Headline-chasing interim head: Jethmalani on Yunus’ NE remark | India News
New Delhi: Muhammad YunusIn his farewell speech as chief adviser to Bangladesh’s interim government, referring to the northeastern states as a part of India rather than recognizing them, sharply dismissed BJP leader Mahesh Jethmalani who said he presided over a country that looked increasingly “unmoored”.“Bangladesh deserves serious statecraft. Instead, it has got a headline-chasing interim figure who treats India as a prop. The Soros-lucky chameleon known as Md Yunus,” said the senior lawyer, who slammed his televised address to the nation on Monday as another insincere admonition from India.BNP Chairman Tariq Rahman’s swearing-in as Bangladesh’s prime minister on Tuesday marked the end of the Yunus-led interim government, which took over in 2024 after the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s government following violent protests.Jethmalani said, “The headline-chasing head sprinkled his televised speech with familiar sovereignty/dignity theatrics and a sly reference to India’s northeast and the seven sisters of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura – without calling them part of India”. “When you can’t govern, you grow up. When you can’t stabilize your country, you try to create an exotic villain — preferably a neighbor who actually works.”Yunus, he said, was not elected and instead ushered in an unstable interim perch, and has since presided over a Bangladesh that looks increasingly unstable. He speaks as if he is the permanent conscience of Bangladesh and the irony is almost comical, Jethmalani said.“He will be remembered as a hegemony that is beyond redemption, which is to say ideological reshaping. One day he behaves like a global icon; the next day he is a local strongman-in-waiting, feeding the same old gestures for applause. This is what happens when your politics is consolidated by networks and patronage and performance,” he said.
