Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury Naufel, the former education minister of the Hasina government, has claimed that the future of Bangladesh depends on the attitude of the newly elected US President Donald Trump.
He claimed this in an exclusive interview given to the Indian media The Hindu. The interview was published by The Hindu on Saturday (January 18). Naufel said, “The future of the interim government in Bangladesh in the coming months will depend a lot on the approach of the Donald Trump administration in the United States.” The security situation of Bangladesh should not be seen in isolation from the events of other conflict regions, especially in West Asia. He said, “Dr. Yunus invested in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and called Donald Trump’s first-term victory unacceptable. Because of his views on Trump, I’m sure there will be some impact on the interim government after Trump is sworn in on January 20.
The former education minister said, “Bangladesh should not become a new base for Islamic extremists, as Syria and Iraq were in the last decade.” He warned against the expansion of Hizb ut Tahrir and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
The situation changed dramatically in the first week of July 2024, when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina returned home after her visit to China and faced a student-led movement against her government. Sheikh Hasina gave him the task of negotiating with the coordinators of the student movement. According to sources in The Hindu, Sheikh Hasina had planned to hand over power to Parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury in the first week of August and the military was ensuring a lockdown to stabilize the situation. “We were present at Ganabhaban and were discussing ways to resolve the movement,” Naufel said. Many felt that the Prime Minister’s sudden resignation would lead to a collapse of the law and order situation, so a lockdown was planned.’
He is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of the interim government. Muhammad accused Yunus of failing to maintain law and order. “His complete failure to protect the minority, progressive and secular public from the attacks of extremists and militants has exposed him completely,” he said. Dr. Yunus has no legitimacy. He hates Bangladesh’s ideological foundation, secularism and Bengali nationalism. He further said that economic crisis and industrial unrest have increased in Bangladesh in the last five months due to deteriorating law and order situation. The Yunus government is planning sweeping changes to the constitution, proposing significant changes to the 1972 constitution. The interim government has no right to make such fundamental changes.