Awami League leaders on Thursday said that Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus had sided with the BNP-Jamaat by supporting their demand for an election-time non-party caretaker government.
Yunus at a joint press conference with Bangladesh Krishak-Shramik Janata League president Kader Siddiqui at Yunus Centre had said that free, fair and transparent election was not possible without a caretaker government.
Suranjit Sengupta, advisory council member of Awami League, said that
the people did not expect Muhammad Yunus to make a political statement as they wanted to see him as a neutral person.
‘Restoration of caretaker government is the demand of the BNP and its allies. It cannot be the demand of Muhammad Yunus. By advocating a caretaker government he [Yunus] has taken the side of BNP-Jamaat,’ said Suranjit, also the minister without portfolio.
He said that a caretaker government had failed to ensure fair elections after the tenure of the BNP-led government in the past.
AL presidium member Nuh-ul-Alam Lenin said that Yunus no longer remained a neutral person after openly siding with the BNP-Jamaat by advocating an election-time caretaker government.
‘By making remarks on the issue of caretaker government, Muhammad Yunus has virtually become the spokesperson for BNP-Jamaat,’ he added.
AL presidium member Kazi Zafrullah said that Yunus should understand that fair elections were also possible under an elected government, which the Awami League had proved in last four years and a half.
Presidium member Mosarraf Hossain said Yunus should not have sided with the BNP-Jamaat by making such remarks on the caretaker government issue.
‘He [Yunus] is a wise person. He should not take any side by making political comments rather he should be neural in the domestics politics,’ he said, adding that the Awami League had proved that free and fair polls were possible under its rule.
Finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith termed Yunus as dishonest politician. Criticising the recent activities Muhth told reporters in Sylhet that Yunus was a very tactful politician. ‘But he does not want put on the dress of politicians,’ he said.
He said Yunus was engaged in plot for destroying the Grameen Bank. He said Yunus’s allegation of splitting the bank into 19 pieces by the government is not true.
‘Yunus has been campaigning against the government to destroy the Grameen Bank as part of his plot,’ he said while giving reaction to the comment by Yunus on Wednesday.
Yunus raised sincerity of the present government saying that it wanted to split the bank into pieces.
Muhith alleged that Yunus had been running propaganda against the government since he was removed from the bank’s managing director post following intervention by the higher court.
He ruled out any chaos in the country over the issue of the caretaker government’s demand raise by Yunus. He said BNP is not sincere to the demand of caretaker government.
Muhith said the BNP has been running movement for the last four and half years, but they failed to intensify the movement.
BNP is just using the issue of caretaker government as an excuse of movement, he added.
-With New Age input
