A five-member Bangladesh delegation arrived here today to finalize joint celebrations programme with the Indian officials in the Indian capital.
The Bangladesh delegation, led by cultural affairs secretary Suraiya Begum, will hold talks with Indian side headed by Culture secretary Jawhar Sircar here on Thursday and Friday to give finishing touches to the joint commemorative programmes which are expected to start in Delhi on May 7 and in Dhaka the next day.
Mr. Jawhar Sircar had led a 9-member Indian delegation to Dhaka last year to finalise Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s proposal to his Bangladesh counterpart Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for holding joint celebrations of Tagore’s birth anniversary.
The decision to jointly celebrate Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary was taken during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi in January last year when both Prime Ministers had agreed for joint celebration of Tagore’s 150th Birth Anniversary in 2011-12 in a manner befitting his vision and spirit.
High Commissioners of both countries, the secretaries of the culture ministries, representatives of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy and Dhaka University, scholars and cultural personalities like Sankho Ghosh, Bharati Ray, Sutapa Talukdar, Ramendu Majumdar, Sanjida Khatun, Sayed Hassan Imam and Laila Hassan met and discussed the joint celebrations during the visit of the Indian delegation to Bangladesh last year.
The Indian delegation had visited some of the places in Bangladesh, including Shilaidaha, associated with Tagore.
The Indian government have constituted a National Committee under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and a National Implementation Committee under the Chairmanship of Finance Minister Mr. Pranab Mukherjee to celebrate the 150th Birth Anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore in an appropriate manner.
The National Committee in its meeting held on May 20 2010 decided that special emphasis is given to the Joint Indo-Bangladesh Celebrations.