People's Democracy

Vietnam Delegation Felicitated Across Bengal

B Prasant

MEMBERS of a 36-member Vietnam delegation as well as Madame Ngyuen Thi Binh were accorded rousing felicitations in Kolkata, at Burdwan and at the Viswa Bharati University.

Legendary Vietnamese leader Madame Ngyuen Thi Binh, former vice president of Vietnam and president of the Vietnam Peace Foundation was an honourable guest of the delegation.

The head of the delegation, that visited the state for the Indo-Vietnam Festival for Friendship from September 2 to 4, was Tran Dac Loi, executive vice president of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organisations, and secretary general of the Vietnam Peace and Development Foundation.

The inaugural event was held at the Indoor Stadium in Kolkata on September 2 afternoon, while cultural functions, an exhibition of posters and photographs and seminars were held on September 3 and 4. The Vietnam delegation also visited the townships of Kalyani and Burdwan.

In Kolkata, Madame Binh and the delegation from Vietnam were accorded a warm welcome at the Rabindra Bharati University and at Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

Madame Binh expressed her admiration for the fighting spirit of the people of the metropolis and thanked them for the civic reception and for the song-and-dance programme at Rabindra Bharati.

A series of seminars on different aspects of India-Vietnam relations were held across different university campuses. A seminar at the Jadavpur University on WTO and the challenge of globalisation saw a large attendance by teachers and students. Seminars were also held at the Burdwan, Bidhan Krishi, Kolkata universities as well.

The participating Vietnam delegates included Tran Dac Loi, Ha Minh Hoa, and Ton Sinh Thanh, Nguyen Xuan Anh, To Ngoc Thach, among others. Indian participants were industries minister Nirupam Sen, Agricultural Commission members, Madan Ghosh and Dr Rathindranarayan Bose, CPI(M) leader Mridul De, Dr Asit Kumar Das, economists Sugata Marjit, and physicist Kankan Bhattacharya et al.

A novel idea of the festival was a joint cultural function of Indian and Vietnam artistes. While the country’s foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated the programme, the participants were addressed among others by veteran communist leader Jyoti Basu, Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, assembly speaker Hashim Abdul Halim, and Madame Binh.

On this Indo-Vietnam Friendship Festival, an information booklet was produced by the Bengal unit of All-India Peace and Solidarity Committee. Another book titled Marching Together towards Peace and Prosperity: a Saga of India-Vietnam Friendship was also published. The book contains important documents and writings as well as rare photographs on the Indo-Vietnam solidarity movements. A slim volume containing 66 poems about Vietnam, too, was produced, as were posters and placards.