New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi will discuss bilateral relations with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during a visit to Dhaka July 25, said a party official.
Gandhi is to receive the ‘Swadhinata Sammanona’ – the highest state honour of Bangladesh – being awarded posthumously to former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi. Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman will present the award to Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law at a function in Dhaka.
Indira Gandhi, who threw the full weight of her government behind the 1971 Bangladesh liberation struggle, is being awarded the highest honour 40 years after Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan.
Sonia Gandhi, who has been invited by Prime Minister Hasina, will also address a seminar on autistic and disabled children.
The visit comes three weeks after a remark by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Bangladesh triggered protests by Bangladesh opposition parties and groups.
In an interaction with a group of editors here June 29, Manmohan Singh said: “…Bangladesh, our relations are quite good. But we must reckon that at least 25 percent of the population of Bangladesh swear by the Jamaat-e-Islami and they are very anti-Indian, and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI.”
The Inter-Services Intelligence is Pakistan’s spy agency.
A senior government official said that Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna’s visit to Dhaka July 6-7 has removed much of the confusion about Manmohan Singh’s remarks. (IANS)