Ø Besides
restoring and opening vital connectivity for more productive relations, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to Dhaka, seen as historic, brought back memories
of the 1971 war of liberation. When the people of the then East Pakistan were
fighting the Pakistan Army, India stood with its eastern neighbour in its quest
for Independence. During Mr. Modi’s trip, he and Bangladesh Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina exchanged significant articles that are a throwback to
1971. Mr. Modi presented Ms. Hasina a memento depicting the helm of INS
Vikrant, the Indian naval ship which played a major role in the war. He handed
over an audio recording of the historic speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
founding father of Bangladesh, at Brigade Maidan in Kolkata on February 6,
1972, and a set of DVDs of parliamentary debates and a transcript of the Land
Boundary Agreement. Ms. Hasina gave Mr. Modi a photograph of the signing of the
historic instrument of surrender of the 93,000 Pakistani military men to the
India-Bangladesh Joint Command in Dhaka on December16, 1971. She handed over a
map of the Indian Special Economic Zone in Bangladesh and a replica of the
1,320-MW Maitree Super Thermal Power Project at Rampal. NS Vikrant
played the most crucial part in shortening the war, cutting off the
reinforcements sent from the then West Pakistan to the East. Mr. Modi
received the Bangladesh Liberation War Award on behalf of the former Prime
Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
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