The left organisations, including Bangladesh Chhatra Union, Bangladesh Jubo Union, and Bangladesh Udichi Shilpigosthi, held a joint protest rally on Friday afternoon outside the National Museum in Dhaka, describing the agreement as a “treaty of servitude”, while calling for its immediate withdrawal.

They also warned of a “conspiracy” to lease out the country’s strategic assets — especially its ports — to foreign entities and urged citizens to stand against the move, Bangladeshi daily Dhaka Tribune reported. Chhatra Union’s central secretary general, Bahauddin Shuvo, said that Bangladesh’s recent move to import oil from Russia amid the global energy crisis raised the question of US approval — but no clear decision or favourable response has followed.

He argued that it is unacceptable for a free and sovereign nation to allow another country such control or influence over its trade and foreign policy. Shuvo called for mobilising public opinion against this “unjust and lopsided” agreement and pressing the government to withdraw it through mass mobilisation — warning that failure to do so could lead to a deeper economic, commercial, and diplomatic crisis in Bangladesh.

Jubo Union President Khan Asaduzzaman Masum alleged that Yunus came to power following a “bloody mass uprising” in 2024, which was celebrated as a supposed “blessing”, but he has served American interests after taking office. Masum claimed it took Yunus approximately 18 months to fully deliver on those interests.

He further alleged that shortly after assuming power, Yunus arranged a massive tax waiver for his New York-based nonprofit microfinance organisation, and before leaving Bangladesh, the latter signed agreements that placed the country under imperialist control. “We reject this treaty of subjugation with utter contempt,” the Dhaka Tribune quoted Masum as saying.

Udichi’s general secretary, Amit Ranjan Dey, said the interim government signed 14 agreements during its 18-month tenure, all of which allegedly ran counter to the interests of the Bangladeshi people. Accusing Yunus of serving foreign interests, he claimed that the trade agreement was Yunus’s parting act of compromising the country’s sovereignty.

“We are being forced to buy poor-quality wheat at inflated prices, and now we’re hearing that even fuel imports require American approval. What is that, if not enslavement?” Dey questioned. He warned that the trade agreement would adversely affect the daily lives of people across Bangladesh.

IANS

‘Extreme Stress Zone’ is reached when over 70 per cent of Nifty 500 stocks trade below their 200‑day moving average and it indicates that fear has overwhelmed fundamentals in the markers, the report from Vallum Capital said. Indian markets are in the ‘Extreme Stress Zone’ or ‘Capitulation Zone’ as over 71.3 per cent of Nifty 500 stocks are trading at this level.

The report said that the recent correction has seen a clear divergence in risk sentiment across market caps with small‑caps underperforming large‑caps by more than 1,000 basis points, with about 61 per cent of those stocks down over 10 per cent and median returns at ‑17 per cent. Mid‑cap segment saw roughly 51 per cent of the stocks falling over 10 per cent, while large‑caps remained the most resilient with only about 32 per cent dipping over 10 per cent.

“One of the most high-signal indicators of the current recovery is the unprecedented velocity of normalization in energy prices. Historically, crude oil shocks are protracted affairs. Analysis of seven major shocks over the last 46 years reveals a median duration of 30 weeks for prices to stabilise,” the report noted.

The global mechanism for absorbing geopolitical friction has shifted from months to weeks, as the supply shock during the US-Iran war lasted a mere nine weeks. India’s price-to-earnings (PE) premium over Emerging Markets (EM) has undergone a significant compression, moving from a 2022 peak of 1.57x to a current level of 0.38x, the report said.

IANS