From: BHBCUC USA <unitycouncilusa@gmail.com>
BHBCUC delegation met the President of India
A 15 member delegation of Bangladeshi expats from 8 different countries representing the religious minorities Bangladesh met with the honorable President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee at noon Monday 21st April 2014. After security clearance at the palatial Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, the group was cordially greeted by the presidential staff and received by the honorable president. The meeting lasted about 40 minutes and the atmosphere was very frank and cordial. The Honorable President listened to the delegation about the plights of Bangladeshi minorities and opined that he is briefed on the issue all the time. He promised that he would look deep into it and act accordingly. He also said that he would talk with the Prime Minister of India and would request him to take the issue up with the Bangladesh PM. Before the meeting Assistant to the President talk with Mr. Sitangshu Guha. Honorable President Mukherjee also privately sat with Mr. Guha briefly, after the meeting. The delegation was served with traditional delicious snacks.
Caption: Official picture from Rastrapati Bhavan official site
The delegation was briefed previously about the protocol. Everybody stood up and reciprocated 'Namasker' with the President. Sitangshu Guha initially welcomed and thanked the Honorable President. The member then took turns to introduce themselves and made brief remarks. The meeting turned somber when Mrs. Shilpi Chowdhury described how her grandfather-- Nuton Singh of Kundeswari-- was killed by F.K.Chowdhury and Pakistani army. Ms. Chitra Paul added that her father's house was attacked three times since independence. Advocate Ghosh described the situation in ground zero, Bangladesh, while Nabendu Dutta revealed the demographic changes that saw minority population drastically vanishing from the country. Sitangshu Guha concluded by urging the honorable president, as the highest ranking Bangali in the world, lead the action against the sorry saga of minority persecution and to protect them in Bangladesh. The honorable president responded favorably and was shown moved by the delegation's emotion. The delegation presented the President with a memorandum along with 60 colored pictures and two recent books on religious minority persecution.
Members of the delegation were: USA: Sitangshu Guha, Spokesperson and coordinator. Nabendu Dutta, President, BHBCUC, USA. Canada: Dileep Karmaker, Advisor, BHBCUC, Canada. Sweden: Tarun Chowdhury, President, BHBCUC, EU; Chitra Paul, BHBCUC, Sweden. Switzerland: Arun Barua, President, Bangladesh Minority Council, Swiss & BHBCUC, Swiss. France: Udayan Barua, President, BHBCUC, Europe; Swadesh Barua, President, BHBCUC, France. UK: Dr. B.B.Chowdhury, Advisor & President, BHBCUC, UK. Bangladesh: Advocate Rabindra Ghosh, President, BDMW. India: Dr. Mohit Ray, President, CAAMB. The delegation also includes Mrs. Mukti Dutta; Shilpi Chowdhury; Alpana Guha; Snikdha Ghosh; Progananda Bhikku from CHT group and Chanda Hazra, Prakash Chandra Das from CAAMB also joined later on, but missed president's meeting.
Taslima Nasrin meets the delegate team in the evening on 21 April, 2014
California Group met Senator Dianne Feinstein's office
Asish Bhattacharjee from California: As scheduled- we arrived at 9:45am. Senator Dianne Feinstein's San Diego office Field Representative Bill Kratz came to the conference room at 10:00am and apologized for not on time and he was in another meeting. Actually we were scheduled to talk with him at 10:00am. So this opened the door of our conversation. Dr. Dipen Bhattacharjee focused on Introduction, Dr. Probir Paul focused on background, and Dr. Pijush Dewanjee focused on US interest on this. Bill used to be working in State Department, Navy intelligence and currently with senator's Field representative. The conference was lively and discussion got deeper from national security, intelligence, sanction, pressure to all various topics. Bill asked if we want to raise this to State Department too. We requested State Department and senator both. We also requested if we can meet Senator Dianne Feinstein in SD at Dinner or lunch? He will work and see if he can accommodate? That will be very hard but we tried. We went over ISI, government action, Opposition's role, current affair, future trend, minority statistics, current attacks and yesterday's attack. Bill wrote down many references, asked directly to our women representative how women rights are in Bangladesh. Bill also inquired about what would be US role and how that will impact?
We have made a 2-page letter – which also serves as an executive summary. This letter I would say will cover everything that happened before 1971 and after 1971 till 2014. This letter has all references, all documents (Including Petition). References are made with very special care and scrutiny. We also made a binder, CD and Bill praised that he didn't have similar binder or so organized information in his last 10 years job. He has asked questions on many references. He is well aware of what we are going through? He replied that he will be researching some of the references before apprising senator. Ann Thomas wanted to be sure if we are taking about only Hindus? I explained 98% of minorities are Hindus but we are talking for all.
April 29, 2014
__._,_.___
