DHAKA, March 1: It seems a real political setback for the Bangladeshi Nobel Peace laureate, Professor Muhammad Yunus, who has recently floated a political party. His presence at the convocation of Dhaka University on Wednesday sparked protests among a significant section of students and the teachers.

That some kind of protest would be registered against him was predictable. But one would hardly know that the convocation would eventually be marked by agitation by a group of students, boycott of the function by another group who even called it a ‘black day’. Police used force to disperse a group of students, who were chanting slogans against Yunus, and arrested a few them. A section of the university teachers also boycotted the function in protest against Yunus’s presence on the campus.

It was all nice, when the academic council of the Dhaka University decided, a few weeks after Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in October last year, to honour him with Doctorate of Law and to invite him to become the main convocation speaker. The decision, made on November 6, was unanimous and everybody was happy about it.

The trouble began a few days later, with Yunus beginning to harshly criticise the country’s politicians, holding them chiefly responsible for everything bad in Bangladesh. He found ‘all the politicians’ corrupt. At the same time, he hinted about himself entering politics.

The Nobel laureate’s anti-political statements and his decision to enter politics created repercussions among the political parties, particularly the Awami League.

Sheikh Hasina, president of the League, severely criticised Yunus, on February 17, for his decision to float a political party ‘after waging virulent campaigns against politicians’. “It is amusing that those who despise politicians are now trying to be politicians themselves.”

Accusing Yunus of charging a ‘high rate of interest’ on small amounts of loans, Hasina said she saw ‘no difference between usurers and those who take bribe’. “Those who lend money at a high rate of interest can never fight against poverty; rather, they nurture poverty,” Hasina told an audience of cultural activists.

The League’s front organisations, particularly that of teachers, followed suit. They strongly opposed the university authority’s decision to make Yunus the convocation speaker. In the face of protests, the academic council met again on Feb 18, where teachers belonging to the Awami League backed Blue Panel and the left-leaning Pink Panel opposed the decision. A good number of teachers, however, did not find any problem with Yunus delivering the main convocation speech.

However, the situation reached a climax, when Yunus officially announced, on Feb 22, his decision to float his own party.

The student front of Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party did not make any hue and cry about the university’s decision to invite Yunus as the main convocation speaker. But the BNP questioned Yunus’s foray into politics, particularly during the ‘state of emergency’ when political rights of the entire population are suspended.

BNP spokesman Nazrul Islam Khan said on February 23 that “there are [legal] restrictions on political activities under the state of emergency”.

“It’s a surprise that the Nobel laureate launched a political party while all other political parties have suspended normal activities,’ said the BNP spokesman. “This seems unintelligible to us.”

In the midst of all these controversy around Yunus, the League’s student front operating on the Dhaka University campus, and its left allies, announced on February 22, the day Yunus officially announced the name of his party, that they would not like to see him delivering a convocation speech.

Arguing that previous speakers were party-neutral and non-controversial, the student bodies said ‘Yunus has already made himself controversial by maligning politicians and politics’ and called upon the university to drop the idea of making a ‘controversial person like Yunus’ the convocation speaker.

At this stage, the university authorities communicated for Mr Yunus about the controversy and latter made a public announcement that he was not interested in giving the convocation speech, although he ‘will attend the function to receive the honorary D Lit’.