Pinak da lost his brain.
We spend billions of dollars buying Indian goods and services and this
"Diplomat" is hurting his own country. Awami leaders went out of their
way to defend him the first time with Tipaimukh comment.
This time it will be difficult. India is not an European country.
Rather an oppressive country with little social protection. It is
possible that few people may overstay their Visa but Pinak da thinks he
is from California of last century. Is this guy for real or a cartoon?
No wonder south asian countries are having difficult time fixing
regional issues.
We just want to live in peace with dignity of a free nation. Don't
think it is too much to ask.
-qar
-----Original Message-----
From: Ezajur Rahman <ezajur.rahman@q8.com>
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 08:39:53 +0300
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Pinak terms 80pc visa seekers touts, brokers
Pinak
terms 80pc visa seekers touts, brokers
Courtesy New Age 21/7/09
Staff Correspondent
Some 25,000 of the Bangladeshi
travellers going to India with legal visas every year do not come back,
claimed
the Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, Pinak Ranjan Chakrabarty,
and
described most of the visa seekers as 'touts' and
'brokers'.
He
made the allegations at a conference on 'Bangladesh-India Economic
Rela
tions' in Dhaka on Monday in a bid to justify the Indian High
Commission's cumbersome process of issuing visas, as shown by the
extremely long queues of visa seekers.
'Eighty
per cent of the visa seekers are not genuine. Those [whom you see in
the queue]
are touts and brokers,' said the Indian 'diplomat', adding
that the visa issuing process would be much easier if the Bangladesh
government
ensured that touts and brokers no longer queue for submitting visa
applications.
He
attributed the current visa regime to India's security concerns
against the backdrop of incidents such as the terrorist attacks in
Mumbai.
'Twenty-five thousand of the Bangladeshis who are going to India with
legal visas [every year] are not returning to their country,' he said,
although he could not specify the reasons for the alleged disappearance
of the
Bangladeshis.
A
large 50-member delegation of the Federation of Indian Chambers of
Commerce and
Industry, led by its vice-president Harsh C Mariwala, attended the
daylong
conference organised by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of
Commerce and
Industry at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.
Pinak's
far from diplomatic outburst was an attempt to rebut the complaints
made by the
president of the FBCCI, Annisul Huq, about India's slow and tortuous
process of issuing visas to Ban
gladeshis.
Talking
about non-tariff barriers to bilateral trade, Annisul quipped that the
queue of
the visa seekers was usually three miles long and it should be included
as one
of the Guinness World Records.
'We
certainly need to ensure a significant reduction in our apparently
small,
non-tariff barriers that threaten bigger opportunities of growth,' said
Annis.
In
response, Pinak said that the High Commission would not object to
multiple
visas for businesspeople. 'I promise you that business visas will be
issued as quickly as possible.'
Pinak
said that New Delhi had been offering duty-free
access of all goods and commodities from Bangladesh as a least developed
country since 2008, and had only excluded a 'small negative list of 434
items'.
Speaking
at the opening session before leaving to attend the weekly cabinet
meeting,
commerce minister Faruk Khan urged the business leaders of the two
countries to
pressure their governments to develop cooperative relations for mutual
benefit.
'We
have created problems ourselves. People-to-people contact is good but
when it
comes with governments, especially politicians, we see problems,' he
said, expressing the hope that the present democratic atmosphere in the
entire South Asia would give the politicians the 'right
message' to work20for cooperation.
At
a seminar in Dhaka on June 21 Pinak had said,
'It is unfortunate that there are some so-called water experts who make
comments without considering some of the issues. They are basically
attempting
to poison the minds of the friendly people of Bangladesh
against India.'
The
foreign affairs minister, Dipu Moni, who spoke later as chief guest,
did not
make any comments on Pinak's remarks that subsequently sparked off a lot
of controversy and indignation, although she later termed his haughty
attitude
and antagonistic remarks a violation of diplomatic norms.
------------------------------------
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
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