The interim government of Bangladesh led by Nobel laureate Prof. Md Yunus has completed its first full week in office, and it's fair to say it has given us a much better sense of the mission in front of it. At the same time, the administration-wide overhaul that was set in motion by the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina-led government, that enjoyed the upper hand in Bangladesh for over 15 years, permeated proceedings, even as the Yunus team announced a slew of top notch appointments to some key posts.

Bringing in names like Syed Refaat Ahmed (now Chief Justice) and Dr Ahsan Mansur (governor of Bangladesh Bank sends a strong signal that this administration is keen to be working with the best talents, in its project of national renewal.

National renewal, or to use the administration's preferred term, 'state reform', is obviously indicative of a far more ambitious vision, than one merely seeking to arrange a free and fair election and returning it to the democratic process. I dare say any other administration in a similar position would have found it extremely difficult to convince the people that it should be given such an opportunity. But the moment our brave and intelligent student leaders of the quota movement managed to convince Dr Yunus, you could sense something tangibly shifting. It is not in his nature to remain cooped up in central headquarters, and so even at 84, he has been getting around a fair bit ever since returning to the country.

In all these places, including Rangpur where he visited the family of the first martyr of the 2024 Quota Reform Movement, Abu Sayeed - what has stood out is the people's acceptance of Dr Yunus. How they gravitate to him. How he puts them at ease, and then carries on a conversation. Clearly, the relentless attacks he was subjected to by the deposed prime minister left no impact on the people's impression of him. That is particularly satisfying even to outsiders. There is a sense of natural justice having prevailed, in how it has all panned out.

Now, if one were to try and gauge the mood of the nation, you would have to say except for maybe one or two voices - Sajeeb Wazed Joy most prominent among them - no one is clamouring for elections within 90 days. Even BNP, which stands to gain the most from an early election in the present circumstances, has dialled it down, and in a meeting with the chief adviser this week, Mirza Fakhrul did explicitly communicate, for everyone's benefit, that the "BNP would back the interim government as long as it remains committed to democracy". It sounds like a simple enough promise to keep, as long as you're on the same page as to what democracy, or a commitment to it looks like.