London, Oct 21 — The government never impeded the activities of Grameen Bank, the foreign minister has claimed and said it only investigated former managing director Muhammed Yunus which revealed 'a lot of things'.
Speaking at a seminar in London on Thursday, Dipu Moni also said the government did not drag the Nobel Peace laureate to court, instead it was Yunus himself who decided to move the court.
"We didn't take him to court. It was Prof Yunus who entered the court (first)," Dipu Moni insisted.
Instead of impeding the activities of Grameen Bank, the government only conducted an investigation into its affairs and those relating to Yunus, the foreign minister claimed.
"We just did an investigation ... that's all we did … and from the investigation a lot of things came out."
The minister made the comments while trying to dispel misgivings arising out of rumours that the government is trying to take over the bank.
The government relieved Yunus, 70, of his Grameen Bank job on Mar 2 this year when it found that his age limit had already exceeded and his reappointment in 1999 as the managing director had not been done with prior approval from the central bank.
Yunus announced his 'resignation' on May 12 which followed his losing a series of determined court battle against his 'removal' as the micro-lender's managing director for flouting reappointment rules.
Stating that Bangladesh is a land of law-abiding people, Dipu said, "When we think about our society, whoever it is and whichever positions he/she is in, there is something called law.
"And you cannot go on violating laws just because you have friends all over the world. If you violate the laws and for that the institution suffers, people suffer, country suffers, then you will have to face it (law) some day."
Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) of the UK organised the public discussion on Thursday at the Westminster Hall in the Houses of Parliament, titled 'Unlocking the Potential of the Bangladeshi Diaspora'.
Saying the government is proud of Grameen Bank, Dipu said, "It's a Nobel winning institution. It's a statutory body. It's a part of the state. Its not an NGO as it was promoted in different parts of the world."
In Oct 1983, the Grameen Bank was founded as an independent bank by the government legislation with Dr Yunus as its MD.
She said that a statutory body is not allowed to run in the UK or anywhere else this way. "We did not stop it. Rather, we've nurtured this institution. We're committed to its continued successes and welfare of the large number of borrowers of this institution."
"We [the government] cannot say that we'll implement laws when it comes to a common man and will not implement it when it comes to a person who is a very celebrated man all over the world. We cannot do it… not as a responsible government," she added.
Norway's national TV NRK aired a investigative foreign documentary on November 30 titled "Fanget i Mikrogjeld" or "Caught in Micro debt" which raised allegations of unauthorised transfer of funds from Yunus' Grameen Bank to another sister company Grameen Kalyan, which was in no way involved with micro-credit operations.
According to the documentary, Yunus transferred funds destined for Grameen Bank to Grameen Kalyan.
Responding to the allegations, Grameen Bank claimed there was no wrongdoing in the agreement between the bank and Grameen Kalyan, under which it received Tk 3,917 million from Grameen Bank.
The government formed a committee to investigate the matter which triggered a great deal of discussion about the institution in the local and international media as well as in society.
Indicating to the enquiry, the foreign minister on Thursday said, "Maybe, our government would have been better off in many ways if we haven't touched it. We didn't touch it willingly… I must tell you."
She said, "It was the Norwegian media that dropped it in front of the public and then our media depicted whatever is happening. It made the matter so big that as a democratically elected government we had to take it into account."
CJA chair Rita Payne presided over the discussion where former British MP and chairman of ERIS Keith Best and first British Bangladeshi MP Rushanara Ali were also present.
Former UK High Commissioner to Bangladesh Peter Fowler, editor of BBC Bengali Service Sabir Mustafa, Seamark Group chairman Iqbal Ahmed OBE and Managing Partner of ATCP Ifty Islam also spoke at the discussion.
news from:www.bdnews24.com
No comments:
Post a Comment