BBC Bangla: Bangladesh has undergone a huge change since the last time I spoke to you, precisely a year ago. There was the fear of arrest. You were apprehensive of being arrested at the time and you were speaking about your concerns in that regard. And now you are the chief advisor for the past six months or so. How have these six months been? What did you intend to do as chief advisor and how far have you been successful?
Chief advisor: First let me correct you. I wasn't in fear of arrest. There was a possibility that I would be taken away. I was taking it easy. If they took me away, there was nothing I could really do. There was no law or order in the country, so they could do as they please. That's how my life was carrying on. When the government was formed, I had no thought about suddenly being made head of the government, that I would be given this responsibility. The country was in shambles. Nothing was working right. Everything was on a pile of rubble. So my first effort was to emerge from the rubble and make people's daily life easier. That was my endeavour. Then gradually thinking about the future, in which direction we were to head. My first thought was that we needed reforms, reforms of what had made it possible for a fascist government to last for so long. It managed to carry on for 16 years and we could do nothing about it. Three elections had been held and there was no sign of any voters. We would have to break away from the multifarious corruption, the failures, the misrule and more. Reforms would be needed to break away from that.
BBC Bangla: How far did you manage to emerge from that?
Chief advisor: We haven't really begun reforms as yet...
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: You were talking about the situation when you became chief advisor...
Chief advisor: There have been many changes...
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: How much change do you see?
Chief advisor: A lot. I would say a new face has emerged from the rubble of destruction. We have made the economy easier, we have won trust at home and abroad. It is clear that we have managed to gain trust worldwide. No one say that we have failed to win the confidence of any particular country. No matter what country you name, we have gained their trust. Not only have we gained their confidence, but have gained their huge confidence. They say they will do much more than what they have done in the past because they see that the government is running well. That itself is proof. When you see the countries, you will see they came up on their own accord to say that we support you. We will provide you with what you need. They have lent us unbelievable support.
BBC Bangla: You speak of trust and support from outside. If I turn within the country and speak about law and order, then we will see there has been a lot of criticism on this head. If we look at the reports of police and human rights organisations, we will see that crime has escalated significantly. Why are you all unable to control this?
Chief advisor: I began with the matter of confidence and let me go back there, confidence at home and abroad. It is most important that the people of the country have confidence in us. They have huge confidence in us. That is proof.
There is the nitty-gritty of what we are doing -- there will naturally be some good, some bad. We have embarked on an unknown journey and have not put any experts in place in this unknown sphere. We have come from difference spheres and our trying the best to do what needs to be done. There may be mistakes. We have done some good, have unable to do well in certain instances. That is only to be expected. I do not deny it.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Where do you think things haven't been good?
Chief advisor: Nothing has been good in that sense. We would like to change the country overnight, but we haven't been able to do that. It will take time. I wanted to start dialogue now, but could not do that either. Dialogue is being delayed. We have formed several reform commissions and they were supposed to submit their reports within 90 days. They have not been able to do so. We are not complaining. It is a mammoth task. They have asked for more time -- a month or two. So it's just fallen back a bit. These things will happen.
BBC Bangla: Back to the law and order issue. Many say they are fearful with the crime all around, with what's happening on the streets. Why can't you control this?
Chief advisor: What is your reference point when you say law and order had deteriorated?
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: The latest figures show the crimes on the streets compared to the corresponding time last year...
Chief advisor: I am keeping watch. It is like before.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Robbery has gone up by 50 per cent in the last six months, according to police records. Figures may differ, but we do see crime. Where is the problem in controlling it? I am keeping watch. It is like before.
Chief advisor: We are trying. You know the problem as well as I do. First it was the police that was the problem. They were too scared to come out into the streets. They were even shot at recently. So it has taken us a few months to fix all this. It has been fixed now, more or less. This are becoming orderly.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: There is the matter of mob violence, lynching. Only recently the building at Dhanmondi 32 and many other structures were attacked and demolished. The role of the government and the law enforcement was hardly visible for quite some time. Why was there no tangible action? You later called for a halt to all this, but why did the law enforcement agencies not play an effective role?
Chief Advisor: They are taking time. Perhaps they have not been able to shrug off their mindset as yet. We have told the people they can file any report in any police station, can resort to the law and we have made this easy. They can use the internet, online pages, so they are not harassed when going to file cases. After all, it had been the norm to be harassed at police stations in the past. We have tried to make things easy for the people, to make filing cases easy and so on.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: But at the end of the day, it is up to the police to deal with these matters. You said the police perhaps are not in that mental state as yet and cannot be active as they themselves are not confident. It has been seven months. Why have they not gained confidence as yet?
Chief advisor: It hasn't been possible as yet, but we are trying. Things have certainly improved, but have not been solved.
BBC Bangla: About you taking over responsibility -- before you took over responsibility, there were three parties active. One was the students who had led the mass uprising, there were the political parties and there was the army. All three parties pledged to give you all-out support. Do you still have the same relations with the political parties as you had back then? Or have things changed?
Chief advisor: I do not think I have changed my position at all. Till now I haven't heard of anyone not supporting me. Everyone is lending their support, everyone wants the country to run well, they have unity among themselves. There are differences in their political statements, but that doesn't mean there is a rift in the unity. Nothing like that has happened.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: BNP's acting chairperson Tarique Rahman said that apprehensions are creeping into the public mind concerning the interim government's neutrality.
Chief advisor: Whether it is the public mind or his mind, that is the question.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Why should such apprehensions grow in their mind?
Chief advisor: No one has said that they have any such apprehensions. When we talked, he said we are with you.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: So you want to say that they say one thing to your face and then make different statements?
