Stop Prosecuting Professor Yunus

According to a BBC report, more than 170 global figures have called on Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to stop the persecution of Nobel Laureat Muhammed Yunus. The signatories of a letter sent by them includes the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the singer Bono and the Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, among others. In the letter, they have requested that the "continuous judicial harassment" of Prof Yunus be stopped, "We sincerely wish that he be able to continue his path-breaking work free of persecution or harassment," it added.

Professor Muhammed Yunus, the Nobel Laureat from Bangladesh, is one of them. This scribe had an opportunity to meet Professor Yunus, for the first time, in the late 1990s in Bangladesh during the microcredit summit which was organised by the Grameen Bank. It was an experience that can never be forgotten. Every meeting with him left an impression of his simplicity and humble personality with deep commitment to the cause he stood for. I shared with him my reservations on how microcredit may not be a panacea for women’s empowerment as claimed by many to which he shared his feelings with me. With the establishment of the Grameen Bank, he has proved that the poorest and marginalised women are the most disciplined re-payers of the loans given to them and succeeded in improving not only their own livelihoods but in improving the wellbeing of their households and communities. 

Financial services

Once he shared that there was a time he was going to give up because he saw that when women were given external loans in the Muslim community where he worked, there was a spike of domestic violence where initially money was never given to women, that too loans! He struggled a lot but never gave up until he finally set up an effective and efficient system that provided various financial services to the poor women including credit, saving, insurance, remittance and all services they required. In 2006 he and the Grameen Bank was awarded the Nobel Peace Award. 

In 2007, being dissatisfied with the deteriorating political system in Bangladesh, Professor Yunus attempted to create a political party with the apparent support of the then military-backed caretaker government in Bangladesh. Ms Sheikh Hasina was in prison then. The attempt of Yunus to start a party angered her and she is believed to start viewing Yunus as her enemy and a possible force against her since then. However, Professor Yunus realised and is quoted as saying that politics is not his cup of tea, so he quit the idea of getting into party politics. 

The appeal mentioned above was a response to a series of lawsuits being filed against Yunus. In the last week of August 2023, eight ex-employees of Grameen Telecom, another company Prof Yunus founded, filed a case accusing him of depriving them of their job benefits. Separately, on August 22, he went on trial for supposedly violating labour laws. These accusations have been made just four months before Bangladesh's next general election and amid growing calls to ensure free and fair polls. There have been other cases in the past. In 2011, the central bank of Bangladesh forced him out of Grameen Bank on grounds that he served beyond the mandatory retirement are of 60.  The authorities in 2013 accused Prof Yunus of evading taxes on oversees income, which supposedly included his Nobel Prize and the royalties from a book. Prof Yunus’ lawyer Abdullah Al-Mamun says these cases are baseless and influenced by the government. 

While Prof Yunus has support within Bangladesh and globally, the charges against him do have legal basis. There is a feeling among neutral Bangladeshi think tank that although political bias may be there it is a fact that several other companies in Bangladesh, often do not follow the labour law, Grameen Telecom could be one of them. Therefore, they feel that there are still speculations on whether labour laws have really been violated or whether some workers have been instigated to go against Yunus.

PM Hasina is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman whom Bangladeshis revere to be the person who led their country to independence. He was assassinated in 1975. Since then, Hasina has been one of the dominating rulers of the country. Many Bangladeshis and the global community feel that the recent attacks on the 83-year-old Yunus is an undemocratic gesture by the current government headed by her. Therefore, the letter, signed by 170 global leaders, has been sent to her but PM Hasina has retorted that Yunus is begging for international support. Hasina has often openly criticised that Prof Yunus is a bloodsucker of the poor and has accused Grameen Bank which he founded in 1983 of charging exorbitant interest rates. 

Political harassment 

The bank actually started with giving very small micro loans to poor women to help them and their families start small businesses and subsequently repay their loans. This has been replicated all over the world and has become a system which provides financial services to the poorest of the poor who were not addressed by the mainstream financial system. The five Grameen Bikash Banks in Nepal and different the Microfinance organisations here are also set up with the principles of the Grameen Bank. 

Prof Yunus may be completely innocent of the charges against him or could also be indirect part of the decision taken by the management of the companies he set up. It is unfortunate that leaders of different sectors get accused or get involved in activities that go against their principles. Having known Prof Yunus personally it is hard for me to believe he is guilty of what he is accused of. A thorough investigation and justice is required in this case to the victim and survivor whoever it may be Prof Yunus or the workers. Also the trend of politicians harassing people working for the poor but putting a blanket over bigger crimes and corruption in their countries need to be stopped. 

(Sharma is a journalist and women rights advocate namrata1964@yahoo.com Twitter handle: @NamrataSharmaP)