A year after the uprising, Bangladesh's revolution remains unfinished

Chief adviser Muhammad Yunus must confront some tough challenges.

- Ravi Velloor

As Bangladesh marks the anniversary of the student uprising that toppled the regime of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed and her Awami League party, it is impossible not to recall the nightmare of her final months in power.

The police firing upon civilians, the numerous "disappearances" of very young people, and months-long incarcerations and harassments of dissidents — all spoke to a leader who had become a menace to her own people. That nightmare ended on Aug 5, 2024, when Sheikh Hasina fled to India, where she remains to this day.

Having accomplished their objective, the students turned to the Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, known around the world for his work on empowering women and the weaker sections through microfinance, to be their interim leader. His official title: chief adviser.

Now, Professor Yunus has announced that fresh elections to install a civilian government will be held "before Ramadan in February 2026".

Three questions follow: Will he be allowed to keep his word? How legitimate would these polls be if, as things stand, one of the nation's two largest political groupings is barred from participating? And what kind of state will the next government inherit?

THE LEGITIMACY QUESTION

To start with, there is the question of the legitimacy. On the face of it, the elections should be a shoo-in for the mainstream Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of Begum Khaleda Zia, who last held power nearly two decades ago.

Ageing and in indifferent health, Begum Zia returned to Dhaka in May after the Yunus administration withdrew many of the charges slapped on her by Sheikh Hasina.

Today, BNP is effectively run out of London by her son, Tarique, its own excesses in office largely forgotten by a public focused on the Awami League's more recent abuses.