New Delhi: In a bombshell interview, a former Bangladeshi minister and close ally of Sheikh Hasina has accused USAID and the Clintons of masterminding the 2024 Bangladesh uprising — alleging it was a coordinated Western plot that led to Hasina’s downfall, sending shockwaves across South Asian diplomatic circles.
According to an exclusive published by “Russia Today”, Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, Hasina’s former shipping minister and crisis negotiator, claimed that the powerful Clinton family and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), once the US government’s vast humanitarian powerhouse, were behind the student-led demonstrations that overthrew Hasina’s 15-year rule.
According to the NDTV story, Chowdhury didn’t hold back when calling the mayhem a “carefully planned” regime-change campaign supported by dubious NGO money.
“Certain actions of some NGOs, especially from the US—I mean USAID, or the International Republican Institute—were running campaigns against our government since 2018,” He accused that millions of USAID funds had disappeared through “clandestine” means in order to fuel instability.
The former minister focused on a “nexus” between the Clintons and Muhammad Yunus, the interim leader and Nobel laureate in microfinance who is currently leading Bangladesh’s transition.
“This relationship reflects a deeper attempt by the Clinton Foundation and Yunus to push for regime change under the guise of democracy and development,” Chowdhury claimed, linking it to Hasina’s resistance to US pressure, such as her rejection of requests for a military base on strategically important St. Martin’s Island, a Bay of Bengal treasure that her father, liberation hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had previously defended.
Hasina’s own post-exile attacks, in which she accused Yunus of “selling the nation to the US,” are revived in the interview. On August 5, 2024, Hasina fled Dhaka amid a crowd rampage at her Ganabhaban property. She landed in Delhi, where she continues to be protected by India.
At least 700 people were killed in the July–August fire, which was set off by anger over job quotas and resulted in pogroms against the Hindu minority. These wounds are still visible as Yunus’ government gravitates towards Pakistan, the exact enemy blamed for the 1971 genocide that gave rise to Bangladesh.
As expected, Washington dismissed the story as “laughable” and “simply false”.
Similar rumours from Hasina’s camp were denied as false information back in August 2024 by State Department deputy Vedant Patel and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who insisted the rebellion was a domestic cry against injustice and corruption.
This was backed by US specialists like Wilson Centre expert Michael Kugelman, who cited “no plausible evidence” of meddling.
The charges fuel a narrative of neo-colonial intrigue in the Global South, notwithstanding criticism that they are sour grapes from a fallen ruler.
The possibility of foreign fingerprints remains big, threatening to shatter Bangladesh’s precarious peace as Yunus’s temporary arrangement prepares for early polls.
After being barred from competitions, Hasina’s Awami League considers independent runs and promises a return. The Clinton-Yunus “nexus” is still an accusation rather than an indictment for the time being, but rumours have the power to start flames in Dhaka.
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Caption: Dhaka: People shout slogans as they take part in a protest against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her government, demanding justice for the victims killed in the (then) countrywide deadly clashes, in Dhaka on Monday, August 05, 2024. (Photo: IANS/@trahmanbnp)
–IANS
