Hamid pays tribute to Gandhi

Bangladesh President Md Abdul Hamid paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi at his memorial in Raj Ghat, Delhi yesterday on the first day of his six-day official visit to India. 

In the visitors' book, Hamid later described India's Father of the Nation Gandhi as a "great soul of our times".

Hamid was received at the Indira Gandhi International Airport by India's Minister of State for External Affairs Gen (Retd) V K Singh and Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Syed Muazzem Ali and Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pankaj Saran.

From the airport, Hamid, who is paying the visit at the invitation of his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee, was driven straight to the Rashtrapati Bhavan where he will be staying as a guest.

He will hold talks with the Indian president at the Rashtrapati Bhavan this evening. A dinner will be hosted there by Mukherjee in honour of the visiting Bangladesh president.  

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Vice-president Md Hamid Ansari and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad will call on Hamid separately.

The most important part of Hamid's visit will be his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they will discuss bilateral and international issues.

On Tuesday, he will go to Santiniketan to lay the foundation stone of Bangladesh Bhavan at the Visva Bharati University before returning to Kolkata and then to Dhaka on the same day.

Mamata meets Pranab

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee yesterday called on Indian President Pranab Mukherjee at a hospital where he is recuperating after a coronary angioplasty.

The meeting assumes significance as the President will be holding talks with his Bangladesh counterpart Md Abdul Hamid who has arrived here on a six-day visit.

Mamata is understood to have conveyed her stand on the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) with Bangladesh.

The decision to implement LBA was taken by the previous UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina in September 2011.

Under the agreement, both countries will exchange land to strengthen the border.

During his visit to Assam last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said his government would go ahead with the land-swap deal with Bangladesh for a permanent solution to the infiltration problem.

Though Mamata initially had reservations against LBA, West Bengal stands benefited from the agreement by getting more land whereas Assam will be losing some land.