A day after Sheikh Hasina resigned as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, controversial Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday (6th July) announced that he would be the chief advisor to the interim government.
“When I was contacted on behalf of the students, I didn’t agree at first. I told them I have a lot of work to finish. But the students repeatedly requested me,” a source of The Daily Star quoted him as saying.
Yunus, who had previously expressed his happiness over the anarchy that led to the ouster of Sheikh Hasina, added, “If the students can sacrifice so much, if the people of the country can sacrifice so much, then I also have some responsibility.”
President has dissolved the parliament. Student leaders proposed @Yunus_Centre as the head of the interim government. Political parties have demanded the formation of the interim government by today. pic.twitter.com/0t4w7DXBSn
— Masum Billah (@BillahTalks) August 6, 2024
Journalist Sidhat Sibal informed on Monday that Yunus is all set to return to Bangladesh from France. The controversial Nobel laureate had hailed 5th August 2024 as ‘Second Liberation Day.’
In January this year, a labour court in Dhaka found him guilty of violating the labour laws of Bangladesh. He was convicted, sentenced to 6 months of simple imprisonment and fined Tk 30000 (~$260).
Yunus and three other directors at ‘Grameen Telecom’ violated labour laws by failing to create a welfare fund for the workers in the company.
A court in Bangladesh sentenced Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to six months’ imprisonment for labor-law violations in a case his supporters say is politically motivated https://t.co/pJweG45djm pic.twitter.com/BwY3yX9c56
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 1, 2024
The labour court Judge, Sheikh Merina Sultana, noted that 67 Grameen Telecom employees were supposed to be made permanent in the company which did not happen.
As per the company’s stated policy, it is supposed to share 5% of the dividends with the staff, which failed to materialise. Muhammad Yunus is currently facing 100 other charges for graft and labour law violations in Bangladesh.
The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner founded Grameen Bank in 1983 to lend small loans to the poor. He was earlier fired as Managing Director of his bank for violating retirement regulations of the Bangladeshi government.
Yunus was also on trial for receiving money in 2013 for receiving money without government permission. He was infamously called a ‘bloodsucker’ by Sheikh Hasina for giving out loans to the poor at extremely high interest rates.
Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus to head interim government in Bangladesh. Who is Yunus? 👇 pic.twitter.com/y4BiAjfC0m
— The Poll Lady (@ThePollLady) August 6, 2024
However, nothing compares to the fact that he is an asset to the Western World, particularly the United States. In 2009, Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the then US President-turned-war criminal Barrack Obama.
A year later, he was felicitated with the Congressional Gold Medal. He was also the recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship from the US State Department.
When he was convicted in January this year, the United States came to his rescue and highlighted the ‘global criticism’ surrounding his sentencing by a labour court in Dhaka.
One of the main masterminds behind the Bangladesh regime change operation, Muhammad Yunus, is the winner of the famous Ramon Magsaysay Award, which is funded by the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation.
— Vijay Patel🇮🇳 (@vijaygajera) August 6, 2024
He becomes an advisor to the new Bangladeshi government. pic.twitter.com/uNFNsGhblv
Muhammad Yunus is the recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, which was established by two CIA-linked American organisations in memory of a CIA groomed Philippines president.
It may be noted that the award was constituted by New York-based Rockefeller Brothers Fund. In 2000, Ramon Magsaysay Emergent Leadership Award was established by Ford Foundation, another American organisation.
Both these organisations are known for working for American interests in foreign countries, and have a history of closely working with the CIA. In fact, the Ford Foundation is alleged to be a philanthropic facade of the Central Intelligence Agency.
It is interesting to note that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi interviewed the controversial Muhammad Yunus in July 2020 during the Coronavirus pandemic.
He had raked up the issue of ‘migrant workers’ in a bid to internationalize the issue.
“We have people working for us, cooking food for us, security persons, darbaan for us, they are taking care of our children. We knew them. But suddenly we see millions of them on the highway trying to go home. Suddenly, all the city migrant workers are coming out of the city in a big crowd and going out. For a simple reason, they have nothing here, no life here, no money here to survive. So, ultimate place they can go back to is their home. So, desperately they are going home. And then on foot, thousand-mile journeys. That is the saddest part that Coronavirus has revealed,” Yunus had said during the interview.
