Bangladesh Interim govt to begin wider dialogue on reforms in mid-January :Professor Yunus

The Interim Government of Bangladesh will start a subject-wise wider dialogue with the political parties and other sections of society in mid-January to reach a broader consensus on the state’s reforms agenda, Professor Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser to the interim government, told New Age in an exclusive interview on December 29.
Yunus, also a Nobel Peace Laureate who took the responsibility of heading an interim government three days after the fall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the face of a violent student-mass uprising on August 5, also said that the next general elections would be held in the stipulated time that he declared on December 16.
In an official speech delivered to the nation that day, he said that the elections would be held sometime between late this year and the first half of the next year, depending on reaching a national consensus among political parties on implementing a set of democratic reforms to the state and other sectors of public importance.
Yunus told New Age that ‘there is no lack of understanding’ between the apparently opposing political parties, nor between the political parties and his government, in terms of implementing some democratic reforms and holding the general elections within the stipulated time. Meanwhile, Yunus admitted that he was aware of the social criticism about his government’s poor performance, but he found ‘nothing to be embarrassed about’ the criticism. He argued that none of his cabinet members, including himself, had any experience of running the affairs of the state. “We do things according to our abilities. If it works, that is okay; if it doesn’t, it would be our misfortune’.
In the long interview, Yunus has also spoken about a range of issues that included the story of how and why he thought of launching a political party and eventually abandoned the idea in 2007, the reason he took the responsibility of the interim government, the process of nominating his cabinet members, the performance of his cabinet members, the government’s relations with the political parties, the struggle for controlling commodity price hikes, foreign relations with India and America, his future plan, et cetera.