NEW DELHI: Muhammad Yunus’s reference to the northeastern states without recognizing them as part of India in his farewell speech as chief advisor to the interim government of Bangladesh has drawn sharp criticism from BJP functionary Mahesh Jethmalani who said he presided over a state that looks increasingly “unestablished”.“Bangladesh deserves serious political management. Instead, it has a headline-grabbing temporary figure who treats India as a prop. A Soros chameleon called Muhammad Yunus,” said a senior lawyer, who criticized his televised address to the nation on Monday as another unwarranted tirade about India.BNP Chairman Tariq Rahman’s swearing-in as Bangladesh’s prime minister on Tuesday marks the end of the interim government headed by Yunus, who took power after Sheikh Hasina’s government fell following violent protests in 2024.“The headline-chasing President sprinkled his televised speech with the 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,” Jethmalani said. “When you can’t govern, you pretend. When you can’t stabilize your country, you try to manufacture an outside villain – preferably a neighbor who is already working.”
“He said Yunus was not elected, instead instigated a volatile interim position, and has since presided over a Bangladesh that appears increasingly unstable. Jethmalani said he speaks as if he were the permanent conscience of Bangladesh, and the irony is almost comical.He added: “All we will be remembered for is an arrogance beyond redemption, which has changed its ideological form. One day he acts like a global icon, the next he is the local strongman in waiting, feeding the same old insinuations of applause. This is what happens when your politics are cobbled together through networks and patronage, not delegation and performance.”
