Several business leaders in Bangladesh expressed concern at the interim government’s failure to maintain law and order at a business conference on Saturday, their comments capturing the fraternity’s growing exasperation with the Muhammad Yunus regime.

The Bangladesh economy — the fastest-growing in South Asia over the last decade — has been on a downslide amid the political uncertainty and industrial unrest that has besieged the country following Sheikh Hasina’s ouster on August 5.

“The government has failed to handle the law-and-order situation. I am sorry to say that the interim government has been a total failure,” Selim R.F. Hossain, managing director of Brac Bank, a leading private sector bank in the country, was quoted by the Bangladeshi media as saying.

“The situation has to be fixed promptly.... Otherwise, it would be very, very difficult to pick up the economy.”

The discourse at the business conference — in the presence of Yunus’s finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed and commerce adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin — underlined the business community’s impatience at the situation.

The World Bank and the IMF have brought down their growth forecast for Bangladesh by 1.7 and 2.1 percentage points, respectively.

Ordinary Bangladeshis too are feeling the heat with the political uncertainty having hobbled industrial production, power supply and the imports of essentials, causing a sharp rise in prices.

The government’s failure to maintain law and order has led to regular labour unrest, forcing factory owners to stop production, thus causing large-scale job losses.

But rather than take measures to cool off the prices, restore law and order and create confidence among the business community, the Yunus regime appears focused on emotive issues.

Amid the signs of a strain in India-Bangladesh relations — following the arrest of Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das and reports of atrocities on minorities — foreign affairs adviser Md Touhid Hossain on Saturday said India must address Bangladesh’s longstanding concerns if ties have to improve.

“Bangladesh’s previous (ousted) government addressed the concerns of India, but India did not address Bangladesh’s concerns,” he said, flagging emotive issues such as the pending deal on sharing the Teesta’s waters and alleged killings on the border.

The retired diplomat, speaking at a roundtable titled “Bangladesh-India Relations: Expectations, Barriers and Future”, went on to castigate the Indian media for its reportage on the situation in Bangladesh and prodded domestic media outlets to counter the “Indian narrative”.

Asif Mahmud, Yunus’s sports and youth affairs adviser, too hit out at India at aprogramme in Cumilla and asked the country’s political parties to steer clear of “India’s mandate”.

A Bangladeshi economist, who asked not to be named, said that instead of attacking India, the interim government should have focused on improving ties with the neighbour to ensure the supply of essentials, which could have cooled the prices.

“India is our best option for affordable and quality healthcare, but the strain in the relationship has resulted in visa restrictions.... Ordinary people, who cannot afford to goto Thailand or Singapore, are the biggest suffers,” the academic said.

“Our industrial units are suffering because of power shortage after the Adani group cut supply by about 60 per cent to Bangladesh because of outstanding bills.”

The economist said a healthy relationship with India would have helped the interim government tackle the various issues affecting ordinary Bangladeshis’ lives.

“But the focus seems to be only on fuelling anti-India feelings.... This may help the regime and its leaders politically, but it will affect the lives of millions of ordinary Bangladeshis,” he added.

The effects of this anti-India fusillade were felt again on Saturday when a Shyamoli Paribahan bus, travelling from Tripura to Calcutta, came under attack in Brahmanbaria’s Bishwa Road area in Bangladesh.

“A goods-laden truck rammed into the bus in what looked like premeditation…. Then local people laid siege to the bus and shouted anti-India slogans. The Indian passengers were threatened,” said a source in the Tripura government, which has taken the matter up with Delhi.

In Chittagong, the Hefazat-e-Islam has called for a march to the Indian assistant high commission on Monday to protest New Delhi’s alleged interference in Bangladesh’s internal affairs and Iskcon’s “terror activities”.

Supporters of Das, who was formerly with Iskcon, are being blamed for the death of a young lawyer, Saiful Islam Alif, during their protest against the monk’s arreston Tuesday.

A source in Chittagong said that multiple cases had been filed in connection with Alif’s death with about 350 people — some 90 per cent of them Hindus — namedin them.

Prominent business leader Abdul Muktadir Rahman, chairman of Incepta Pharmaceuticals, said law and order had declined sharply.

“Nothing can be more important than this now.... Let us not close our eyes. We have to keep our eyes open and face reality,” he was quoted in the Bangladeshi media as saying at the conference.

RSS plea

The RSS on Saturday appealed to the interim government in Bangladesh to ensure that the atrocities on Hindus stop and Das is released from jail immediately.