A conference on “Bangladesh@50Years” was organized by CGAPP in association with Calcutta@Adda on 7 June, 2022 in Presidency University, Kolkata
At the beginning of the round table discussion, Jayanta Roychowdhury gave an introductory speech and presented the idea and importance of Calcutta@Adda.
Afterwards, Sulagna Mukherjee introduced the speakers and interventionists. They were as follows:
1. Ambassador Sarvajit Chakravarty IFS(Retd.) former secretary, MEA
2. Sikder Mohd. Ashraful Rahman, Counsellor, Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner
3. Brigadier Niladri Shankar Mukherjee (Retd.) from Seners-K
4. Jayanto Choudhury IPS (Retd.) former DGP Assam
5. Imankalyan Lahiri, professor of International Relations
6. Sujay Nag, former Country Director, Tata Group
7. Indrajit Lahiri, film maker and food expert
8. Ranjini Guha, Professor of History
The discussion started with an address by Mr. Rahman about the milestones that independent Bangladesh has achieved in socio-economic and cultural aspects in only 50 years. He also expressed his deep regards for Father of The Nation Sheikh Mujib and assured that Bangladesh will continue to follow the path shown by Bangabandhu.
Sarvajit Chakravarty, the next speaker offered fresh ideas on how India and Bangladesh can collaborate and cooperate to deal with various problems. Mr. Chakravarty, for example, spoke of the super cyclones that often hit the coast and devastate localities. Both countries offer temporary rehabilitation as solutions but these are no permanent solution. If the countries come up to collaborate on the issue of disaster management there shall be promising developments. He also noted that there is much to be done in healthcare, education, energy, and climate issues.
Sujay Nag then shared important insights gathered through his experience of staying in Bangladesh. The journey of Bangladesh from an underdeveloped nation to a developing one, was only possible by the help of an aspiring private sector. He spoke of the PHP Family (founded by Mizanur Rahman in 1969), who have an annual turnover of 6000 crores. During the two year lockdown they didn’t cut a single salary among their 10,000 employees.
He also informed that Bangaldesh, being an underdeveloped country, found it much cheaper to send resources to first world countries than it did to India. But India, especially the state of West Bengal has failed to use that opportunity as Bangladesh has turned into a developing country.
Imankalyan Lahiri shared some of his engaging experiences of Bangladesh. His parents being refugees, Mr. Lahiri had spent his childhood in colonies. Since then, he used to hear from his mother about the huge amount of land they possessed over the border. Some years back, Mr. Lahiri visited his ancestral village in Rajshahi to verify this. He was mesmerized to see that the people still remembered his ancestors. Each Saturday a song is performed at the village market based upon the immigration of the Babus. The maulvi of the village mosque, who helped them flee through the Nator station passed away long ago, but his grandchildren still remember the incident. Mr. Lahiri played parts of the song and it was a soothing experience for all the participants.
Niladri Shankar Mukherjee, as a defence expert spoke of the security issues between the two countries. He said that, India possesses the sixth longest land border in the world and it is impossible to keep an eye on the whole border area. This is the reason why illegal immigration and trafficking are still in practise. Mr. Mukherjee praised Bangladesh’s political stand as a non-aligned country and talked about the possibilities of the two countries working together to fix the deradicalization issue.
Jayanto Chowdhury, former director-general of NSG explained how the security issues of North-Eastern India has been controlled with the immense help provided by Bangladesh. He shared some of his experiences of how the informal help India gets from Bangladesh help keep socio-economic stability in that region.
He narrared the experience of two fishermen who mistakenly floated away to Bangladesh while fishing in the Brahmaputra River. The informal support from Bangladesh made it possible to get them back without much trouble. He also emphasized on why it is necessary today to rethink the category dubbed ‘illegal immigrant’.
The next interventionist was Indrajit Lahiri, famously known as Foodka. He spoke of the similarities between the food cultures of the two countries. The food-variety that both the countries possess is rare. Although there are certain efforts to disturb the cultural unity beteeen thrm, it is not possible at least in the case of food, he said.
Ranjini Guha, the last interventionist talked about the variety of Bangladeshi food. There are 24 tribal communities there and each of them has their very own unique cuisine. She also reminded us that there is hardly any system of food exchange between the countries. It is almost impossible for an Indian sitting in Kolkata to taste kala bhuna of Chittagong. A swift system of food exchange may help enrich the international relation between the countries.
Jayanta Roychowdhury, who moderated the discussion very aptly then summed up the whole discussion.
At the end, Atmajit Mukherjee thanked all the speakers, interventionists and attendees. He also thanked Jayanta Roychowdhury, Anindya Sengupta, Sulagna Mukhopadhyay and Ranjini Guha- the founders of Calcutta@Adda. Next, he thanked the Presidency University Administration, who helped to make the programme a success. With his vote of thanks the session ended.
