Nobel laureate and pioneering micro-financier Muhammad Yunus on Monday claimed his ousting from Grameen Bank was part of a Bangladeshi government power grab.
The 70-year-old, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his pioneering concept of small cash loans, was last week removed from the bank he founded and directed, sparking protests in Bangladesh and global diplomatic scorn.
"They want to put their own person at the chair of the bank, a political person," Yunus told an audience in Washington via video conference.
Until his sacking, Yunus claimed relations between the bank and the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had been limited: "We had no real connections," despite the authorities owning a 25 percent stake in the firm.
"Suddenly that has changed. The government got interested in our activities, trying to get involved in the bank."
"The government today wants to take control of the board of the bank so that it becomes fully at their disposal."
Grameen and Yunus shot to fame in the 1980s when they led the development of micro-credit, a system in which small amounts of money are lent to poor entrepreneurs outside the mainstream banking system.
Since then the Grameen brand has sprawled into other sectors from solar panels and popular mobile phones to ethically-produced yogurt.
Observers say money, prestige and an envious prime minister lie at the heart of the scandal.
"His removal is a culmination of a year-long campaign against him by this government," Asif Nazrul, a professor of law at Dhaka University recently told AFP.
"He is strongly disliked by Sheikh Hasina and some others in government because of his huge international acceptability and his nationwide Grameen network. He is perceived as a political threat to this government."
Yunus denied any political aspirations and said he still hoped to keep the character and the independence of the bank.
"I'm not a politician, I'm not into politics, I don't think people would take me seriously as a politician."
He is appealing his sacking at the Bangladeshi High Court.
Yunus apologized for not appearing at the Washington micro-credit conference in person as planned: "Things are going in the wrong direction here in Bangladesh, so I had to stay here."
"This is a totally absurd situation."
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