Indian PM Modi, Bangladesh PM Hasina and West Bengal CM Banerjee at Shantiniketan

With West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sharing the dais with him on Friday, 25May, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened his speech at the 49th convocation of the Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, about 160 km from Kolkata, with an apology.
“First of all, as the chancellor of Visva-Bharati University, I seek your apologies. When I was coming here, some students were telling me with gestures that there is no arrangement of drinking water. I want to apologise for all the inconvenience caused to you,” PM Narendra Modi said.
Hailing Indo-Bangladesh ties, PM Modi said: “Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is present with us. India and Bangladesh are two separate countries, but our interests are connected. Be it culture or public policy, we learn a lot from each other. One such example is Bangladesh Bhavan.”
This is Modi’s first visit to Santiniketan, the sprawling campus housing the university built by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in Bolpur sub-division of West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee had earlier said that the “Teesta river was the lifeline of north Bengal and there was very little water in it.” She also said other trans-national rivers could be diverted to meet Bangladesh’s water needs.
The Teesta water sharing issue was discussed by the two countries in India’s capital New Delhi on 9 April. Besides an advance team of SPG personnel, Rapid Action Force, crack commandos and a large number of state police personnel had been deployed to ensure fool-proof security. Sniffer dogs were doing the rounds of the venues – the convocation arena and also the Bangladesh Bhavan, which was  inaugurated on Friday.
PM Modi Avoids the Mention of Rohingyas
While Modi skipped mentioning the Rohingyas in his address, his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina said that Bangladesh wants to interact with Mynammar to send the Rohingyas back: “Rohingyas have taken shelter in Bangladesh. We’ve given them a place on humanitarian grounds. We want them to return to their country as early as possible. I request you to help us to interact with Myanmar so that they take Rohingyas back.”
Bangladesh Bhavan
Located within the Visva-Bharati campus, the Bangladesh Bhavan is constructed at cost of 25 crore. Another 10 crore will be handed over to the university for maintenance and upkeep.
The 9,000-sq-ft facility will house a museum, library and a seminar hall. The library will house 6000 books, a collection of e-books and a multimedia collection.
The museum will have sections on freedom struggle in undivided India; Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971 and its struggle for Bengali language and; on the influence of Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote both the nations’ national anthems, on Bangladesh.
> Pratyusha Mukherjee, Kolkata, India