Dear Alochoks
I intensely dislike Pinak and he is not fit to be Ambassador at all. We want him recalled.
I wonder if he is the true face of India's relationship with Bangladesh. I wonder if the smiling faces of visiting ex PMs and stars of the Gandhi clan are irrelevant in this relationship.
However I have to confess that I grudgingly admire Finak for some of his forthright comments - in particular his comment about touts and brokers.
I think he is right.
Newly weds, prospective in laws and senior businessmen seem to have no trouble in going to India and the airlines are all doing a brisk trade between Calutta and Delhi.
I like the fact that he had the guts to refer to touts and brokers as touts and brokers. I love it. Because politcians have empowered an entire class of touts (tout is a Bengali word I think!), batpars, dalals, beymaans and choors. Our commentators refer to these same scum as 'lobbyists and agents'.
Its better to have an Indian Ambassador who speaks his mind than and Indian Ambassador who massages our egos with praise and decorum but who thinks the same as Pinak! At least we know where we stand!
So another Ambassador thinks that touts mostly queue outside the Embassy but says efforts are being made to speed up visa applications when actually nothing is being done. We would accept it.
So another Ambassador thinks the Tipumaikh dam is unstoppable, just like Pinak, but says that serious reviews are being done - when actually nothing is being done. We would accept it.
So another Ambassador thinks we should open, deregulated markets at our border, just like Pinak, but he just doesn't say it publicly and pushes Ministers discretely for such markets. We would accept it.
I hate Pinak. But anything that exposes our true condition is welcome to me. Even if it is insulting.
As is there is real shock and puzzlement that 25,000 Deshis would seek to stay illegally in India - when it is part of our culture to stay illegally in any country. Or am I wrong?
Thats right Pinak - you shut up and don't upset our sovereign pride.
India should still respect us. Even if actually doesn't.
Because we hardly have any touts, dalals, batpars and choors in Bangladesh who are protected by politcians. We only have very bad shushils and Army people. Right?
Ezajur Rahman
--- In
alochona@yahoogroup s.com, "Ezajur Rahman" <ezajur.rahman@ ...> wrote:
>
> 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
> Relations' 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 Bangladeshis.
> 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 work for 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.
>
