Riding high on symbolism,President Pranab Mukherjee arrived here Sunday to a red carpet welcome. However,his maiden visit abroad as head of state hit a discordant note when opposition leader and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia called off a meeting with him scheduled for Monday. Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai refused to comment on the BNP decision but the distress on the Indian side was evident. Mathai noted that the meeting had been scheduled much in advance and that Mukherjee had been looking forward to it. A meeting with the leader of the Opposition is a practice followed by democracies all over the world. While the BNP officially cited the strike called by the Jamaat-e-Islami as the reason for the cancellation of the meeting,what was left unsaid was that the party had extended support to the two-day hartal (Sunday and Monday). The Jamaat is one of the BNPs partners and is protesting against the conviction of its three top leaders for 1971 war crimes,even as a popular upsurge has been building up seeking death for them. Over the past few days,the BNP has tried to link the Shahbag upsurge with New Delhi,and accused the ruling Bangladeshi Awami League of leaning towards India. Mathai underlined that Begum Zia had met Mukherjee earlier in his capacity as the foreign minister as well as finance minister and that External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid had also called on her two weeks ago when he had come to Dhaka. The reason given to us in an email was that there is a hartal and their experience showed that such hartals resulted in violence and therefore holding such a meeting during this time was not suitable, Mathai told reporters. Zias move underlines the delicate balance Mukherjee and his delegation have to strike between competing political forces here,in order to avoid being dragged into the domestic political standoff. The scenes of empty roads and downed shutters,amid reports of more violence and deaths,however did little to dampen the warm welcome accorded by the Sheikh Hasina government to Mukherjee. Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman as well as senior ministers of the Hasina government lined up to receive him at the airport. Mukherjee began his tour with a visit to the national memorial at Savar,near Dhaka,where he paid tributes to those who laid down their lives during the Bangladesh Liberation War. In his remarks in the Visitors Book there,Mukherjee wrote the National Martyrs Memorial symbolises Bangladeshs struggle for justice,emancipation and independence. It reminds us of the valiant sacrifices made by innumerable men,women and children who fought for their homeland Sonar Bangla. In fact,Mukherjee will be presented the Bangladesh Liberation War Honour tomorrow in recognition of his contribution to the freedom struggle of Bangladesh. The Presidents bond with the country can be traced to the early 70s,when,as a young MP,he had moved a resolution in Parliament seeking immediate recognition of Bangladesh. Then prime minister Indira Gandhi had appointed him special envoy and asked him to visit Western countries to lobby for Bangladeshs freedom. In talks he held with the top Bangladeshi leadership on Sunday,including Hasina,several issues were discussed,including the Teesta water sharing treaty and the land boundary agreement. Mathai stressed that the current political situation did not come up. On Monday,Mukherjee will be conferred an honorary doctorate by the University of Dhaka. On the concluding day of his tour,he will go to Bhadrabila village in the Narail district of Bangladesh to visit the ancestral house of his in-laws. He will also visit Shelaidah in Kusthia district where the family estate of Rabindranath Tagore is located and where the poet had written many of his poems,short stories and essays.
