Muhammad Yunus To Be The Chief Advisor Of The Interim Govt In Bangladesh

• By Thetripurapost Desk, Dhaka
• Aug 06, 2024
• 432

Bangladesh is in political crisis after the resignation and fleeing of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

The country's parliament has been dissolved. Preparations are underway to form an interim government on the initiative of the army. And Nobel Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus is going to be given the responsibility of becoming the chief advisor in the formation of this interim government. 

The organizer of the movement against the Sheikh Hasina government had made this offer to Muhammad Yunus. Bangladeshi newspaper 'The Daily Star' has confirmed that Muhammad Yunus has accepted the demand to become the chief advisor in the interim government.
Muhammad Yunus is considered a vocal critic of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. 

He has welcomed Hasina's resignation and has described this change taking place in the country as the country's "second independence". 

Yunus is currently in Paris. He was invited there as a special guest in the Olympics. But due to his treatment, he is still there. If media reports are to be believed, Yunus can return to Bangladesh "very soon" considering the current situation.

A source quoted Muhammad Yunus as saying to 'The Daily Star' that when he was approached by the agitating students, he refused to become the chief advisor. Yunus said that he still had a lot of work to do. 

Muhammad Yunus gets the credit for starting the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. This bank gives small loans to the poor. There is no compulsion to keep anything as collateral in return. This is the reason why Yunus became very popular in Bangladesh. He is even called the "messiah of the poor".

84-year-old Yunus was born in Chittagong on 28 June 1940. It was undivided India then. He is the eldest of 9 children of his parents. His father Dula Miyan was a jeweler by profession. His mother Sofia Khatun had a great influence on Yunus in his childhood. But when he was 9 years old, his mother became mentally ill. She would become violent at any time. At night, everyone would go to sleep with the fear that the mother might attack his father.

Yunus was a brilliant student since childhood. He received his early education from the famous Collegiate School of Chittagong. Later, he completed his BA and MA from Dhaka University. He taught economics at Chittagong University from 1961 to 1965. After this, he received a Fulbright Scholarship. He completed his PhD in economics from Vanderbilt University in America. After his studies, he also taught as an assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University in America.

In 1971, Bangladesh became a new country, separating from Pakistan. Yunus returned in 1972. He became the head of the Economics Department at Chittagong University. Then in 1974, Bangladesh faced a severe famine. Yunus asked his students to help the farmers. But this was not very effective. Yunus realized that nothing would be achieved with just training because most of the farmers did not have any property.

Yunus started microfinance. Initially, farmers were given aid of 20 to 25 dollars. This model became so popular that in 1983, the Bangladesh government nationalized it. And thus Grameen Bank was established. Reports show that it helped millions of people come out of poverty. According to a report by Daily Sun, since its inception, loans worth Rs 2 lakh 85 thousand crore have been given to about 1 crore people in Bangladesh. At the same time, its recovery rate has been 97.22 percent. According to the report, till now this model has been adopted by about 100 countries.

Due to Yunus's work, in 1987 he was awarded Bangladesh's highest award 'The Independence Day Award'. After this, he was awarded many awards continuously. In 2006, Yunus and his Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Currently, there are more than 100 cases going on against Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. These cases have been registered on various charges ranging from bribery. However, he has not been jailed in any of these cases till now.

On one hand, the world knows him as the popular 'banker of the poor' and a leading economist. On the other hand, Sheikh Hasina has been calling him a "bloodsucker of the poor" and also keeps accusing him of tax evasion. Yunus's supporters allege that all this is being done due to political resistance.

On January 01 this year, the court sentenced Muhammad Yunus to 6 months in jail. On charges of violating labor law. The court found him and three colleagues of his company Grameen Telecom guilty of embezzling the welfare fund of the workers. However, later he got bail. This too was termed as politically motivated by his supporters. Professor Yunus's lawyer Abdullah Al-Mamun had then told the BBC that these cases against him were baseless and were registered under pressure from the government.

After receiving the Nobel Prize, he tried to capitalise on his popularity in politics. In 2007, Yunus formed a party and tried to compete with Sheikh Hasina's 'Awami League'. Since then, he has been at loggerheads with Sheikh Hasina. It is said that this is the reason why Yunus is made to visit the court.

After returning to power in 2009, the Hasina government continued to file cases against him. In 2010, Yunus was accused of misusing Norway's funds. Norway rejected the allegations. But the Bangladesh government started an investigation. In 2011, he was removed from the post of Managing Director of Grameen Bank, saying that he was being retired at the age of 60. But he had already turned 60 in 2000. He challenged the decision in court. But the court upheld his expulsion.

In August 2023, 170 famous personalities from around the world wrote a letter criticizing the Sheikh Hasina government. This letter was written after continuous cases were filed against Professor Yunus. In this, the Hasina government was asked to stop the oppression on Mohammad Yunus.

Hasina had blamed the opposition for the recent crisis that arose after the protests against reservation. On this, Professor Yunus had told the Indian Express that the government has become a factory of lies, which is constantly telling lies after lies and it has now started believing its own lies. In this interview on August 4, he had said that democracy has ended here, there is no dialogue between the people and the government. Yunus had alleged that this has become a country with one country, one party, one leader, one narrative.