NEW DELHI: Bangladesh Prime Minister Hasina Wajed on Tuesday was conferred the coveted Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2009 by President Pratibha Patil at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Unveiling her vision for South Asia, Hasina said India and Bangladesh should work together to achieve peace and progress in the region. India is also viewing Hasina’s visit as a historic opportunity to build a new forward-looking relationship with Bangladesh.
In her acceptance speech at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Hasina said: “We want to have good and friendly relations with all our neighbors. We must work for a South Asia where peace, harmony and progress will prevail. Till we achieve this, our struggle will continue.”
Recalling her association with Indira Gandhi, an emotional Hasina referred to the gruesome assassination of her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and 18 other family members, and said: “We had nowhere to go at that time. Our government then did not allow us to return to our homeland. It was Indira Gandhi who gave us shelter.”
President Patil expressed her commitment to strengthen Indo-Bangla relations and believed that both the countries have the determination to forge stronger bonds of cooperation and trust, based on the foundations of a shared history and culture.
“It is a rather exceptional commonality that our national anthems were written by the same person — the great poet, Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, whose 150th birth anniversary, we will be jointly celebrating,” Patil said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said: “Yet no cause was dearer to Indiraji than the emergence of a strong and prosperous South Asia on the world scene. She was an ardent advocate of peace and development in the region. Her empathy and unwavering support for justice and what is right defined her attitude to the people of Bangladesh. It is, therefore, befitting that this year’s Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is being awarded to an outstanding political figure of South Asia.”
