Kolkata : The Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh on Friday discussed a number of bilateral issues, including security and politics, in the sylvan surroundings of the Visva-Bharati University here founded by Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore – the composer of both countries’ national anthems.
The half-hour talks were preceded by two events – the 49th convocation of the university, as also the inauguration of the Bangladesh Bhawan on its campus by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina.
The two leaders, accompanied by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, spent over three hours at this campus housing the university and located in Birbhum sub-division of West Bengal’s Birbhum district, 160 km from Kolkata.
Modi set the tone for the talks during his address at the inauguration of the Bhawan, when he remarked that the two countries have scripted the golden chapter in their relations over the past few years.
“India and Bangladesh are separate countries bonded by cooperation and understanding. Be it culture or public policy, the people of the two countries get to learn a lot from each other,” the prime minister said. One such example is Bangladesh Bhavan, he asserted.
PM Modi also used the occasion to attack those who accuse him of working for the rich, saying people “neck-deep in vote bank politics” should answer if moneyed people lived in the 18,000 villages where his government had provided power for the first time since Independence.
Repeating his ‘naamdar (dynast)’ barb at the Congress, he said they did not know the pain of ‘kaamdars (ordinary workers)’ and were accusing him of working for the wealthy.
On the other hand, Hasina paid glowing tributes to India, and its then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for its role during her Bangladesh’s liberation struggle, and the shelter that she provided to her after the assassination of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman – the leader of the Bangladesh liberation war and first president of independent Bangladesh.
Speaking on Rohingya refugee camps, she said, Bangladesh has given shelter to around 11 lakh refugees on “humanitarian grounds” but want the Myanmar government to take them back as early as possible.
PM apologises for lack of drinking water in varsity
Following unruly scenes over lack of drinking water at the Visva Bharati premises, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday sought apologies from its students during the 49th convocation which he attended as its Chancellor.
“As the Chancellor of Visva Bharati University, I seek your apology. While I was coming here, some students through gestures told me about lack of arrangement for drinking water.
“I seek your apology for the all the inconvenience caused,” said Modi amid loud cheers.
Meanwhile, in a major security breach, a man broke the safety cordon for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give him a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore at the Visva Bharati convocation on Friday.
When Modi was leaving the dias after declaring the convocation closed, the man suddenly went up the platform to give him the portrait. The prime minister took the portrait and handed it over to his security personnel.
SPG personnel caught the man and removed him from the dais.