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Yen for funds, not fact-finder

Yen for funds, not fact-finder

Author: Sunando Sarkar
Publication:
Date: April 3, 2002

The mission: a diplomatic foray (by Japan) to gauge the status of members of the minority community of one country (Bangladesh) now seeking refuge in another country (India).

The key player: a senior Japanese foreign affairs department official who can speak Bengali fluently.

The response from the hosts: very cold.

The result: not much to write home about.

This is the story of a secret Japanese diplomatic mission and how it came unstuck within hours of its launch in Calcutta because of the state government's "very cold" and "uncooperative" response.

Hideo Fujita, a political counsellor to the Japanese envoy in Dhaka, arrived in Calcutta on Sunday evening by a Biman Bangladesh flight (No. BG093) to gather details of the Bangladeshis who fled their country during and after last year's polls to escape persecution.

To facilitate the probe, the Japanese foreign affairs department had got in touch with the state government, which has been overtly aggressive in wooing Japanese capital. Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had visited Japan earlier this year.

The message that was conveyed was that Fujita, with other officials, would like to meet a senior state government employee to ascertain facts before reaching a conclusion.

Japan is keeping close tabs on the situation since it is among the largest aid donors to Bangladesh. Japan also has a large number of Buddhists - the second largest minority group in Bangladesh.

But the Bengal government poured cold water on the mission, after what home department officials termed as prodding from the "very top".

A communication from a home department official reached the Japanese delegation, conveying the state home secretary's inability to meet the delegation because of "unavoidable reasons".

The state government's cold-shouldering of a representative from a country which it is wooing for investments here has created ripples in the administration.

Some officials said the decision reflected the Left Front government's eagerness to avoid friction with the Khaleda Zia regime in Bangladesh. Others cited a function at the Bangladeshi deputy high commission here on March 26 to suggest the bonhomie that senior Cabinet ministers here now share with the current dispensation in Bangladesh.

The function, to celebrate the Bangladeshi Independence Day, saw the presence of several CPM Cabinet ministers. "The presence of so many ministers is a never-before occurrence at the mission," a senior state government official said.

The fact that the government - and the CPM - tried to play down the inflow into the state after the October polls in Bangladesh was a part of that "broader picture", he added.

Fujita left the city on Wednesday after meeting some organisations known to champion the Bangladeshi refugees' cause but without meeting any government representative, senior external affairs ministry officials posted here said.

On Tuesday, he visited the Bangladesh Udbastu Kalyan Parishad office in south Calcutta. "He came here with some other officials and stayed for over two hours," a BUKP spokesperson said. Besides seeking to know the condition of the recent batch of refugees, he also collected information about the BSF firings on Bangladeshi refugees.

Fujita, sources said, also visited another organisation at Ramlal Bazar in the Jadavpur area.
 


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