GUWAHATI: Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, 84, whom ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had called “bloodsucker”, was appointed head of Bangladesh's interim government late on Tuesday, August 6, night.
He was appointed to the post by President Mohammed Shahabuddin on Tuesday night after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to resign and flee the country amidst large-scale violence.
According to reports, Yunus is in France for a minor medical procedure – but will return to Bangladesh soon to take up the post of interim leader.
Who Is Muhammad Yunus?
Muhammad Yunus was born in 1940 in Chittagong, a port city in southeastern Bangladesh and is known as the "banker to the poorest of the poor." He studied at Dhaka University, before receiving the prestigious Fulbright scholarship to attend Vanderbilt University in the United States, where he received a Ph.D. in economics.
In 1972, a year after Bangladesh won independence from Pakistan, he returned to teach at Chittagong University.
But disaster soon struck. A severe famine swept the country in 1974, wiping out an estimated 1.5 million people.
He began providing small loans out of pocket to the poorest residents in his community – eventually founding the Grameen Bank in 1983, which would become a world leader in alleviating poverty through microlending to help impoverished people, particularly women.
The bank quickly grew, with different branches and similar models now operating worldwide.
Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, after lending a total of about $6 billion in housing, student and micro-enterprise loans, and specifically in support of Bangladeshi women.
Trouble with Hasina
The Hasina government in 2008 launched a series of investigations into him. Earlier, in 2007, he had announced plans to form a political party although he did not follow through. The country was then being run by a military-backed government, although he did not follow through on the plan.
Hasina accused the Nobel laureate of forcible recovery of loans from poor rural women as the head of Grameen Bank. He, however, Yunus denied the allegations.
After a review of the bank’s activities in 2011, the government removed Yunus as managing director for allegedly violating government retirement regulations.
He was put on trial in 2013 on charges of receiving money without government permission, including his Nobel Prize and royalties from a book.
He later faced more charges involving other companies he created, including Grameen Telecom, which is part of the country’s largest mobile phone company, GrameenPhone, a subsidiary of Norwegian telecom giant Telenor.
In 2023, some former Grameen Telecom workers filed a case against Yunus accusing him of siphoning off their job benefits. He denied the accusations.
Earlier this year, a special judge’s court in Bangladesh indicted Yunus and 13 others in an over $2 million embezzlement case. Yunus pleaded not guilty and is out on bail for now.
