A day after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik suggested a direct flight from Bhubaneswar to either Jakarta or Bali in Indonesia, Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday proposed to declare Cuttack and Bali as ‘sister cities’ in the backdrop of rich historic links between Odisha and Indonesia.
Mr. Pradhan made this suggestion while participating in the ongoing three-day Kalinga-Indonesia Dialogue here at Ravenshaw University. He said the Millennium city Cuttack has played a central role in establishing cultural ties with Indonesia.
To meet Sushma
“To enrich the bond and to ensure development for Cuttack, steps should be taken to declare Cuttack and Bali as sister cities”, Mr. Pradhan said assuring that he would take up this issue with Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Tracing the trade and cultural links between ancient Kalinga and the erstwhile independent archipelagos of Bali, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and others, Mr. Pradhan said the people of Cuttack city still remember the valiant ventures of those seafaring traders by observing ‘Boita Bandana’ and the ‘Baliyatra’ every year on the day of Kartika Purnima on the banks of Mahanadi here.
The Union Minister further suggested that the same rituals and festivals could also be organised in Bali to strengthen the ties between the two cities, in which, the youths of both the cities could be roped in to play vital roles.
Ruing over the fact that very less has been explored about the 2000-year-old foreign trade of the erstwhile Kalinga with that of other places across the globe through sea routes using non-mechanised boats, Mr. Pradhan urged the International Studies Department of the University to scan the present socio-economic cultural changes of those countries against the backdrop of their ancient links with Kalinga.
“Cuttack has played a central role
in establishing cultural ties with Indonesia”
