'Md Yunus turned public benevolence into private dominion'

The Yunus Files: A Bangladeshi whistleblower speaks on power, money and silence.

- MANORANJANA GUPTA

For decades, the global development fraternity has genuflected at the altar of Professor Muhammad Yunus—the soft-spoken “messiah of microcredit,” lionised from Oslo to Washington as the man who single-handedly reinvented the architecture of poverty alleviation.

But far away from the applause of Western capitals, within Bangladesh's own borders, an altogether different chronicle has festered beneath the surface—a chronicle of vanishing funds, phantom institutions, creative accountancy, and a labyrinthine empire that appears less like a humanitarian miracle and more like a corporate matryoshka doll of influence, impunity, and immaculate self-promotion.

Into this disquieting narrative steps a man who once served at the very heart of Bangladesh's intelligence and diplomatic apparatus—Aminul Hoque Polash, now speaking from exile on British soil, compelled by conscience and cornered by fear. His testimony, drawn from confidential archives, declassified files, internal financial records, and the institutional memory of a state apparatus he once helped safeguard, offers not merely a counter-narrative but an explosive repudiation of the carefully curated mythos surrounding the Nobel Laureate.

In this unflinching exposé, Polash alleges that behind Yunus’ serene exterior lies a decades-long architecture of appropriation: of ideas, of institutions, of public money, and ultimately of the very narrative of Bangladesh's development.

What he reveals is not merely a fall from grace; it is a systemic unmasking of a man who, he claims, mastered the art of turning public benevo lence into private dominion.

This is not the story the world has been told.

This is the story the world was never meant to hear.

Q: You were once inside Bangladesh's security establishment. What chain of events forced you to flee and continue this fight from exile?