Indians sacrificed a lot for us during troubled times: Hasina

Shubhadeep Choudhury

Tribune News Service

Kolkata, May 26

Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam — stalwart Bengali poets — dominated the scene as the Bangladeshi premier, Sheikh Hasina, wound up her two-day India visit on Saturday.

On Friday, it was Tagore in whose “ashram” PM Narendra Modi and his Bangladeshi counterpart talked about the two countries’ common cultural heritage. And on Saturday, it was Kazi Nazrul Islam, India-born national poet of Bangladesh, whose work set the tone for Hasina’s speech at the university named after the late poet. Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol, also awarded Hasina honorary Doctorate of literature (D Litt). Such degree was also supposed to be conferred on actress Sharmila Tagore and BARC physicist SM Yusuf. But they expressed their inability to come.

Hasina expressed her gratitude to India for the help extended by it during the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan. “Over 1 crore refugees were given shelter by India. Indians have sacrificed a lot for us. We express our gratitude to Indians for standing by us during the troubled times,” she said.

Nostalgic, Hasina said India had been of great help when her father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the founder of Bangladesh, and 17 of his family members were shot during a military coup in August 1975. Hasina and her younger sister Rehana (who too was present at the function on Saturday) were in Germany when Sheikh Mujib was killed. “Indira Gandhi (the late PM of India) kept track of us and later gave us shelter. Our friends and relations were also given refuge by her. She also took care of other Bangladeshis who were facing threats from the military,” she recalled.