cannot be altered, yet it can be checked or minimised. The government has to build boulders. The committee was forcing the government to recognise the intensity of the problem and to take immediate action.

Since the river is a national river there has to be joint awareness programme and effort and coordination among states of Bihar, Bengal and Assam to understand that what was unfolding before them was a ‘natural calamity’ and not a ‘normal phenomenon’. To this effect they had organised an interstate seminar on November 19, 2007. The committee is increasing its work capacity, but there is paucity of funds that acts as a hindrance. 

Uttam tried to give the analogy of a boat in Cholon riverine basin in Bangladesh which served as a mobile school, picking up and dropping children after classes as a positive example that the Ganga Bhangan Pratirodh Action Nagarik Committee could follow. The committee also appealed to all present in the office to help in whatever way they could so that the committee could procure a speedboat fitted with ambulance facilities that would help the sick to avail timely medical help. Had the speedboat been present, the lives of those 13 women could perhaps be saved.  

After the question and answer session, we went back to the bus. Before we left Bangitola, we heard a rendition of 2 poems written and sung by Ruhul Amin, a member of Ganga Bhangan Pratirodh Action Nagarik Committee, which wondered at the maya of ‘Maa (mother) Ganga’ and forced us to ponder over it long after we had left the place for another long journey back to Kolkata.

10. Public Lectures 

During the Fifth Winter Course on Forced Migration, CRG hosted two public events in collaboration with noted educational institutions in Kolkata. On 30 November 2007, Heikki Patomaki delivered a lecture on "Beyond Inside/Outside? Four Political Economy Scenarios of the Future of European Union". This lecture was organized in collaboration with the School of International Relations and Strategic Studies, Jadavpur University. The second public event was a public lecture by Jan Breman on “Coolie Migration in the Colonial Era” in collaboration with the Department of Political Science, Rabindra Bharati University.  

"Beyond Inside/Outside? Four Political Economy Scenarios of the Future of European Union” by Heikki Patomaki  
The border of inside / outside politics concerns citizenship and other basic rights. The dynamics of European Union territorial border politics needs to be understood from the processes which has led to the formation of European union. World wars and many other catastrophes have been responsible for the creation of the European Union. 
One of the reasons and consequences of the European Union is securitisation of world politics. The securitisation of world politics is not only about controlling territorial rights but also about using violence collectively at one’s discretion to resolve conflicts. Neo- political community within the United States led capitalist world economy through economic sanctions and other forms of control. While on one hand, transnational capital has opened up economic spaces; neo liberal rules have securitised the economic order.