“Why are you so tilted towards India? We have given a lot, what more?” former vice chancellor of Dhaka University Emajuddin Ahamed asked prime minister Sheikh Hasina at a roundtable in Dhaka.
The BNP intellectual was speaking at a roundtable titled ‘Rampal power project and Sundarbans’, organised by Bangladesh Youth Forum at the National Press Club on Thursday.
He said, “The prime minister’s weakness towards India has no limits.”
“Everything of India seems sacred to her. Give up that mentality,” he appealed.
He said the Rampal project would destroy Sundarbans and called on the government to turn to solar power instead.
He said the National Thermal Power Company (NPTC) of India is a ‘rejected’ company. “There is no place for the company in Bangladesh. We are selling ourselves out to this corrupted company that promotes pollution.”
“We are grateful to your people for helping us during the Liberation War and are paying for this over the years. I think 75 to 80 per cent Bangladeshis are anti-Indian. They are anti-Indian because of your ties with the present government. The relationship should have been with the people of Bangladesh. That is the norm of international relations,” Emajuddin said, addressing Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
“It is not too late. Make changes in the interests of the Bangladesh public. Be sensitive to our expectations,” he asked the Indian government.
Journalist Ehsanul Haque presented the keynote paper at the discussion.
He said, “Coal for Rampal project will be shipped by small cargo vessels through the Sundarbans and will burn 4.72 million tonnes of coal a year. The vessels will carry more than 13,000 tonnes of coal a day. This amount of coal will damage the Sundarbans.”
Adviser to the youth forum Akbar Hossain Bhuiyan chaired the roundtable. BNP vice chairman Selima Rahman, executive committee member Abu Naser Mohammad Rahmatullah spoke at the programme. President of the organization Saidur Rahman moderated the roundtable.
Source: Prothom Alo