Nobel laureate and chief advisor to Bangladesh’s interim government, Muhammad Yunus, acknowledged this week that there was a “design and conspiracy” behind the removal of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from power. Yunus made the remarks during the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual meeting, where he was welcomed by former US President Bill Clinton and current President Joe Biden.
Addressing a high-profile audience, Yunus, 84, praised the student leaders behind the movement that ousted Hasina, hailing them as “the ones creating the new version of Bangladesh.” The former prime minister fled the country following violent, student-led protests that resulted in Yunus being appointed as the chief advisor to the interim government in August.
During his speech, Yunus revealed that while the protests seemed organic, there was a hidden hand orchestrating the events. He named “Mahfuj Abdullah” as a key figure behind the plot but stopped short of detailing his role. “No one could make out who was behind the protests,” Yunus said, adding that the effort to remove Hasina was “meticulously designed.”
The ousting of Hasina has raised concerns about external interference in Bangladesh’s political landscape. While US President Joe Biden expressed support for Bangladesh’s new reform agenda, the White House underscored the strong bilateral ties between the two nations, emphasizing shared democratic values and people-to-people connections.
Speculation has mounted over whether the student-led protests were co-opted by foreign actors. Some intelligence sources suggest that Yunus’s participation at the Clinton Global Initiative could be seen as his “official introduction” on the global stage following Hasina’s removal. “Yunus and his association with the US is well-known,” one official remarked, recalling his long-standing friendship with Bill Clinton.
Clinton lauded Yunus’s contributions to global poverty alleviation through microcredit, noting that few individuals have had as much impact on ordinary people’s lives. The two men share a friendship dating back to the 1980s when Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, invited Yunus to the US to share his revolutionary ideas on empowering impoverished women through small loans.
In his address, Yunus expressed gratitude to Clinton for his early support, even amid criticism from those who doubted the relevance of a Bangladeshi economist’s work in America.
Meanwhile, Hasina has also hinted at foreign involvement in her ouster. In an earlier interview, she mentioned being approached by a foreign emissary who offered to facilitate her re-election in exchange for cooperation on a port deal. She warned that “conspiracies are still on” to destabilize Bangladesh, alluding to possible attempts to partition the country, much like East Timor.
