Dr. Benkin
Bangladesh Hindu Buddhists Christian Unity Council global chapters joined in a conference call on Saturday, 10th Jan 2009, just after the election. Global OP leaders called upon the newly formed government to prioritize the minority issues and repeal the 
now. Leaders from Bangladesh, America, Switzerland, France, UK, Czechoslovakia Republic, Cyprus & Sweden joined the conference call which lasted 2 hours. Dr. Richard Benkin joined the event as a guest speaker. Biren Adhikari joined from Bangladesh also spoke. Dr. Thomas D. Roy, President, BHBCUC, USA joined from France.
Initially Dr. Benkin talked and answered questions for about 75 minutes. He told that, AL is better than BNP but it will be the biggest mistake if we don’t do anything. We need to pressurize the government, we will lobby around the world and they will not do anything if we sit down idle. He told that, he had already talked with some of the members of the Congress & they promised to take the issue this year. In answer to questions he added that, I agree that you should not antagonize the government at the beginning, but if they don’t do anything, we must act. He told that, the government should repeal the enemy property act now to show the support to the cause of minorities.
Dr. Richard L. Benkin (https://www.InterfaithStrength.com) told that: I understand that we must give this new government a time, but I would not be as optimistic as some of the other callers. First, we know that the Awami League have benefited from the racist Vested Property Act. Ending the persecution of minorities must be considered one of the first priorities. What is more important than that? And I have one other question: ‘this attitude of passivity and let’s give them a chance; how well has that worked for the minorities and the victims in the past? Not well. We are sitting by while people are being killed and tortured! So, yes, we must give them some time–but not much or we will see that their words are nothing more than words.
Mr. B.N. Adhikari from Bangladesh talked about election, ministry and what we need to do now. He also answered questions from the audience.
Among others present in the conference call were Ratan Barua, Nabendu Dutta& Sushil Saha; Pradip Das, Chandan Sen Gupta, Sitangshu Guha from NY; Europe president Udayan Barua, Swadesh Barua, Pranab Barua, Ujjibon Chakma, Titu Barua from France; Chitra Paul from Sweden; Arun Barua, Joint Secretary, Europe & Sumon Chakma, Tipu Barua from Switzerland; Bijoy Barua from Cypress; Saikot Sinha from Czechoslovakia Republic.
