Bangladesh: Awami League slams July Charter as 'calculated deception' to protect Yunus

Dhaka, Oct 22 (IANS) Criticising July Charter's parading as a "national reform", Bangladesh's Awami League party has termed it as a "calculated deception" which aims at protecting Muhammad Yunus, Chief Advisor to the interim government.

The party claimed that the July Charter did not bring reform but entrenched exclusion, with its sole purpose being to protect Yunus, project authority, and sell the illusion of change to the world.

"The July Charter was never about Bangladesh. It was about Muhammad Yunuss survival. Cornered by growing scrutiny over his failures and mounting criticism at home, Yunus orchestrated the Charter as a smokescreen — a way to rewrite his narrative and dodge accountability. Every clause, every polished paragraph, every foreign-approved nod was carefully designed to shield him from responsibility while presenting the illusion of reform," the Awami League stated.

"Yunus sold the world a story of 'national renewal', but the truth is far uglier. Behind closed doors, the Charter was a self-serving plan, not a national blueprint. By handpicking elites and NGO figures, he ensured that those with real authority or independent judgment could not challenge him," it added.

According to the Awami League, opposition voices were silenced, dissenting opinions excluded, and the majority of Bangladesh's citizens ignored.

The party emphasised that the October 17 signing ceremony of the Charter, billed as a national reform, was in reality a gathering without the nation. Most of Bangladesh’s major political parties, it said, refused to attend the event -- a deliberate snub that exposed the Charter’s hollow legitimacy.

Even the National Citizen Party, long touted as the so-called “King’s Party”, stayed away, and with the true power centres absent, the party stressed that the document’s claim to represent the people was a "fabricated lie".

“The July Charter exposed the real mindset of this unelected elite—a belief that democracy can be staged, that representation can be faked, and that power can be negotiated behind closed doors. If Yunus could bypass the country’s majority once, what will stop him from doing it again when the stakes are higher?” the Awami League questioned.

“A national election led by this same group would not be an exercise in democracy; it would be an extension of the deception. The same actors, the same playbook, the same outcome—Bangladesh’s people left voiceless while the world applauds another carefully written script,” it asserted.

--IANS

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