Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host Sheikh Hasina, his Bangladeshi counterpart, at Shantiniketan - 160 km from Kolkata - on May 25 (tomorrow).
Modi will address the convocation at Visva-Bharati University - of which he is the Chancellor - in Rabindranath Tagore’s abode, Shantiniketan, where Hasina too will be present.
In 2008 Manmohan Singh - the then Prime Minister - was present at the convocation ceremony of Visva-Bharati. Following the convocation, Modi and Hasina are likely to hold bilateral talks and jointly inaugurate the Banga Bhavan (within the university campus) that has been funded by the Hasina government.
Banga Bhavan will house a library, an archival centre and a seminar hall. Apart from works by Tagore, it will have books and photographs on the Bangladesh Liberation War. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will also attend the programme.
Hasina’s itinerary
From Santiniketan, Sheikh Hasina will return to Kolkata. The next day, on May 26 (Saturday), she will visit the Kazi Nazrul Islam University in Assansol (200 km from Kolkata), where she will receive an honorary D.Lit.