Chief advisor: You will know better if they are making different statements, but there are no shortcomings in our relations with them.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: The students have formed a political party and some political parties, BNP in particular, say that the government assisted them. Has the government backed them or is assisting them?
Chief advisor: No, the government is not assisting them in any way. The one who wanted to join politics, resigned and did so. There were three student representatives in the government. The one who decided to do politics, resigned and left. He will enter politics as a private citizen. Who is to obstruct him?
BBC Bangla: But when you took over responsibility and later on several occasions, you said that it was the students who appointed you. So will that be why the government will have support for their political activities?
Chief advisor: I have not observed that. Everyone can have an opinion that this party is doing well, or that one isn't doing well. That can be a personal choice. As the government, we have no position.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: So you say the allegations being made by the political parties are not true?
Chief advisor: Not true at all.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Are you getting support from the army?
Chief advisor: Full support.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Is it just like it was at the beginning?
Chief advisor: Absolutely.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: You will have heard the army chief's recent statement that he and you are on one page in many instances. He said that unless everyone could work together, Bangladesh's independence and sovereignty will be at stake. Do you agree?
Chief advisor: That was his statement so it is for him to say. It is not for me to endorse or not endorse his statement.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: But as head of the government, what do you think?
Chief advisor: There is always a threat. A party has fled from the county, their leadership has fled. They are trying all out to unsettle the country. They are constantly working on this, at every moment, at every place. So things will take time.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: So you say the threat is from the toppled Awami League?
Chief advisor: Most definitely. It is obvious. They are often making statements, delivering speeches, addressing their people. We have all heard this. The people get agitated.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: So what activities are they up to? What is the threat?
Chief advisor: The addresses they are delivering, rise up, take up this programme, or that programme, call for a hartal and so on. How do you expect the people to take it? It is nothing sweet to swallow so easily.
BBC Bangla: Reform is one of the main agendas of the interim government. You have formed several commissions to this end. But now you are saying that the election will be held at the end of the year. How far can you carry out the reforms in such a short span of time?
Chief advisor: We have started the process. We will give each and every recommendation and asked if the political parties support these, if they are agreeable. We will ask them to say if they are agreeable or not, or if they want amendments to any of the recommendations, whether the amendments should be made before or after the elections and so on. The political parties will just have to point things out. We will see which recommendations everyone agrees upon. We will keep these separately and call this a charter, the July Charter. We will appeal to everyone to sign it since they are in consensus. We will proceed according to the July Charter. And the election will be held accordingly. What you want before the election will be done, what you want to do after the election will be done. That is up to you. But you are in consensus. We will try to build up this consensus.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: So can it be said that the election will be held this year?
Chief advisor: That is what we have announced. There is no need to repeat this anew.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: When we last spoke to you, you have said that all the cases and harassment against you were impacting your personal life in many ways. It has been seven months since the government has been formed now. As chief advisor, how has your personal life being affected?
Chief advisor: I have become detached from my personal life. My life is different now. It is like working in closed room. There is no scope for me to do anything else. I am working in a very focussed way, in a very restricted manner. So I cannot really compare this with anything else. Before I had a free life, doing whatever I wanted. I can't do that now.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Relations with India deteriorated after the mass uprising. How do things stand between the two countries now?
Chief advisor: Very good. Our relations didn't deteriorate. My view is that our relations have always been good. It is still good now and will be so in the future. There is no other way that for Bangladesh-India relations to be good. We have close ties, we are so inter-dependent, we have such close historical, political and economic ties, we cannot break away from that. There has been friction, as I said, clouds made an appearance. These clouds were created by propaganda. Let others assess the source of such propaganda. But this propaganda did generate misunderstanding. We are trying to overcome that.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Are you in direct contact with the India government?
Chief advisor: Constantly. They are coming here, our people are going there. We spoke to Prime Minister Modi on the very first week.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: You recently spoke to Elon Musk and you even invited him to Bangladesh. Is this an attempt to establish ties with the new administration in the US?
Chief advisor: It was basically about Starlink. It is about business relations. We were discussing about getting Starlink connection.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Differences have emerged among political parties over Awami League's politics. Different quarters are saying different things. What is your stand? Should Awami League be banned, can it take part in the election?
Chief advisor: I won't go into such details. My position has always been that everyone is a citizen of this country and everyone has equal rights. We must live in this country. We must build up this country. No one's rights can be snatched away. But anyone committing a crime must be tried. That is all.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Given Bangladesh's state framework, the head of government and the president must be in regular communication. Are you in contact with the president?
Chief advisor: When it is necessary. There is no need for me to go and waste his time for nothing. I go to him whenever needed.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: In the past interview you had said you had made a mistake during the 1/11 government when you formed a political party. Now you are in the top political post of the country. How do you evaluate that now? Has this been a correct decision, or do you not want to evaluate it?
Chief advisor: No, I will evaluate it. I did not form a political party, I had spoken about forming one. This was on for 10 weeks and then I said I would not enter politics. I had said, politics is not my cup of tea. That ended then and there and no one could draw me into politics since then. Everyone had tried, lead the country, become the prime minister. I did not want that. Those 10 weeks were enough. That's it. There is no possibility of me entering politics now and I am not in politics.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: But head of government is a political office...
Chief advisor: Maybe, technically speaking. They requested me many times. I finally acquiesced. I took up the responsibility. If this is a political office, it is so by definition. I am not involved in politics.
Prothom Alo :
BBC Bangla: Chief advisor Professor Muhammad Yunus, thank you for giving BBC Bangla your time.
Chief advisor: Thank you too.
* This interview appeared in the online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Ayesha Kabir