Kevin Kelly, the Irish Ambassador to India and Bangladesh, meets Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus of the interim government in Dhaka on February 10.
Bangladesh will soon witness the birth of a new political party that will safeguard the young generation’s contribution to the uprising that overthrew the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024. Nahid Islam, a senior official in the interim government, conveyed the student coordinator’s plans to launch a political party to Kevin Kelly, the Irish Ambassador to India and Bangladesh, this week.
Mr. Kelly had paid a three-day visit to Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar. He met with Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus, Touhid Hossein, the Adviser on Foreign Affairs, and Nahid Islam, the adviser on telecom and information and broadcasting. Mr. Islam had played a major role in organising the uprising.
Hasnat Abdullah and Sarjis Alam, who led the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, had called for a week-long consultation about the possibility of launching a new political party that would provide an alternative to the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), two parties that ruled Bangladesh for most of the period since its independence in 1971.
In response to a question from The Hindu, Ambassador Kelly said, “I asked and it was confirmed to me and it is also being reported widely in the Bangladeshi media. So there is work underway to form a political party.” The Irish envoy further said he understood that the political party was part of an overall effort by the young protesters to safeguard the legacy of the uprising of August 2024.
“The sense I got was the young people had taken decisive action in terms of the uprising in July. Now, they want to make sure that they have political representation and a political voice in the future of Bangladesh,” said Mr. Kelly, who is one of the first New Delhi-based Western envoys to have access to the leadership of the interim government. Ireland has faced many intractable problems in its journey to peace. The country’s strident support for cases such as the conflict in Gaza Strip and the Rohingya crisis has also been noticed.
The formation of a new political party in Bangladesh is significant, given the upcoming elections that are expected to be held in December this year.
Mr. Yunus, in his chat with Ambassador Kelly, gave a sense of the roadmap that his administration will follow to bring Bangladesh back on the track of democracy. It is understood that the declaration of the political party by the student coordinators and officials in the interim government will lead to some changes within the current set-up, Mr. Kelly said. The student coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement had earlier announced that the new party would be “moderate”.
The Irish Ambassador also recounted Ireland’s unique experience of conflict resolution and reconciliation after decades of violence and terrorism that is referred to as “the troubles”. In his conversation with Mr. Yunus, Mr. Kelly expressed hope that the process of reconciliation in the case of Bangladesh “should not take that long”.
The Irish envoy’s visit to the Rohingya camps near Cox’s Bazar was partly prompted by Ireland’s commitment to resolving the Rohingya crisis. The envoy pointed out that Ireland is among the countries that, apart from extending financial support, is also taking a small number of Rohingya individuals to reduce suffering.
Published – February 14, 2025 11:07 pm IST
