With Mujib ur Rehman at helm, S Asia would've evolved differently: Modi in Dhaka

Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins two-day visit to Bangladesh. (Mohd Zakir/HT PHOTO) (HT_PRINT) — Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins two-day visit to Bangladesh. (Mohd Zakir/HT PHOTO) **(HT_PRINT)**

2 min read . Updated: 26 Mar 2021, 11:02 AM IST Elizabeth Roche

'Perhaps India and Bangladesh could have achieved many decades ago some of the accomplishments that we were able to reach only recently'

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived in Bangladesh on Friday for his two-day visit to take part in Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman’s birth centenary celebrations, said South Asia would have evolved differently if Rehman had not been assassinated.

In an op-Ed in the English Daily Star newspaper, Modi said: "It is a safe bet that with Bangabandhu at the helm, Bangladesh and our region would have evolved along a very different trajectory."

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Talking about the path of India-Bangladesh ties since 1971, Modi said if Rehman had been alive longer "Perhaps India and Bangladesh could have achieved many decades ago some of the accomplishments that we were able to reach only recently... For instance, India and Bangladesh were able to finally overcome the complications of history through the 2015 Land Boundary Agreement. It was a historic moment in the history of modern nation-states. But had Bangabandhu been at the helm longer, this achievement may have come much earlier."

Sheikh Mujib ur Rehman is regarded as the father of the nation in Bangladesh. He was also the father of the current prime minister Sheikh Hasina. Ties between India and Bangladesh have been on an upswing since 2008, when Hasina came back to power with analysts crediting her India friendly policies including sensitivity to India’s security concerns as a big factor for the turn around in ties.

In his piece, Modi said that the two countries could have built a closely integrated economic region, with deeply interlinked value-chains spanning food processing to light industry, electronics and technology products to advanced materials and set up mechanisms to share meteorological, maritime and geological data to protect against the impact of natural disasters.

"Most of all, imagine a scenario wherein our people could study, work, and do business effortlessly across this subcontinent-the world's largest pool of young people joining their energies to create wealth, innovation and drive new technologies. This would have been the most natural vaccine against the toxic infusion of radicalism, violent extremism and hatred in our societies," Modi writes.

"And yet today, it is possible in this dawn of a new and rising Bangladesh to believe that this future is once again within our grasp. With growing income and prosperity, Bangladesh is progressively realising the dream of Bangabandhu, under the able leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It is time to once again chart a bold ambition for our partnership, as Bangabandhu would have done. With the spirit and enterprise of our people as our Bhagya Vidhata, the dispenser of our shared destiny, such a future is closer than ever."