Former Grameen Bank managing director Muhammad Yunus says prime minister Sheikh Hasina was wrong to criticise him, reports BBC.
In an interview with the BBC's Lesley Curwen, Yunus, who was forced to stand down last month, said Hasina had only done so because she had been 'badly advised'.
He said that if she had known the true story, she would not have criticised him and his bank.
After Yunus was charged with allegation of siphoning money from Grameen Bank, prime minister Hasina on Dec 5 last year told a press conference that he was sucking blood of the poor.
Earlier, during the army-backed caretaker government tenure, Hasina, criticising Yunus, said "there is no difference between a person who enjoys taking interest on money and one who takes bribe".
The prime minister also observed the microcredit programme of Grameen Bank failed to play its role to eradicate poverty.
Yunus, in his interview, denied the allegation.
He said, "The main model of microcredit is not being followed in many cases. Rather, many commercial organisations are running business in the name of microcredit. This is why microcredit has been called into question."
Yunus recommended an entirely separate banking system for the marginal community.
He also suggested the commercial organisations that would try to make money from the system not be permitted to be called microcredit organisations.
The microcredit guru said,"A rural woman is somehow connected to microcredit. And so it is possible to find a connection between suicide of any such woman and her link to microcredit."
But a suicide, he said, is an outcome of thousands of reasons.
He also said that Grameen Bank has provision of extending time in case of failure to meet the deadline to refund.
"If someone breaks rules and regulations of the bank and is punished it doesn't mean that the bank is wrong."
Yunus said Grameen Bank is not like any other bank. "It is built on the base of trust."
Asked to express his feeling after being sacked, he said," It does not feel good when one is asked to abandon a child which was born and brought up with someone."
This is for the first time he talked to news media since he was forced out of Grameen Bank following a spell of legal battle.
Bangladesh Bank on Mar 2 sacked Yunus, who in 2006 became the first ever Bangladeshi to win a Nobel prize, from the post of managing director of Grameen Bank for his 'unauthorised' reappointment in 1999.
It said Yunus, 71, stayed at the helm of the bank beyond the limits permitted under the laws of the land that govern banking that require a chief executive to retire at 60.
He had been carrying on as the managing director since its foundation three decades back.
Yunus lost the legal battle as he appealed against the central bank decision which sparked criticism from home and abroad.
Main opposition BNP has also been criticising the decision
In an interview with the BBC's Lesley Curwen, Yunus, who was forced to stand down last month, said Hasina had only done so because she had been 'badly advised'.
He said that if she had known the true story, she would not have criticised him and his bank.
After Yunus was charged with allegation of siphoning money from Grameen Bank, prime minister Hasina on Dec 5 last year told a press conference that he was sucking blood of the poor.
Earlier, during the army-backed caretaker government tenure, Hasina, criticising Yunus, said "there is no difference between a person who enjoys taking interest on money and one who takes bribe".
The prime minister also observed the microcredit programme of Grameen Bank failed to play its role to eradicate poverty.
Yunus, in his interview, denied the allegation.
He said, "The main model of microcredit is not being followed in many cases. Rather, many commercial organisations are running business in the name of microcredit. This is why microcredit has been called into question."
Yunus recommended an entirely separate banking system for the marginal community.
He also suggested the commercial organisations that would try to make money from the system not be permitted to be called microcredit organisations.
The microcredit guru said,"A rural woman is somehow connected to microcredit. And so it is possible to find a connection between suicide of any such woman and her link to microcredit."
But a suicide, he said, is an outcome of thousands of reasons.
He also said that Grameen Bank has provision of extending time in case of failure to meet the deadline to refund.
"If someone breaks rules and regulations of the bank and is punished it doesn't mean that the bank is wrong."
Yunus said Grameen Bank is not like any other bank. "It is built on the base of trust."
Asked to express his feeling after being sacked, he said," It does not feel good when one is asked to abandon a child which was born and brought up with someone."
This is for the first time he talked to news media since he was forced out of Grameen Bank following a spell of legal battle.
Bangladesh Bank on Mar 2 sacked Yunus, who in 2006 became the first ever Bangladeshi to win a Nobel prize, from the post of managing director of Grameen Bank for his 'unauthorised' reappointment in 1999.
It said Yunus, 71, stayed at the helm of the bank beyond the limits permitted under the laws of the land that govern banking that require a chief executive to retire at 60.
He had been carrying on as the managing director since its foundation three decades back.
Yunus lost the legal battle as he appealed against the central bank decision which sparked criticism from home and abroad.
Main opposition BNP has also been criticising the decision