JULY IS FALDERAL!!! Bangladesh in Chains: From Glory to Desolation”

July — once the month when Bangladesh celebrated progress, growth, and national self-confidence — has, under the unlawful puppet reign of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, become nothing more than a hollow falderal. It is a theatre of deception, a month now remembered not for harvest or hope but for humiliation. One year after the CIA-engineered coup of August 2024, which ousted the legitimate government of Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh stands in tatters — stripped of dignity, development, and direction.

The stark truth resounds like a funeral bell: Sheikh Hasina had built a nation almost on par with many Western states — robust in infrastructure, radiant in human development, and resolute in social justice. Dr. Yunus, in just over a year, has despoiled it all — reducing a rising economic tiger to a wounded, crawling state gasping for recovery that may take half a century to regain.

The Hasina Era: From Ashes to Ascendance

Under Sheikh Hasina’s visionary leadership (2009–2024), Bangladesh became an exemplar of postcolonial transformation. The nation that once begged for food became a net food exporter. The country that once relied on fragile aid flows built the Padma Bridge with its own sovereign resources — a defiant symbol of national pride. GDP growth surpassed 7% for six consecutive years, per capita income crossed US$2,800, and extreme poverty plummeted from 41% in 2005 to less than 13% in 2023.

The World Bank, the UNDP, and even the IMF acknowledged Bangladesh’s rise as “an economic miracle in South Asia.” Nobel laureate Amartya Sen once remarked, “Few nations have turned adversity into development with such quiet tenacity as Bangladesh under Sheikh Hasina.”

Women’s empowerment, once a distant dream, became a cornerstone of her governance. Bangladesh ranked first in South Asia in the Global Gender Gap Index for seven consecutive years. Electrification reached nearly every household, rural road networks expanded to 90,000 kilometres, and the Digital Bangladesh initiative bridged the chasm between the urban elite and the rural poor.

Sheikh Hasina’s governance model was not Western mimicry; it was Bangladesh’s pragmatism — rooted in compassion, resilience, and a deep understanding of the nation’s liberation ethos. Her legacy embodied the vision of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — a prosperous, secular, self-reliant republic anchored in the spirit of 1971.

Enter the Charlatan: A Nation Betrayed

Then came the dark hour. On 5 August 2024, under the cloak of foreign manipulation and local treachery, Dr. Muhammad Yunus ascended to power — not through the ballot, but through betrayal. His coup, midwifed by Western intelligence and lubricated by local opportunists, was heralded as “a return to democracy.” In truth, it was a return to chaos, cronyism, and collaborationism.

In barely a year, Yunus has undone decades of progress. Inflation has soared past 15%, foreign reserves have plummeted from $46 billion to less than $20 billion, and the taka has collapsed against the dollar. The once-thriving garment industry — backbone of the national economy — faces shutdowns and job losses as Western buyers pull out, citing instability and human rights concerns. Over one million workers, mostly women, now face unemployment or underpayment.

Foreign investment has fled. Infrastructure projects stand abandoned. The Dhaka Metro expansion, the Payra deep-sea port, and the Rooppur nuclear plant — all symbols of Bangladesh’s leap into the future — now languish under bureaucratic paralysis or military mismanagement.

“It takes twenty years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it,” Warren Buffett once observed. Yunus has proved that it takes less than that to ruin a nation.

The Collapse of Governance and the Rise of Fear

Under Yunus’s so-called “interim rule,” the state has become a syndicate of cronies, clerics, and conspirators. Institutions that once served the people have been transformed into instruments of oppression. The army, once revered for its patriotism, now acts as the regime’s private garrison, intimidating civilians and persecuting dissenters.

The judiciary has been infiltrated by Jamaati-Shibir loyalists, reversing years of justice achieved through the International Crimes Tribunal that tried the 1971 war criminals. The press, once vocal, has been silenced. Editors who once published the truth now publish propaganda. Citizens whisper in fear; journalists flee or disappear.

And yet, Dr. Yunus parades himself before the world as a reformer — the same man who has turned the nation into a hostage of extremist resurgence and foreign exploitation.

The Human Toll: A Nation in Despair

The social fabric of Bangladesh is fraying. Minorities are persecuted with impunity. The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) recently accused Yunus’s administration of allowing Islamist extremists and the army to persecute Hindus, Buddhists, and Indigenous peoples. Villages in Khagrachari and Bandarban echo with terror as the military encroaches on Indigenous lands under the pretext of “security.”

Poverty has returned like a forgotten plague. The price of essentials — rice, lentils, oil — has doubled. Millions are forced to skip meals. Once-proud garment workers now queue for subsidized rations. Rural families, once electrified and empowered, again light kerosene lamps and pray for relief that never arrives.

In every corner of the nation, despair has replaced dignity. As Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “When the stream of truth dries up, the desert of despair expands.” Under Yunus, that desert stretches endlessly.

The International Mirage

The West, which once cheered Hasina’s “economic miracle,” now watches in complicit silence. The same capitals that hailed Yunus as a Nobel “humanist” turn a blind eye to his repression. The so-called “international community” preaches democracy but bankrolls despotism when it suits their geopolitical convenience.

In reality, Yunus has become their perfect pawn — docile, desperate, and dependent. He serves Western economicand geo-political interests by dismantling national sovereignty, selling state assets under the guise of “reform,” and opening Bangladesh’s strategic ports and communications to foreign control.

But history teaches us that no puppet regime endures. As Abraham Lincoln reminded us, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” The people of Bangladesh are awakening — and they remember.

What Did the People Gain?

So, the question must be asked with unflinching clarity: What did the people of Bangladesh gain during Dr. Yunus’s over one year of rule?

Did they gain prosperity? No — they lost livelihoods.
Did they gain dignity? No — they live in fear.
Did they gain democracy? No — they suffer tyranny masked as transition.
Did they gain stability? No — they face the chaos of uncertainty and collapse.

They have gained only one thing: the bitter lesson that charisma without character is catastrophe, and fame without integrity is fraud.

The Path to Redemption

Yet, Bangladesh is not beyond salvation. Its people are resilient. The soil that birthed the Liberation War still carries the courage of defiance. Sheikh Hasina’s legacy — though temporarily eclipsed — endures in the nation’s collective memory.

For Bangladesh to heal, it must first reject the falsity of Yunus’s “July falderal.” The nation must reclaim the roadmap of inclusive growth, industrial innovation, and social justice that Hasina envisioned. It must restore the independence of its institutions, purge the infiltrators from its judiciary, and bring to justice those who desecrated the Liberation ideals.

The task is monumental, but as Mahatma Gandhi said, “In the midst of darkness, light persists.”

Bangladesh will rise again — because it has risen before.

Epilogue: History’s Verdict

Dr. Yunus may still adorn international podiums, hailed by those who mistake prestige for virtue. But history’s gaze is unrelenting. His name shall not be remembered as that of a reformer, but as the man who turned back the clock — who took a soaring nation and dragged it fifty years backward.

And when the dawn finally returns, when Sheikh Hasina’s vision once more guides the nation’s destiny, Bangladesh will emerge stronger, wiser, and freer. Then, July will no longer be falderal. It will again be a month of light — of truth triumphant over deceit, and of a people reclaiming their lost tomorrow.

By:Anwar A. Khan 

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