Yunus’s Dilemma: Between Nobel Ideals and Political Realities

Dipak Kurmi(The writer can be reached at dipakkurmiglpltd@gmail.com.)Muhammad Yunus, celebrated globally as the father of microfinance and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, once stood as a beacon of hope and transformative leadership in South Asia. His revolutionary work with the Grameen Bank reshaped economic narratives around poverty, earning him global acclaim and recognition. On December 10, 2006, standing on the dignified stage of the Nobel Prize ceremony in Oslo, Yunus famously proclaimed, “A human being is born into this world fully equipped not only to take care of him or herself but also to contribute to enlarging the well-being of the world as a whole.” These words resonated as a manifesto of humanitarian optimism — a powerful testimony to his faith in individual potential and social responsibility.Yet, less than two decades later, the idealism of those words would be put to the most rigorous test when Yunus stepped into a role of unparalleled political significance as the Chief...