Ten Days In, Tarique Rahman Is Already Being Tested

He spent seventeen years in a London flat, watching Bangladesh from a distance. Now Tarique Rahman sits in the Prime Minister's Office in Dhaka, and the country he once observed from exile is watching him right back — with a mixture of hope, skepticism, and barely contained impatience.

Rahman was sworn in on February 17, 2026, five days after his Bangladesh Nationalist Party won a historic two-thirds majority in the country's first democratic election since the 2024 student uprising. The BNP secured 209 of 297 declared seats. Jamaat-e-Islami came second with 68. Voter turnout reached 59.88 percent — described by international observers as one of the most credible elections Bangladesh has held in decades.

What happens in the next 90 days will define not just this government but the entire post-Hasina era.

The 180-Day Blueprint: Ambitious, Front-Loaded, and Under Pressure

Before the ink on his oath had dried, Rahman's government published a 180-day priority action plan — a document that reads like a compressed manifesto for a country that has been holding its breath for years.

Four themes dominate the plan, according to senior BNP officials who spoke to bdnews24.com: law and order, price control, energy security, and anti-corruption. On his first national address, Rahman was unambiguous. "Improving the law and order situation and bringing people peace and security through strict control of corruption is the government's foremost priority," he said.

Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed confirmed the 180-day roadmap, adding that details would be released gradually. The energy component alone is striking in its specificity: the plan includes drilling 150 new gas wells, drafting new onshore and offshore model production sharing contracts, and preparing a full Energy and Power Sector Master Plan for 2026 to 2030.

For Bangladesh's 82 million internet users — many of whom experienced rolling power cuts throughout 2025 — energy reliability is not an abstract policy goal. It is personal.

The Economy: From Recovery to Uncertainty

Rahman inherited a fragile but improving economy. His predecessor, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who led the interim government from August 2024, had overseen a painful but necessary stabilization. Inflation, which peaked above 11 percent in mid-2024, had begun to fall. Foreign reserves, though still thin, had stabilized with IMF support.

Then, within days of taking office, the new BNP administration fired Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur — the architect of that stabilization — in a move that stunned economists internationally. Bloomberg called it a "surprise departure." Asia Times warned that the government had "risked liquidating the very reputational capital that was keeping the economy solvent."

Mansur, who took office in August 2024, had dissolved corrupt bank boards, initiated asset quality reviews, and kept Bangladesh's IMF program on track. His replacement, Md Mostaqur Rahman, is the managing director of Hera Sweaters Ltd — a garment entrepreneur with no central banking background.

The political logic is understandable. New governments reshuffle institutions. But the optics are damaging at a moment when investor confidence is still fragile. Bangladesh is also set to graduate from least-developed country status in November 2026 — a transition that will strip away crucial trade concessions. The window for economic preparation is narrow, and the new central bank chief will need to build credibility quickly.

TIME magazine, in a sharp assessment, noted that "the first signs from Rahman suggest misplaced priorities" — pointing specifically to the BNP manifesto's pledge to join ASEAN, a diplomatic ambition that has little bearing on the immediate economic challenges facing ordinary Bangladeshis.

Constitutional Reform: The Clock Is Already Ticking

Alongside the parliamentary vote, Bangladeshis also voted in a national referendum on the July National Charter — a sweeping constitutional reform package drafted after the 2024 uprising. More than 60 percent voted yes.

The charter proposes transformative changes: a bicameral parliament with a 100-member upper house, term limits for the prime minister, expanded women's representation, and stronger judicial accountability. The implementation must be completed within 180 days of forming a Constitution Reform Council.

But within days of parliament convening, BNP lawmakers refused to take the oath as members of that council — arguing it had not yet been formally approved by parliament. The move alarmed opposition parties and reform advocates who feared the BNP was already hedging on commitments it had made before the election.

Salahuddin Ahmed later clarified that the BNP remained "committed and pledged to implement the July National Charter exactly as it was signed." But the episode exposed a tension that will define Rahman's first year: between the BNP's desire to govern on its own terms, and the institutional reform expectations of the young voters who delivered his mandate.

Khandakar Tahmid Rejwan, a lecturer at Independent University Bangladesh, told Al Jazeera that the referendum "carries the potential to evolve into a major point of contention in the coming months, particularly between the BNP and the Jamaat-led alliance."

Foreign Policy: "Bangladesh First" Meets Regional Reality

On paper, the BNP's foreign policy doctrine is straightforward: Bangladesh First. In practice, it means navigating one of the most complex diplomatic environments in South Asia.

India was watching closely. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first foreign leader to congratulate Rahman after the election results. The two spoke by phone, and New Delhi signalled openness to continued bilateral cooperation, including an invitation for Rahman to visit India.

But the relationship carries deep baggage. Bangladesh's population turned sharply against India during the Yunus period, partly due to Sheikh Hasina's continued presence in New Delhi and partly due to broader anti-India sentiment that intensified after 2024. Rahman must balance domestic political pressures — including calls for Hasina's extradition — against the economic reality that India remains Bangladesh's most critical neighbor.

The Ganges Water Sharing Treaty is due for renewal in December 2026. That deadline alone makes a functional India-Bangladesh relationship a non-negotiable necessity, regardless of political optics.

Meanwhile, analysts from Asia Times note that China is "deeply embedded in the nation's development story," with Chinese capital funding ports, transport links, and special economic zones. The BNP's challenge is not choosing between Washington, Beijing, and New Delhi — it is preventing each from assuming that a choice has already been made.

The Youth Factor: Expectations That Cannot Be Deferred

The generation that brought down Sheikh Hasina in 2024 is now sitting in parliament — at least in small numbers, through the National Citizen Party's six seats. But millions more are outside it, watching, and their patience is not infinite.

BNP's manifesto pledged to create 10 million jobs, introduce Family Cards and Farmer Cards for welfare distribution, restore mid-day meal programs in schools, and clean up a financial sector riddled with non-performing loans. These are not small promises. They are the currency the party used to buy its mandate.

Economist Khan Ahmed Sayeed Murshid, who led a major report on Bangladesh's economic restructuring, counseled the new government toward pragmatism: keep the grand plan in mind but "target bite-sized, high-impact projects" for urgent implementation.

Political analyst Rezaul Karim Rony put it plainly to Al Jazeera: "The challenge now is to ensure good governance, law and order, and public safety, and to establish a rights-based state, which was at the heart of the aspirations of the 2024 mass uprising."

What the First Ten Days Actually Tell Us

Tarique Rahman's first ten days in office have been eventful in ways both encouraging and concerning. The 180-day plan signals governance seriousness. The constitutional reform commitment, however qualified, remains on the table. The election itself — peaceful, credible, widely accepted — was a genuine democratic achievement.

But the Bangladesh Bank firing was a mistake in optics and possibly in substance. The early signals on constitutional reform were unnecessarily alarming. And the sheer weight of expectations — economic, institutional, geopolitical — is extraordinary for any new administration, let alone one led by a man who spent seventeen years in exile.

Bangladesh's 82 million internet users are not waiting for analysts to deliver verdicts. They are watching prices at the market, checking whether the power stays on, and asking whether this government is different from the ones that came before it.

That question will be answered not by manifestos, but by what happens in the next 90 days.

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