying:
“All the complicated things you tell them, they say, ‘Oh, forget it, you give me some money, I’ll give you my vote, that’s all.’”
The BSL condemned this remark as a “direct assault on the dignity, intelligence, and democratic consciousness of the Bangladeshi people,” accusing Yunus of portraying citizens as “ignorant, corrupt, and unfit for democracy.”
The statement further rebuked Yunus for what they called a “reckless and unrelated tirade” about corruption in response to questions on foreign policy. Quoting him as saying “everything is corrupt, people are corrupt,” the BSL argued that such sweeping generalizations serve to tarnish Bangladesh’s global image and are part of a larger campaign to portray Yunus as a savior while undermining the country’s institutions.
Moreover, the BSL questioned Yunus’s control over the security apparatus, citing his own admission during the event that the state machinery is not entirely within his command—a sign, they say, of governance failure and lack of legitimacy.
They allege that Yunus’s so-called “Charter” and reform plans are designed to restructure the state in favor of a narrow elite composed of foreign-backed actors and domestic fundamentalists. The BSL sees this agenda as a threat to the democratic, secular, and liberation-war values enshrined in Bangladesh’s Constitution.
Calling on all “patriotic, democratic, and progressive forces,” the BSL urged unity against what they described as “anti-people, anti-democratic maneuvers.”
“The Bangladesh Students’ League stands firmly with the people in defense of the Constitution, the sovereignty of the Republic, and the legacy of our Liberation War,” the statement concluded.