Addressing a media conference wrapping up his four-day visit to Delhi, he said there were two different schools of opinions in Bangladesh about his joining politics. "While one school wanted me not to join politics so that I don't get into its vortex, the other school wanted me to join so that they can have someone to look up to."

"I am not a person who is comfortable in politics. But if circumstances force, I will join it," Yunus, the founder chief of Grameen Bank, said when asked why he is not joining politics and become prime minister or finance minister and undertake an economic turnaround of his country.

There had been a lot of talk about his joining politics or government, he said, adding, "But I kept away from it because if you get into it you get sucked into it. You can't do the thing you want to do."

To a question if he wants to be the president of Bangladesh, Yunus said, "To become the president is not an exciting news for me because it (the post) has no power. It's a decorative post. I am not psychologically tuned to some decorative post."

Asked to comment on the political situation in Bangladesh, he said the country "has gone through a rough period and we were almost heading towards a political disaster. But that has been stopped by the emergency and the caretaker government has been accepted by the people and parties."

He said the people of Bangladesh hope to see a "clean and transparent" general election but while the poll could be clean "the challenge is how to ensure clean people come to a new government."

Asked about the demand of Bangladesh's political parties for early elections and end to the emergency, Yunus said, "Clean people must take part in the elections even if it takes time to ensure that. Otherwise, the same problem will crop up again. Now we have a chance of a lifetime to cleanse our politics."

Asked when Bangladesh will shed the tag of Least Developed Country, he said, "Our politicians do not want to get out of LDC tag because there are certain facilities available with it. But the country should come out of LDC status and it is going to happen soon with economic growth rate of six per cent over the years."

Replying to a question, he said one of the major reasons for Bangladesh's inability to become a manufacturing hub is acute shortage of electricity. "The moment this problem is solved, industrialisation will take place."

The leading economist said he had repeatedly told the governments in his country that it should import power from Nepal and Bhutan to tide over the scarcity.

Yunus reiterated his idea of social business saying that it would change the world economic picture. "Business should be defined in a people-friendly manner and that can be done if we do social business not with eyes on maximising profit."

TALKS WITH MANMOHAN, SONIA
The political situation in Bangladesh and strengthening of cooperation among Saarc countries came up when the Bangladesh Nobel laureate held separate talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday morning.

The talks Yunus had with the two top Indian leaders lasted half an hour each.

Yunus-Singh meeting took place at the official residence of the Indian prime minister and it was followed by the Grameen Bank founder's interaction with Sonia Gandhi at her residence.

Yunus explained the political situation to the Indian prime minister as well as the congress chief, sources close to Yunus told this correspondent.

During his meeting with Singh, Yunus put forward a number of suggestions, including that of a special Saarc passport, to make the grouping more effective as a vehicle for regional cooperation and bringing it closer to the people.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner for 2006 said Saarc governments can introduce the Saarc passport in phases and to begin with 100 such passports can be issued with half of them to women, said the sources.

He also suggested to Singh that representatives of civil societies in South Asian countries should be invited to Saarc summits to speak alongside the politicians and ministers to make the regional mechanism more broad-based reflecting a wider section of the people.

This will imbibe a sense of greater involvement of the people in Saarc process, he said.

Yunus also proposed holding cultural festivals during Saarc summits to reflect the rich cultural diversity of the region.

During his meeting with Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president expressed keen interest about the functioning of the Grameen Bank and her desire to visit Bangladesh to see for herself how micro-credit by the bank, mostly to women, has impacted on the lives of the poor in that country.

Yunus outlined to the Indian prime minister and the Congress chief the activities of Grameen Bank and its future plans.

MEET WITH PRANAB, RAHUL
Professor Yunus yesterday had a 20-minute talk with India's External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee during which the political situation in Bangladesh and Saarc matters were understood to have come for discussion.

Yunus also had a 45-minute meeting with young Congress MP Rahul Gandhi in Delhi.

Rahul, son of Congress President and India's ruling UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, evinced keen interest about the Grameen Bank activities and its functioning.

Yunus invited Rahul to visit Bangladesh and the latter responded positively to it, sources close to Yunus said.

Yunus also said Sonia Gandhi has accepted his invitation to visit Bangladesh to see for herself activities of Grameen Bank and dates for her visit would be worked out later.