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Journalism of Courage
A month after Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visit to Dhaka,Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina exchanged pleasantries through letters and photo albums. At an official level,New Delhi is facilitating an official ceremony to inaugurate the Teen Bigha corridor next week.
Sources said Gandhi sent a thanks-giving letter to Hasina last week expressing her gratitude for the hospitality during her July visit,which was promptly responded to by the Bangladesh PMs office with an album of pictures of Gandhis visit taken during that trip.
The Gandhi-Hasina family relations go back to the previous generation of Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.
With the warmth between the two political families at play,a month after India gave 24-hour unfettered access to Bangladesh nationals through the Teen Bigha corridor,New Delhi and Dhaka are working towards an official ceremony on October 8 when Hasina will drive through the corridor and formally inaugurate the round-the-clock access to the corridor.
The Teen Bigha corridor is a strip of land belonging to India equivalent to the size of a football field on the West Bengal-Bangladesh border,which separates Bangladesh from one of its enclaves,Dahagram. Between 1971 and 1992,India did not allow access to Dahagram,but in 1992,a 12-hour access was granted to Bangladesh. During Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visit on September 6 and 7,India opened the access for 24 hours.
