Bangladesh President Mohammad Shahabuddin Chuppu and the country’s interim authority Chief Advisor Mohammad Yunus have neither met nor spoken to each other over the past eight months.
The two did not even exchange pleasantries on the occasion of Ramzan, a month-long period of fasting which is occasioned by iftar parties before culminating in the joyous occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr.
So far drawn apart are the two – since August 8, 2024, when the Anti-Discrimination Students Movement led a mass upsurge that unseated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina – that while Chuppu led Eid prayers on March 30 at Banga Bhaban, Yunus led the congregation at the National Eidgah grounds.
They did not even meet briefly to greet each other.
On October 23, 2024, the students, backed by elements owing allegiance to the banned Hizbut Tehrir and the Islami Chhatra Shibir, led demonstrations to lay siege on Banga Bhaban, the presidential palace, to demand his ouster.
The students were prevented from storming Banga Bhaban and the demonstration petered out.
At that time, Bangladeshi political analysts had speculated that Yunus had sought to elevate himself to the position of president, a move which was thwarted by forces stronger than the country’s political outfits.
Chuppu and Yunus, however, were present at the liberation war memorial in Savar near Dhaka, on March 26, which is marked as Bangladesh’s independence day.
The two did not exchange any words or greetings and left separately for their official residences.
“Meetings between the president and the interim authority head is customary, especially on special occasions, but the hiatus between the two is certainly eyebrow-raising,” said Dhaka-based political analyst Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah.
The frosty relations between the president and the chief advisor is emblematic of the political conflict between the Awami League (whose presidential nominee was Chuppu) and the students.
Since the events of October 23, 2024, which was interpreted by Bangladeshi political analysts as the interim authority’s bid to unseat the president, Army chief General Waker-uz-Zaman has been performing the onerous task of maintaining a balance between the offices of the president and the chief advisor.
In fact, Gen Zaman, with a skull cap, led the maghrib prayers as the imam at Banga Bhaban with Chuppu seated in a chair behind him.
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The offering of prayers was part of a celebrations on Bangladesh’s independence day (March 26).
This was followed by an iftar hosted by the president. Gen Zaman has met Chuppu from time to time to brief him on a range of political and diplomatic issues.
Gen Zaman followed the same exercise in relation to Yunus who, by all accounts, never visited the national martyrs’ memorial before assuming the role of chief advisor.
