There's no anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh: Yunus tells Mehdi Hasan in Zeteo interview

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has rejected allegations of communal persecution in Bangladesh under his administration in an interview with Zeteo's Mehdi Hasan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

"One of the specialties of India right now is fake news," the Nobel laureate told British-American broadcaster Mehdi, before claiming, "There's no anti-Hindu violence."

According to Zeteo, in November, around 30,000 Hindus in Bangladesh gathered to protest Yunus's interim government, with US President Donald Trump even weighing in to call Bangladesh's treatment of Hindus "barbaric".

Asked what India Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him about harbouring ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, Yunus said, "I have spoken to Modi [about sending her back]. He said two things. First, they said, they want to keep her. I said we can't tell you what to do with her. But make sure she doesn't talk about us. She doesn't talk about Bangladeshi people. He said, the social media I cannot control."

Yunus further said, "They have been supporting her all along. They're still hoping that she will come back to Bangladesh with full glory, returning as a victorious leader."

Mehdi asked why is Bangladesh taking 18 months to hold an election? In response, Yunus pointed out that there are many types of demands in Bangladesh.

"While some want the election now, some want the interim government to stay for five more years," he said. "Our interim government has three main duties — reform, trial, and election."

He pointed out that the other two duties are time-consuming, so it is taking 18 months to hold the election.

"If you just hold an election, same old stuff will happen again," he said.

Mehdi pointed out that critics such as Amartya Sen and others said banning the Awami League would go against democratic values. In response, Yunus said, "It's the wrong criticism because we have not banned the Awami League. Their activities have simply been suspended. Meaning that they cannot do any political activities." 

He added that the party can't run for office now, but they remain valid as a party.

Yunus also alleged that Awami League was trying to disrupt the national election.

"[Awami League] is not behaving as a political party. They have not expressed remorse for killing people. They have not taken responsibility for anything that they have done. Not a word. Instead, they're always accusing somebody else."

The chief adviser also said he was very happy with the tariff negotiation with United States.

"Yes, 20% is still high but it's not as high as we were worried about. India got much higher. So, I was even saying that probably very soon Indian industries will come and set up in Bangladesh because it's so much cheaper here to produce and send. So this becomes an attractive place for production," he added.

Asked about the previous Awami League government's decision to remove a line in the country's passport that said Israel was a nation that Bangladesh did not recognise, Yunus said, "When they did it, entire Bangladesh was opposed to it. Nobody liked that.

"We have not recognised Israel and we don't want to bring them back again into our passport. So first thing we did was to restore that because that's the will of the people."

He also condemned Israel's repeated attacks on Gaza.

Yunus assumed interim leadership last year after mass student protests toppled Hasina. 

"I was surprised," Yunus said about the people's decision to name him interim leader, which he reluctantly accepted. 

"If you have sacrificed so much, I will change my mind," he recalled telling the impassioned protestors at the time.

But it hasn't all been smooth sailing since then. According to Zeteo, robbery cases in the country have reached their highest point in six years, and dozens of police officers were killed in the wake of Hasina's departure, while others had completely abandoned their posts.