Nobel laureate and Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus on Friday declared the signing of Bangladesh’s July Charter a “new birth” for the nation, describing it as a turning point from turmoil to unity.
“Through this signing, we have initiated a new Bangladesh,” Yunus said in a nationally televised address. “We discarded all the old ways of thinking and brought new ideas into our national life.”
The ceremony at the South Plaza of the National Parliament brought together leaders from the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, and Islami Andolan Bangladesh. But the National Citizen Party, made up largely of young organizers who led the uprising that toppled the Sheikh Hasina dictatorship, was absent. NCP convener Nahid Islam said his party would not sign the charter without legal assurances, calling the event “a deception in the name of national consensus.”
Yunus said the agreement proves “the impossible has been made possible” and urged parties to carry the same spirit of unity into the coming elections.