In a blistering condemnation that has electrified Bangladesh’s fractious political landscape, the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) has accused interim Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus of acting as a marionette for the US deep state, orchestrating a clandestine scheme to lease the strategically vital Chittagong Port to American-linked conglomerates under the guise of humanitarian aid and infrastructure upgrades.
Speaking at a massive CPB national rally in Suhrawardy Udyan on Friday, former party president and presidium member Mujahidul Islam Selim laid bare what he called Yunus’s “real agenda,” declaring: “Yunus Sahib has been caught. His real agenda is Chittagong Port; he is secretly leasing it to American companies, to Western companies.”
The rally, attended by thousands demanding unity against authoritarian resurgence and the emboldened radical right, served as a launchpad for a barrage of CPB-led protests. Selim’s remarks echo a swelling chorus of outrage from labour unions, opposition parties, and even military insiders, who view the port handover as a brazen betrayal of national sovereigntyโpotentially transforming Bangladesh into a frontline pawn in Washington’s Indo-Pacific chess game against China and regional rivals.
Yunus’ Dubious Reforms: A Trojan Horse for US Imperial Ambitions?
The controversy centres on Yunus’s push to outsource operations at the port’s New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT), Laldia, and Pangaon facilities to foreign operators for 25-30 years. Shipping Secretary Mohammad Yusuf defended the move at an October seminar hosted by the Economic Reporters Forum, hailing it as the “only way” to ramp up capacity to 5.36 million TEUs by 2030 amid crumbling infrastructure and faulty scanning equipment.
Yunus himself toured the port in May, painting a rosy vision of a “world-class” hub linking landlocked neighbours like Nepal and India’s northeastern states to foster trade and jobs. In a June address, he dismissed critics as peddlers of “baseless opposition and misinformation,” vowing knowledge transfers that would empower Bangladeshis to helm global ports by 2036โwhile insisting foreign involvement posed no threat to sovereignty.
But sceptics see through the rhetoric. “This is not reform; it’s a rushed sell-off,” thundered Mohammad Harun, president of the Chattogram Port Workers and Employees Federation, at a May rally where protesters decried the plan as a “direct threat to national security.” Labor fears mass job losses to automation, mirroring Singapore’s model, in a nation where 2 million youths flood the job market yearly.
The implicated operator? UAE-based DP World, which has signalled keen interest in the NCT. While ostensibly neutral, DP World’s deep entanglements with US defense contracts and intelligence-sharing pactsโcoupled with Yunus’s well-documented ties to Western philanthropists and think tanksโfuel accusations of a deep state-orchestrated handover. Activists warn this could open a “humanitarian corridor” to Rohingya aid in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, slyly paving the way for US naval assets to embed in the Bay of Bengal, encircling China’s Belt and Road lifelines and pressuring India’s flanks.
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Geopolitical hawks point to the port’s crown-jewel status: As Bangladesh’s gateway to the Indian Ocean and a chokepoint for global trade routes, Chittagong’s control could let Washington dominate sea lanes from the Gulf to the South China Sea. Hosting even a lone US guided-missile destroyer? A recipe for turning Dhaka into a flashpoint amid superpower jostling.
Nationwide Fury: Strikes, Marches, and a United Front Against the Puppet Regime
Opposition has coalesced across ideological lines. The BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and leftist factions staged sit-ins and road marches, culminating in a June 28 extravaganza spotlighting sovereignty erosion. Tensions boiled over in June when a National Board of Revenue strike paralysed operations for two days, slapping the garment sector with a $222 million hit.
Even the Bangladesh Army has murmured disquiet over maritime vulnerabilities. The CPB’s June road march from Dhaka to Chittagongโunder the “Anti-Imperialist Patriotic People” bannerโended in a thunderous portside rally, explicitly targeting DP World’s “US-linked” bid and demanding its scrapping alongside shuttering the Myanmar corridor.
Selim didn’t mince words on Yunus’s post-uprising betrayal: “Despite the July mass uprising to eliminate inequality, nothing has been done… We have been freed from the slavery of Pakistan with the blood of our hearts. If someone wants to tie us to the slavery of India or America again, the people will wake up again. No conspiracy to destroy the liberation struggle will be tolerated.”
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He lambasted the regime as a “group of looters,” tying Jamaat-e-Islami to resurgent graft: “Boats, sheaves of rice; Jamaat-e-Islami has been associated with sheaves of rice again.” With Hasina’s “fascist dictatorship” toppled and the two-party duopoly in ruins, Selim urged a radical overhaul: “A vacuum has been created… What is needed is an alternative. The country must be completely changed and taken to a new state.”
Emeritus Professor Sirajul Islam Chowdhury amplified the call for a “united front of revolutionaries” under CPB leadership to dismantle private ownership and erect social equity. General Secretary Abdullah Kafi Ratan scorched Yunus’s failure: “The July mass uprising has been defeated… The government has not taken any measures to protect women and minorities. A group claiming to lead the mass uprising has established a new reign of loot and occupation.”
Escalating Action: From Port Protests to Electoral Siege
CPB President Kazi Sajjad Zahir Chandan seized the moment to unveil a protest blitz: A nationwide rally and procession on November 16 to torpedo the Laldia Terminal handover; a siege of the Election Commission on November 24 demanding fair polls, slashed candidate deposits, and equity; a women’s political convention on November 28; and a national conclave of alternative forces on November 29, spearheaded by the Left Democratic Alliance and Bangladesh JSD, to revive 1971’s liberation ethos and the 2024 uprising’s fire.
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The rally drew firebrands like former CPB president Mohammad Shah Alam, presidium heavyweights, and allies from the Bangladesh Samajwadi Party and JSD. Voices from the marginsโindigenous leader Rebecca Soren, Dalit advocate Krishnalal, and Sufi Pir Shah Sufi Hasan Shahโunderscored the inclusive revolt.
As the December signing looms, Yunus’s deep state patrons face a reckoning. Bangladesh’s July awakening was no mere tremor; it’s a seismic shift against foreign puppeteers. With dockers striking anewโas seen in the November 1 NCT shutdownโthe port’s fate could ignite the next conflagration. For a nation forged in blood against colonial chains, handing the keys to Washington whispers of fresh enslavement. The masses, Selim vows, will not slumber.
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