Bangladesh opens its two-day programme on Friday in the city as part of the first India-Bangladesh joint celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of poet Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian Nobel prize winner in literature. And in New Delhi, the ceremony of the year-long commemoration will be inaugurated Saturday. Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari arrived in Dhaka on Thursday on a two-day visit to the celebration here.
Ansari is scheduled to join Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in opening the main function of the birth anniversary of
Rabindranath Tagore at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the capital on Friday.
Similarly a high level Bangladesh delegation, led by planning minister AK Khondker, reached Delhi to attend the celebration in India.
The two countries decided to jointly celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of the world famous Bengali poet during prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi last year.
The two countries have chalked out various programmes to commemorate the poet who had written the national anthems of both India and Bangladesh.
Bdnews24.com adds: Performances by Rabindra Sangeet maestros Rezwana Choudhury Bonna and Dwijen Choudhury will mark the two-day Delhi programme starting Saturday.
They will be joined by Hindustani classical music vocalist Madhup Mudgal, who will present a Rabindra Sangeet recital in Hindi, the Indian Ministry of Culture said in a statement on Thursday.
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh will preside over the inaugural ceremony at the Vigyan Bhavan in Delhi, while Bangladesh planning minister A K Khandakar will attend it as chief guest.
The chairperson of India’s ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, Sonia Gandhi, is also expected to
be present as guest-of-honour.
An official of the Indian government said Khandakar would be accompanied by a 20-member delegation, comprising MPs, senior government officials and Tagore experts from Bangladesh.
Indian government last year constituted a National Committee under the chairmanship of prime minister Singh and a National Implementation Committee under the chairmanship of finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to oversee the celebrations.
During the inaugural ceremony in Delhi, the National Implementation Committee members will present to Singh and Khandakar important commemorative items, including Rabindra Chitravali, which is a distinctive– first of its kind – compilation of around 2000 paintings of Tagore brought out with support of Ministry of Culture of the Indian government.
A set of DVDs of “Tagore Stories on Film” and Satyajit Ray’s Documentary on Tagore will also be released on the occasion.
Courtesy of The Independent