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Vishwa Bharati honours Sheikh Hasina

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed was today conferred the highest honour of the Vishwa Bharati at a special convocation at the historic Amrakunja in Santiniketan, the university founded by writer and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. She is the sixth foreign dignitary to be honoured by the university.

US president Franklin Roosevelt (1952), Chinese Prime Minister Zhou-En Lai (1957), Afghanistan President Dr B Yusuf (1965), Bangladesh president Abu Syed Choudhury (1972) And Federico M Zara Goza (1993) had also received the Desikottama (D Litt Honoris Causa).

Sheikh Hasina was accompanied by a 165-strong entourage, including three ministers (foreign, education and cultural affairs) and the Bangladesh high commissioner to India. Diplomats, bureaucrats, political leaders, eminent personalities and journalists too were present on the occasion.

Former prime minister and Vishwa Bharati chancellor I K Gujral conferred on her the award which comprised a citation, a plaque and a scarf (uttariya).

The Desikottama was given to her for her role in forging friendly relations among the countries in the Indian sub-continent and her "tireless efforts in upholding democratic values and women's rights".

Sheikh Hasina walked down all the way from Uttarayan to Amrakunja, making light of the security cordon and refusing to board a car as a mark of respect to Rabindranath Tagore.

Addressing the gathering, she called for maintaining peace and friendship in the Indian sub-continent and congratulated both India and Pakistan for restraining themselves after they acquired nuclear potential.

The Bangladesh prime minister said her country was determined to strenghten the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation, the South Asian Federation and other regional fora to help uplift the people of member countries.

In the age of open market economies, it wasn't possible for any country to attain economic freedom in isolation and it was necessary that to co-operate to help the poor, she said.

She later went around Uttarayan to see the paintings of Tagore and other artefacts before leaving for Churulia, the birthplace of rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, the national poet of Bangladesh, in Burdwan district.

UNI

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