Kolkata: The question of alliance with the Trinamool Congress may have driven a wedge in the party, but that hasn’t stopped West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from taking off to Russia to watch the FIFA World Cup 2018 final between France and Croatia.
Chowdhury has never missed a FIFA final since 2006 and will keep up the tradition when he cheers for France at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow. But this time, he left with the hope that the Bengal Congress, too, could work like a team.
“Why not… we should be working like a team. There should be discipline like in a football match and team. There should be a person whose whistle or instruction will lead to victory. I think these should be followed here (in Bengal Congress),” he said.
Though he’ll be cheering for Les Bleus, Chowdhury is awe-struck by Croatia, who’ll be playing their first-ever FIFA final on Sunday. “I will support France, but I salute the spirit of Croatia. It is a small eastern European country without much infrastructure as compared to other countries, but what discipline and determination!”
Watching the world cup final on ground zero became a tradition for Chowdhury in 2006, but it almost didn’t happen. Recalling the World Cup in Germany, he narrated how the late congress leader Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi helped him secure tickets after he lost his own passes during frisking at Amsterdam airport.
“I went to my hotel in Berlin and called up Priya da almost sobbing. I narrated the whole incident and he arranged it. When I was checking out of my hotel in Germany and was about to make payments for my stay, the receptionist told me that all my bills were paid by someone who identified himself over telephone as ‘Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi’. That was a great surprise for me. Today, he is no more with us, but I am missing him a lot…”
Comments
0 comment