Speaker to attend ceremony in Delhi

The Speaker of Jatiya Sangsad, Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, will represent Bangladesh at Indian prime minister-elect Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony on Monday.
The speaker will represent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina since the latter is scheduled to leave for Tokyo on May 25 on a four-day official tour.
“Yes, I am going to attend the ceremony and will represent the prime minister of Bangladesh,” Speaker Shirin Sharmin told The Daily Star over phone.
She is expected to leave Dhaka for Delhi on May 25.
Amid speculations of other senior cabinet members going to attend the ceremony, the government has decided to send Shirin Sharmin as, according to the Warrant of Precedence, the position of speaker is after the president and the prime minister.
“We have sent an invitation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the speaker is going to represent her,” a senior diplomat at the High Commission of India told The Daily Star yesterday.

Narendra Modi has invited the leaders of SAARC countries, including Bangladesh and Pakistan, to his oath taking ceremony as prime minister next Monday, which is considered as a bold step to embark on a policy of regional engagement.
Modi will be administered the oath as the 15th prime minister of India by President Pranab Mukherjee at the forecourt of the historic Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi which will be attended by more than 3,000 guests.
This is for the first time that these foreign leaders have been invited to an Indian prime minister's swearing-in ceremony.
“Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh has written to his SAARC counterparts inviting their leaders to attend the swearing-in ceremony on May 26,” Syed Akbaruddin, spokesperson of the Indian external affairs ministry, said in New Delhi yesterday.
The spokesperson added that invitations to the SAARC heads of state and government had been sent on behalf of prime minister-designate Modi for the swearing-in ceremony.
Apart from Hasina and Nawaz Sharif, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom have also been invited, reports Our New Delhi Correspondent.
Some of the leaders including Karzai, Rajapaksa and Tobgay have indicated that they may attend the ceremony.
Narendra Modi's party BJP yesterday said it was his desire to invite the heads of state and government of all Saarc countries at his swearing-in, saying it was a first step towards improving ties with neighbours.
BJP leader Arun Jaitley said, “It is the Modi government's intention to maintain good ties with its neighbours and this is the first indication of that intention.”