UKโs former city minister Tulip Siddiq is disappointed that Bangladeshโs self-proclaimed chief adviser Muhammad Yunus had not met her during his London tour.
Talking to BBC, she said: “He’s been at the heart of a political vendetta based on fantasy accusations with no evidence relentlessly briefed to the media.
“If this was a serious legal process they would engage with my lawyers rather than sending bogus correspondence to an address in Dhaka where I have never lived.
“I hope he is now serious about ending the practice of smearing me in the press and allowing the courts to establish that their investigations have nothing to do with me – a British citizen and a proud member of the UK Parliament.”
Sharing a clip of the BBCโs interview with Yunus, Siddiq cited how he chose not to take responsibility when asked why no one from the Bangladesh authorities had contacted her or her lawyers at all.
โSilence isnโt dignity in this case, itโs evasion,โ Siddiq wrote on her X post.
Earlier, Siddiq invited Yunus to a meeting in Parliament, mentioning him in a tweet as the Nobel laureate was set to visit London on a personal trip using government funds.
After Siddiq had referred herself to the adviser on ministerial standards amid allegations about her acquisition of property in the UK, she was cleared in January of any wrongdoing.
Siddiq is a British MP from Hampstead and Highgate and the daughter of Sheikh Rehana, one of the two living daughters of Bangladeshโs Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
A series of allegations have been aired in the media, including the claim from the countryโs Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) that Siddiq or her mother had received a 7,200 sq-ft plot of land through โabuse of power and influence.โ
Siddiq denies the claims, which her lawyers have described as being โpolitically motivatedโ and without foundation.
In an interview with Yunus, BBC asked him whether he would meet Siddiq during his visit to the UK. “No, I’m not, because it’s a legal procedure,” Yunus said. “I don’t want to interrupt a legal procedure. Let the procedure continue.”
Yunus, however, met with BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman, a convict who has been staying in the UK since 2008, though an appeal in the August 21 grenade attack case is still pending. He also made another convict, former police chief Khuda Baksh Chowdhury, his special assistant with the status of state minister long before his acquittal in the same case.
Yunus has been using the ACC as a tool to harass his political rivals and to withdraw the cases against him and his allies. Only three days after taking the oath on August 8, a Dhaka court quashed a corruption case against Yunus based on an application by the ACC.
Moreover, the head of the ACC recently claimed that there were no allegations of corruption against the Yunus-led interim government, which came in stark contrast with the ongoing investigations and media reports against several advisers, their personal staff and family members.
Yunus himself and his Grameen-linked companies have also taken advantage of millions of dollars abusing his position. The ACC has not raised any question.
This is why Yunus could firmly say to the BBC that he has full confidence in the ACC.
The BBC questioned him about how the court issued an arrest warrant without sharing case documents and charges against Siddiq, and when a probe in the UK cleared her of any wrongdoing. Yunus replied that everything was going on as per the law.
Yunus said he had not been able to arrange a meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, a close friend and constituency neighbour of Siddiq.
When asked if Downing Street had given a reason for not scheduling a meeting with Starmer, he said: “I don’t think we have received an explanation from that kind of thing. Probably he is busy with other important things.”
But Yunus did have an audience with King Charles at Buckingham Palace and met Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in Parliament.
English