Three days after the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government fell in neighbouring Bangladesh, Tripura Transport Minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Thursday condemned the incidents of desecration of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's statues, the loot at the official residence of the Bangladesh Prime Minister, and the purported incidents of violence in the country. He said all the incidents brought shame to the Bengali community in front of the world. Chowdhury’s comments followed concerns from External Affairs minister S Jaishankar earlier this week that attacks were being made on religious minorities, their businesses and temples in Bangladesh and that the Indian government is trying to ensure their safety. The minister’s comment comes as a crucial reminder of the contribution of the people of Tripura and the rest of India in the freedom struggle of Bangladesh. In fact, in 2013, Chowdhury’s father Late Shyamal Chowdhury was himself awarded with the coveted ‘Muktijuddho Maitri Sommanona’, the highest state award of the Government of the Bangladesh given to a foreign national for contributions in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War that freed the country from the Pakistani regime. He received his award from former President of Bangladesh Md. Abdul Hamid and former Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina at Dhaka. Shyamal Chowdhury, who was a lifelong activist of the Communist party and joined its farmers’ front in Tripura. He had a long and illustrious literary career and had participated in the ‘Bangla Bhasha Andolon’ or Bengali language movement in Chittagong of erstwhile East Pakistan during his student life before moving to India. In India, he had joined hands in relief work for East Pakistani refugees who sought shelter in the Indian territory in the face of Pakistani atrocities and in support of the Liberation War. Speaking to the media on Thursday, his son, who is now the Tourism and Transport Minister of Tripura said, “It is undesired, sad and there is no word to describe the activities done with an elected government by reactionary forces. The Government of India and any democratic government for that matter can’t support it. We criticise and condemn these activities. The way they entered the PM’s residence, Lok Sabha, looted things in Talibani style as we saw on TV and social media; it has belittled civilization at large.” He added, “These incidents have sent a negative message about Bengalis and the Bengali culture to the whole world. It will be tough to come out of this. These reactionary forces hatched a conspiracy to regress the Bengali community too far behind.” Recounting the cultural milieu shared by Bangladesh and India, particularly Tripura, Sushanta Chowdhury said, “Our Central Government, our PM and CM – none of us ever thought of Bangladesh as a separate country. We consider Bangladesh our brethren and part of our family since our language, culture, food habits are the same and so are the memories of our forefathers. The barbed wire fence might separate us but mentally, we are one.” He said he senses a deep conspiracy behind the recent incidents and said, “We feel some foreign powers have tried to hatch this conspiracy to damage India’s relation with Bangladesh. Time will tell where India-Bangladesh relationship goes but we have always wanted to maintain friendship between the two nations that has continued since 1971.” On a host of connectivity projects between India and Bangladesh through Tripura, including the Feni bridge and the Agartala-Akhaura international railway route, both of which are major connectivity projects, the minister said, “It seems an interim government would be formed in Bangladesh. Everything depends on their policy. In India, none of us have ever tried to create a negative relation with anyone. The motto of the Government of India is ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ which means the whole world is our relative. We don’t want to create enmity with anyone. The new government of Bangladesh will have to think where they want to take our relationship.” Since the BJP first came to power in Tripura in 2018, it has been vocal to develop international connectivity through Bangladesh and open new dimensions of trade and commerce for the state with a host of connectivity projects. Asked what he feels about the future of these projects, some of which were recently inaugurated while the international air connectivity was expected to be flagged off very shortly, the minister said, “These are much-desired projects. It might seem all these projects have come to a halt now. But I firmly believe if both the governments work together, the next government or the interim government of Bangladesh can complete the unfinished works of the previous dispensation.”
