‘Bangladesh-India are connected through heart'

Outgoing Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami has said Bangladesh-India relationship is a “train” that must keep moving to do more great things together.

“That energy needs to be carried through,” he said, adding that there are many great things that the two countries have achieved together in the past decade which should be celebrated. 

Speaking at a reception at the High Commission of India in Dhaka Thursday evening, Doraiswami said people of Bangladesh and India are connected through hearts and souls; and it is stronger than blood relations.

Doraiswami said Bangladesh-India relationship will have challenges but it is a relationship built with the connection between hearts.

The Indian diplomat said, the most important aspect of Bangladesh-India ties is, “We are your relatives and you are our relatives.”

Therefore, he said, expectations from each other can sometimes be unrealistic.

The high commissioner urged his friends in Bangladesh to always look at the glass as “half full”.

“We have, of course, things that we need to do together,” he said.

Doraiswami said there are many kinds of honour that one has in life but serving in a country like Bangladesh, the country that is of such significance and importance to India, has doubled the honour.

Current and former ministers, opposition leaders, business leaders, diplomats, civil society members, artistes and senior journalists joined the reception hosted by the High Commission to say goodbye.

High commissioner Doraiswami is likely to leave Dhaka on 18 September, wrapping up his “engaging” tenure in Bangladesh. He has been appointed as the next high commissioner of India to the United Kingdom and is expected to take up the assignment shortly.

Pranay Kumar Verma, who most recently served as ambassador of India to Vietnam, has been appointed the next high commissioner of India to Bangladesh.

He is expected to arrive in Dhaka on 21 September and formally take up the assignment shortly after submitting his credentials to president Abdul Hamid.

Pranay Verma joined Indian Foreign Service in 1994 and has held diplomatic assignments in Hong Kong, San Francisco, Beijing, Kathmandu and Washington DC.

He has served as the joint secretary of the East Asia Division at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi since June 2017.

Earlier, he also served as the joint secretary for external relations at the Department of Atomic Energy looking after India’s nuclear diplomacy.