Manash Ghosh | After Stormy 100 Days, Can Tarique Deliver in Bangladesh?

The performance of Tarique Rahman’s BNP government, which recently completed its first 100 days, is best described as an extension of the monumental 18-month misgovernance under Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, the interim leader. The American “Deep State” and the Bangladesh Army had parachuted Mr Yunus into power after Sheikh Hasina’s government was toppled in a “meticulously-designed conspiracy” hatched at home and abroad.

The Grameen Bank man, the new helmsman, had aroused great expectations that Bangladesh would finally turn the corner. But very soon Mr Yunus proved an utter disaster. If the corruption under Sheikh Hasina enraged people, Mr Yunus’ monumental corruption far overshadowed her regime’s delinquency. Public disenchantment swelled to such an extent that soon after Mr Yunus took over, many — from rickshaw-pullers to some of Bangladesh’s top industrialists — were heard saying: “We were better off under Hasina. We want her back”. A jittery Yunus, to forestall that, arbitrarily decided to bar her Awami League from the February 2026 general election and cracked down on it.

When the election was held, people voted overwhelmingly for the country’s second biggest party, the BNP, hoping its youthful leader Tarique would usher in better days. But they were in for a shock when they found Tarique following the same path as Mr Yunus. Tarique did nothing to stop the extortion racket, mob lynching and rape that thrived in the Yunus days. He has also been found wanting in establishing the rule of law.

The biggest infamy Tarique has earned is his criminal negligence and administrative ineptitude that led to the death of a thousand Bangladesh children due to measles. Government medical centres had no stocks of the required preventive vaccine despite being warned five times by UNICEF to procure them. Mr Yunus too had stopped purchasing the vaccines even though WHO had urgently urged the government to stock up.

The BNP could sweep the February election largely because a large section of Awami League voters supported it to block radical Islamists led by the Jamaat-e-Islami from coming to power, even though they felt the BNP and Jamaat were almost birds of the same feather. But they hoped since the BNP said it was a party of “Muktijoddhas”, it would create conducive conditions facilitating the country’s biggest and oldest party, the Awami League, to return to open politics by lifting the ban. It was felt this would do away with the Yunus-induced political instability and restiveness that had imperilled the nation’s peace and progress that were hallmarks of his misgovernance.

Also, considerable consternation was caused by Tarique’s role in letting Mr Yunus sign trade and defence deals with America three days before he took over. Debapriya Bhattacharya, a top Bangladesh economist, says the agreements are a total “sellout”, making Bangladesh a US “vassal state” and totally compromising its national sovereignty.

The trade and defence agreements have “humiliating and economically ruinous” clauses which, if implemented, would overnight turn Bangladesh’s highly favourable trade balance into an imbalance as it would be forced to buy 24 Boeing passenger planes and many high-value US goods for which Bangladesh has no need. Stationing of US warships at Bangladeshi ports is part of the defence deal. American officials have compromised Tarique and also Jamaat leaders by leaking that Mr Yunus got their “prior approval” before signing those agreements.

Moreover, Awami League supporters who voted for the BNP were in for a rude shock when, on the opening day of Parliament, an obituary reference was passed in which several prominent Pakistan Army collaborators found prominent mention, to the exclusion of many “Muktijoddhas”. Even more shocking was that Tarique converted Mr Yunus’ presidential ordinance which banned the Awami League’s political functioning into an incontrovertible Act of Parliament.

Tarique’s abhorrence for the Awami League, like Mr Yunus, also showed up in diverse ways. Tarique refused to accord a state funeral after the death of Tofael Ahmed, nine-time MP, political secretary to Mujib and a minister in Hasina’s Cabinet, who was also a legendary freedom fighter and an architect of the student revolt that ousted then Pakistani President Ayub Khan from power in 1969.

Tofael was a venerated national figure who commanded unquestionable respect from all quarters, and yet, because of political vendetta, he was treated disrespectfully by Tarique both before and after his death.

In Bangladesh such national figures are usually given a state funeral by holding a special “janaja” at the plaza adjoining the Louis Kahn-crafted iconic Parliament building and placing the body for public viewing at the historic Shahid Minar. But Tarique refused to extend such formalities and even ordered the police to lathi-charge a private “janaja” held at a small Dhaka mosque. While Tofael was battling for his life, he was served with an arrest warrant.

But this heavy-handed treatment unleashed a massive backlash when Tofael’s body was taken to his native Bhola for burial. Thousands of locals attended his “janaja” to pay their last respects to the national hero and express their solidarity with the Awami League. Another former Hasina minister and freedom fighter, Mosharraf Hossain, whose “janaja” in Chittagong was held after he was allegedly persecuted in prison, turned into a massive anti-government protest.

Hundreds and thousands of Awami League workers, supporters and ordinary mourners braved prohibitory orders and defiantly chanted anti-government slogans, thus throwing a challenge to the Tarique regime, which refused to confront them on the streets.

Public sympathy and support for the Awami League and Sheikh Hasina are gradually gathering momentum, especially after Hasina’s announcement that she will return home by the coming Victory Day (December 16) to face trial and a death sentence handed down by a “kangaroo court”. This has charged up her party workers and many ordinary Bangladeshis, a lot of whom are wondering whether Tarique will be able to complete his term or whether an inclusive mid-term election with the Awami League participating will be held in the not-too-distant future.

Another index of the fast-changing public mood is the mounting hostility towards the student leaders who toppled Sheikh Hasina’s government. Angry crowds have pelted them with rotten eggs and shoes.

Also, India’s defiant border stand has led to the deportation of hundreds of Bangladeshi infiltrators, which has put the Tarique government on the back foot, largely because the poor, landless labourers have admitted to the media that they had illegally entered India but now want to go home rather than rot in Indian detention centres. Tarique has no option but to take them back as he knows they are victims of Dhaka’s “lebensraum” policy.

Tough times lie ahead for Tarique Rahman. Only time will tell if he can manage to turn the tide.

Manash Ghosh is a veteran journalist who covered the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and is the author of several books including, most recently, Mujib’s Blunders: The Power and the Plot Behind His Killing.