With a view to complete the unfinished agenda of the joint communiqué signed on the visit of the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January 2010, the present Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has assured to use his position in ensuring connectivity between the two countries.
The Chief Minister of Tripura, Manik Sarkar met the President on Monday who assured him that he will utilise his office to improve connectivity between India and Bangladesh, Rashtrapati Bhavan sources said.
The all-important possible connectivity between India and Bangladesh was discussed between Sarkar and the President when the former called on the latter at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday.
“The president has assured Sarkar to do whatever he can in his present role for improving connectivity between India and Bangladesh. Expansion of connectivity is very essential for the mountainous northeastern region,” a Rashtrapati Bhavan official said.
India’s northeastern states have been for a long time demanding transit facilities through Bangladesh by rail, road and even by using sea and river ports.
On the front of cultural exchanges, Bangladesh has become proactive after the recently concluded joint celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Kavi Guru Rabindranath Tagore.
A high level eight member Bangladesh delegation led by its Minister of Culture and Information, Abul Kalam Azad called on the Indian Minister of Culture and HUPA on Kumari Selja here on Monday.
During the half-an-hour meeting both the dignitaries exchanged views on further strengthening cultural ties between the two countries.
India and Bangladesh share close historical, cultural and ethnic links. The cultural agreement between the two countries was first signed in Dhaka in December, 1972. Both the Ministers appreciated the successful implementation of a number of articles listed in the current Cultural Exchange Programme for the years 2010-12 between India and Bangladesh which was signed on January2010 in New Delhi in the presence of the Prime Ministers of the two countries when the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina paid a State Visit to India.
The two ministers further exchanged ideas about capacity building and trainings of the officers and technical staff from Bangladesh in conservation and management of archaeological sites. It was agreed that both sides should increase the cultural exchanges between India and Bangladesh. For this purpose the Joint Commission as per Article 31 of the current Cultural Exchange Programme (CEP) should be activated so as to meet frequently to review the progress of the implementation of the CEP. Both sides also agreed to strengthen institution-to-institution coordination in the fields of conservation and restoration, drama, literature, fine arts and performing arts etc., apart from exchanging exhibitions. The delegation from Bangladesh expressed interest in the visit of a team led by DG, ASI to Bangladesh to do a training needs assessment on priority.
The visiting dignitary invited Culture Minister Kumari Selja to pay a visit to Bangladesh. The latter invited Azad to the Culture Ministers Conference proposed to be held in New Delhi in February, 2013.
Azad, along with his 7 delegates, will now proceed to Kolkata for the presentation of replicas of the Padma and Chapola Boats on September 12, 2012 to Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan and Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata.
The Padma boat, along with the Kuthibari in Silaidaha in Bangladesh’s Kusthia district, in intrinsic to Tagore’s creative output, agree scholars. The poet is known to have used the houseboat regularly as a retreat in between his managerial duties at the family estate intermittently for a decade from 1890. On this Boat, Tagore began his English translation of ‘Gitanjali’. ‘Malini’ was also written in during this period.
The Chapala was a dinghy attached to the Padma. The poet used it to travel into narrow strips of water where the barge couldn’t go.