India to roll out red carpet for Hasina

India to roll out red carpet for Hasina
High hopes from crucial visit
ANIS ALAMGIR
India is all set to roll out the red carpet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina when she leaves Dhaka this evening for New Delhi on a four day crucial bilateral visit, amid high hopes that it will be at turning-point in Dhaka-Delhi relations.
This is her third visit as prime minister of Bangladesh to India, Sheikh Hasina visited India first in December, 1996 when Bangladesh and India signed historic Ganges water treaty for 30 years. Hasina visited India for the second time in June 1998 on a peace mission to ease nuclear tension between India-Pakistan.
As a leader of the opposition she visited India several times, last in June 23, 2006 when she met ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and State Minister for External Affairs E Ahmed.
Hasina's India visit as leader of the opposition was significant because just one day ago the then prime minister Khaleda Zia made an official three-day visit to India from 20-22 March 2006. Khaleda Zia's visit came only at the end of her term (2001-2006) as prime minister.
None-the-less it was the first visit by a Bangladeshi head of government to New Delhi in nine years, after Hasina's summit level visit in December 1996. Likewise, the Indian prime minister's visit to Bangladesh in 2005 to attend the SAARC summit was the first visit of an Indian premier to Dhaka in nearly six years.
India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee came to Dhaka on 19-20 June, 1999 to inaugurate bus service between the two countries.
A special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the Prime Minister and her entourage will take off from Dhaka international airport at 6pm and land at Palam Air Force Base at 8pm (local time).
She will stay at Hotel Maurya Sheraton during her days in the Indian capital on her high-profile visit for resolving the long-standing issues between Bangladesh and India.
Hasina will hold official talks with her Indian counterpart, Dr Manmohan Singh, at 5:30 pm Monday at Hyderabad House when several agreements or memorandums of understanding (MOU) are expected to be signed.
Before that, she will have bilateral talks with Congress President Sonia Gandhi at 10 Janapath.
On the agenda of the official talks, foreign office said the official talks between two premiers will cover the sharing of Teesta waters, Tipaimukh dam, the dredging of Bangladesh rivers, rail connectivity, cooperation in energy and power sectors, removal of non-tariff and para-tariff barriers to exports, border haats, and third-country trade between Bangladesh and Bhutan and Bangladesh and Nepal through India.
Hasina, also the president of the ruling Awami League, will have bilateral talks with India's Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, Indian's Foreign Minister SM Krishna and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at her hotel suite on the same day.
In the morning, the Prime Minister will be given a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhaban. She will pay homage at Gandhi Samadji at Rajghat.
She is scheduled to meet India's President Pratibha Devisingh
Patil at Rashtrapati Bhaban at 12 noon.
On Tuesday, Sheikh Hasina will be officially awarded Indira Gandhi Peace Award at a ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhaban.
She will have bilateral talks with India's Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee at her hotel the same day.
Besides, the Prime Minister will place wreaths at Shakti Sthal, the cremation ground of India's first and only woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and at Vir Bhumi, the cremation ground of her
son Rajiv Gandhi.
She is also scheduled to have interaction with Indian businessmen.
On Wednesday, the Prime Minister will have a breakfast meeting with media men and at 10 am fly to Jaipur by a special aircraft to visit Ajmer Sharif, the shrine of great saint Khwaza Mainuddin Chisti (Rm).
She will fly back home from Jaipur Airport by the BG 1096 flight at 3pm (local time) and arrive in Dhaka at Bangladesh time 5:50pm.
Meanwhile, addressing a seminar on "Bangladesh- India Relations: Exploring New Horizons" held in the city yesterday, foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni said that she believed a better connectivity in this region would open a new era of cooperation and development for the mutual benefit of Bangladesh and India.
Dipu Moni said that Bangladesh was engaged with India on multimodal transport issues under SAARC and BIMSTEC.
"We are having discussions with India on these issues. We are also discussing possible cooperation with India in the communication sector developments in Bangladesh", she added.
She said Bangladesh has several links with India by rail and road on the western part of its border, and now it could think for similar connections on the eastern side.
"This would open a new era of cooperation and development in the region if this could be done for the mutual benefit of the two countries. The improved socio-cultural as well as commercial ties between Bangladesh and northeastern part of India would definitely bring benefit to the people of this region." she added.
Dipu Moni said that for furthering trade relations with India, Bangladesh is now considering establishment of border haats along the northeastern states of India, Mizoram and Tripura through Tegamukh - Demagiri and Ramgarh- Sabroom border-points respectively.
The Foreign minister hoped that upcoming talks between prime minister sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Dr. Manmohan Singh would enable the two countries to build on the already solid foundation of Dhaka-Delhi existing friendly relations.
She viewed there were lots of opportunities for both the countries and they would join their hands together in the months and years for the mutual benefits of the peoples of two countries as well as people in this region.
The foreign minister was chief guest at the roundtable meeting organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) at its auditorium in the city.
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