Bangladesh, India to celebrate together

India and Bangladesh would celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore together in a befitting manner in the year 2011, said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday.
It was agreed between Manmohan and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during her recent visit, he said at a programme at the Science City in Kolkata.
The most fitting commemoration would be the revival of the Bishwa Bharati University, he said adding that the Indian government has already sanctioned Rs 95 crore for its upgradation.
''We are working on preserving Shantiniketan's cultural properties. Over the next four years, we expect to restore many of its priceless paintings, sculptures and murals and the hand-written manuscripts of the poet laureate," he said.
Manmohan, who is also the Chancellor of the Bishwa Bharati, said Rabindra Bhaban and Kala Bhaban of the university would also be modernised.
He said he had been told that there was a possibility of displaying Tagore's paintings, which were last exhibited in Paris and other important cities in the 1930s.
"We are also assisting in fulfilling two long-standing needs - the publication of a Rabindra Chitravali depicting the genius of Tagore's paintings and a comprehensive edition of Tagore's literary works," he added.