Staff Correspondent

Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus's press wing has clarified that his recent remarks on "pressing the reset button" in an interview with Voice of America is being misinterpreted by some people.

"He (Prof Yunus) did not mean wiping out Bangladesh's proud history," chief adviser's press wing said in a statement on Thursday.

When the Chief Adviser Prof Yunus spoke about pressing the reset button, he meant making a new start from corrupt politics, which destroyed all Bangladesh's key institutions, pushed the economy to the brink of collapse and robbed the rights to vote and civil liberties of tens of millions of people, said the press wing.

"When you press the reset button, you reset the software to start all over again. It doesn't change the hardware. The 1971 Liberation War created the hardware of Bangladesh," said the statement.

When he arrived in Dhaka on August 8 to take over as the chief adviser of the interim government, Prof Yunus told reporters at the Hazrat Shahjalal Airport that July-August student-led mass uprising was their "Second Liberation" -- the first liberation being the country's glorious war of independence in 1971.

Prof Yunus was an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University when the independence of Bangladesh was proclaimed.

"He formed the Bangladesh Citizens Committee immediately after the independence of Bangladesh was announced and launched a US-wide campaign to persuade the US government to recognize Bangladesh," the statement reads.

Prof Yunus published the Bangladesh Newsletter to inform the world about the genocide in Bangladesh perpetrated by the Pakistani army, according to the press wing statement.