Yunus gives first interview since his ousting from Grameen Bank

Muhammad Yunus has given his first public interview since being ousted as the chief of his microcredit bank. Yunus only said that the Bangladesh prime minister who led the charge to remove him was "badly advised"

Yunus was removed from his Grameen Bank because of a seldom enforced Bangladeshi law that says leaders of the country's licensed financial institutions have to be below the age of 70. Critics say that the Bangladesh ruling party made Yunus the target of smear campaign. At one time, Yunus briefly flirted with the idea of entering politics with a competing party.

From this AHN story that we found at Gant Daily, writer Saleem Samad summarizes the interview for us.

In an interview with the BBC’s Lesley Curwen broadcast on Wednesday, Yunus said he was forced to stand down last month. He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had only done so because she had been “badly advised.”

Yunus spoke to news media for the first time since he was forced out of Grameen Bank following a brief legal battle.

Microcredit guru Yunus was alleged to have siphoned money from Grameen Bank. Hasina on Dec. 5 last year told journalists that he was “sucking blood from the poor.”

Hasina, criticizing Yunus, said “there is no difference between a person who enjoys taking interest on money and one who takes bribe.”

The pioneer of microfinance contested the prime minister’s observation that the bank of the poor failed to play its role to eradicate poverty.