ADDRESS BY HON'BLE GOVERNOR PUNJAB AND ADMINISTRATOR, UT CHANDIGARH, SHRI BANWARILAL PUROHIT ON THE OCCASION OF VISIT OF BANGLADESH DELEGATION AT CHANDIGARH

Respected delegates to the India-Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue, ladies and gentlemen,

I consider this occasion as a very special one particularly when Bangladesh is celebrating its fifty years of liberation, and India is celebrating five decades of warm relations with its wonderful neighbour. I am sure, the deliberations at the dialogue have given you enough reasons to feel satisfied with the connect between our two countries -- Bangladesh and India. I have full faith in the very idea of such a dialogue, and believe that such interactions will only strengthen the bilateral ties between the two countries. For, when wise people sit together to sort out complicated issues and concerns, they come up with solutions that are astounding in shape and size and take the mutuality of friendship to a new height. This India-Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue, I am sure, has served the purpose -- and will keep doing so even in the future.

All of us have agreed long back that Bangladesh and India are not just geographical neighbours, but also claim a common legacy of history and culture and a robust intellectual heritage. Not a day has passed in the past fifty years when Bangladesh and India have not joined heads, hearts and hands to serve common purposes, common goals, and common dreams. We have realised right from the beginning that we are not just neighbours but also have strong emotional bonds between us, thanks to the wonderful cooperation that the two countries achieved even before the official and formal birth of Bangladesh in 1971.

Friends, the moment we recall those days preceding the liberation of Bangladesh in the winter of 1971 through a complex maze of diplomatic and military actions on the part of India, our hearts get filled to the brim with the memory of how a major section of humanity fought hard to earn liberation for itself. Those were really hard days -- bloody and full of terrible oppression by the marauding armies of Pakistan whose leadership trampled human rights of millions of innocent people, and tried to suppress their free voice by wanton killings under official banner.

But when such oppression becomes unbearable, Destiny sends her own men to stop the untoward events. In the case of East Bengal, she intervened through Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Ur Rehman and his trusted colleagues. What was first described to be an internal matter of a country soon became an international issue simply because a larger section of global population was being pushed into a regime of terrible suppression.

It is common knowledge friends that millions of refugees from East Bengal had poured into India to escape the terrible military oppression. Those numbers were simply mindboggling, and could weigh down a country like India with limited resources to handle the challenge. Yet, if those hard days were a lesson for a new country about to be born, those were also a lesson for India to carve out its policies to handle the crisis in the most wonderful manner.

Those who understand the intricacies of international affairs also realise how difficult it must have been for India not just to manage the influx of millions of refugees but also to keep undesirable international pressures at bay and simultaneously keep its military option open and ready should Pakistan thrust a war on the country. But what was happening was a writing of a fresh chapter in international affairs as the new country of Bangladesh was born out of a massive socio-political movement internally and a joint military action by a friendly neighbour and the famed Mukti Bahini.

Very rare is such a friendship.

And today, as we celebrate fiftieth anniversary of those momentous moments, we also are holding this India-Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue.

Friends, the history of those days shows how a nation created itself out of darkness and joined the comity of nations to run its affairs democratically. That was the best lesson Bangladesh derived from the history of its own creation. For long years, Mujib Ur Rehman had been insisting upon the democratic writ to operate in Pakistan. As Bangladesh was liberated, Bangabandhu followed those ideals -- thus proving to the world that his and his country’s commitment to democratic ideals was not cosmetic one, but an actual and practical one.

Rest is history, as they habitually say. Bangladesh followed the right norms of democracy and governance, adopted appropriate political practices, accepted wise socio-economic policies, and carved for itself a foreign policy that has earned it many friends among the international community.

It is a matter of pride and pleasure for Bangladesh to have done wonderfully well on all growth indicators and developmental parameters -- despite the challenges of internal management of its concerns and issues. On the strength of that maturity, Bangladesh has also carved out for itself a fine method to establish good-neighbourly relations with countries in the region.

For India, it is a matter of sheer satisfaction that it enjoys very cordial and very open relations with Bangladesh. This India-Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue is a good example of how the two countries are trying all the time to work out mutually beneficial relationship. I look at this dialogue as positive symbolism of the mutuality of friendship and common shared interests between the two countries.

That India and Bangladesh share a 4,000-kilometer-long border, is only a small indicator of the vastness of the range of issues the two countries have to tackle on a regular basis. The bigger indicator of satisfaction comes from another fact that the two countries have been able to work out a wonderful reconciliation of the common border so that all the reasons to allow festering disputes are eliminated. This can be considered to be one of the most vibrant and mature examples of inter-country dialogue. It shows that two mature countries can resolve all their shared concerns and issues amicably. In fact, it can be said safely that Bangladesh and India have offered to the world one wonderful example of mutual cooperation and co-existence on the strength of shared dreams.

We have worked together to achieve this level of togetherness. We did have ticklish issues to take care between us. Yet, our collective maturity has made it possible to find happy solutions to most of them.

The India-Bangladesh ties have undeniably reached new heights in the past few years. More so, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, India and Bangladesh have strengthened their bonds to become a textbook example of neighbourly relationship.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the two-way trade saw an increase as business ties remained robust. The movement of people was affected, but not stopped by the pandemic. The "unprecedented, once-in-a-century health crisis" could not largely affect the momentum in our bilateral relationship; rather it saw expanded cooperation in the health sector as well , with Bangladesh becoming one of first recipients of COVID vaccines from India.

I have every reason to believe that the India-Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue has been a success.

As we gather for a get-together in this city of Chandigarh, often described to be one of the most beautiful and best-planned cities in the world, many among you may be reliving memories at the deliberations at Shimla. Chandigarh has often offered a good locale for elite get-togethers, thanks not just to the physical beauty of the city, but also to its cosmopolitan persona.

I expect and hope that those who have come to this dialogue will go back to their respective homes with happy memories of the high-quality interaction among themselves. I am tempted to look at this exercise as one added part of the continuum of friendship between our two countries. We have a common neighbourhood, a common history, a common heritage, common interests and a common platform of friendship on which to stand and carve for ourselves a great future together.

On behalf of all Indians, I congratulate the delegates from Bangladesh on the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of their nation. I pray to the Almighty Lord to make Bangladesh a tremendous success story -- in friendly neighbourhood with India.

I also take this opportunity to offer my best wishes to the Indian delegates participating in this India-Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue. They represent India in this interaction and also participate in the task of furthering shared and sustainable goals.

Please accept my best wishes for the future.

Thank you,

Jai Hind.