Carefully calibrating a network of massive corruption and other scandals to fulfill personal aspirations. Fuelling fake credits to the account in order to gain noble recognition. Espousing shadow deals with the ultimate goal of orchestrating the hegemonic ambitions. The thirst for power, the greed to reach the helm of Dhaka and the quest for authority has led to infringement of internal security of Bangladesh and a compromise in the growth of the country. These are the statements revealed by the Former Intelligence Officer of Bangladesh Aminul Hoque Polash.
The officer who is in exile since the topple of the Sheikh Hasina regime in August 2024, in an exclusive interview to a private media platform of India, unmasked the hidden agenda and ulterior motives of the Chief Advisor of the interim government of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus. He deconstructed the intricate power structures, corruptive network and the hegemonic cocoon of Bangladesh, which has been growing desperately at a shocking scale since the takeover of the country’s administration by the interim government under Muhummad Yunus.
An attempt to neutralize the Officer who unearthed the misdeeds of Yunus?
Aminul Hoque Polash, who has played a pivotal role in the security paradigm of Bangladesh for decades, exposed the unsaid and unheard saga of Muhammad Yunus. He asserted that he always worked with the utmost principle of “follow evidence, protect the state and protect the people”. With this goal, he began investigations concerning the financial misdeeds of Muhammad Yunus. People in the security apparatus, in fact, began to warn Aminul Polash that he has apparently stumbled upon an area where no one is supposed to enter and he would indeed encounter the consequences of this political adventure.
As said, one’s the Yunus administration took over Dhaka, they began to crackdown on Aminul Polash. As per the intelligence sources there were conspiracies to neutralize the officer. Words like “make him disappear” were circulated. Thus, “exile wasn’t a choice. It was the only way to protect my family and to stay alive long enough to tell the truth they wanted buried”, explains Aminul Hoque Polash, in an interview to a private media platform.
‘Microcredit’ crafted by Yunus is actually a hijacked idea!
Aminul Hoque Polash had published the archival documents challenging the microcredit scheme coined by Muhammad Yunus. Speaking about this, the former intelligence officer exclaimed that Yunus didn’t invent the microcredit scheme. It is not his original idea. It was the idea originally articulated by the young researchers who were funded by the Ford Foundation for a University project. Yunus hijacked the idea from them and just rebranded it to his credit. It was well ensured that the world would accept the choreographed narrative that “Yunus invented microcredit”.
Aminul Hoque Polash quotes this act of Yunus as “intellectual hijacking”, which is taking credit for what someone else has built.
Yunus: The man who etched a massive corruptive network
Exposing the corruptive practices of Muhammad Yunus Aminul Hoque Polash illustrates that “the world sees a saint, but Bangladesh sees a structure”. Aminul Polash explains that the institutions were controlled, public money was channelized into private deeds, red tapism entrenched and there was zero accountability in the administrative apparatus.
Aminul Hoque Polash described how corruption was deeply penetrated into the administration and political setup under the banner of social and economic welfare. For example, the Grameen Bank which was government funded created a separate fund called the Social Advancement Fund. The money fueled into this Fund was silently pooled to a private entity called the Grameen Kalyan. Keeping this as the pillar, an intricate web of 50 enterprises emerged which includes Grameen Telecom, Grameen Fund etc. People usually think that all these are different organisations devoid of each other. But, in reality they are the branches of the same hegemonic head. All the money fueled in the name of welfare of the people, thus, ultimately gets accumulated in the same roots, nurturing the sole ambition.
“By 2022, Grameen Telecom alone collected more than 10,890 Tk(Bangladesh Rupees) crores as dividends. But the legal owners of the share were denied money. All other entities showed loss. But the money was somehow consistently fuelled into the same ecosystem controlled by Yunus. Thus, in the name of poverty alleviation, social welfare, championing equality and economic prosperity, the seeds of hegemonic ambitions were sowed and yielded.
Another example that exposes the corruptive network was Grameen Kalyan initiative 53.25Tk crore to the Grameen Telecom for guaranteed dividends. Accordingly, the total dividend received was more than 2,222Tk crore over the years. Despite that not even a single penny was transferred to the legal owners, the borrowers from the rural parts of the country.
Another testament that exposes the illicit motives of Yunus as explained by Aminul Hoque Polash is, Muhammad Yunus transferred 100Tk crore from his personal wealth to the trusts that he controlled. This money was tagged as “loans”, because loans were never taxed. Thus, a clear attempt by Yunus to evade paying taxes. “The National Board of Revenue pursued him for Tk 15.4 crore. He went to court, appealed repeatedly and fought it for years. Every single court rejected his claim. The Supreme Court upheld the tax demand. He had to pay”, Aminul Hoque Polash further added.
Speaking about the remittances received by Muhammad Yunus and how they were used to fuel political ambitions, Aminul Hoque Polash reiterated that “around Tk 48 crore entered his personal account during that period, just as he was preparing to launch a political party. A large portion of that money wasn’t properly declared to the tax authorities. Some of it moved into accounts linked to a travel business”.
“When you align those remittances with the political timeline, it’s impossible not to see the pattern. He was positioning himself for power back then and he did the same again in 2024, but with far more sophistication”, Aminul Hoque Polash added in the interview.
With the takeover of the interim administration under Muhammad Yunus, all the corruption cases sued against Yunsu and his associates disappeared at a shocking and lightening speed. The discrimination against labourers, a case filed against them also vanished. Tax burdens disappeared suddenly. Grameen Bank received a mega five year tax exemption. This reflects how state machineries are controlled by the Yunsu administration as per their whims and fancies.
The West doesn’t understand the intricate myth tailored by Yunus
Speaking about how the Western countries deem Bangladesh, Aminul Hoque Polash asserted that the West fell in love with the story constructed which is, a gentle professor, Nobel Prize winner and a man who took the burden of empowering people and assuring economic development from the grassroots. “This fits perfectly into the global development narrative”, but the reality is different.
“But myths don’t erase court verdicts. Myths don’t pay back unpaid taxes. Myths don’t explain disappearing convictions and strategic placements of loyalists. The evidence exists. The world has just chosen not to look closely”, Aminul Hoque Polash further reiterated.
Thus, Aminul Hoque Polash ultimately urged the people of Bangladesh to judge Muhammad Yunus in an unbiased way, by considering and analysing what he is doing today with the power in hand and “not by the medal that he won two decades ago”. “Look at the cases that disappeared. Look at the institutions he captured. Look at how quickly a lifetime of liabilities evaporated once he took office”, Aminul Hoque Polash concluded.
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