Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with newly appointed Bangladesh High Commissioner M. Riaz Hamidullah at Nabanna building on Monday, June 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday (June 23, 2025) evening met newly appointed Bangladesh High Commissioner M. Riaz Hamidullah at the Nabanna, the West Bengal government’s State Secretariat.
Ms. Banerjee asked the High Commissioner to convey warm regards to Professor Muhammad Yunus and hoped for the well-being and prosperity of the people of Bangladesh.
According to officials present at the meeting, the deliberations were held in a “warm and cordial atmosphere” and the Chief Minister reflected her ideas on development of people with the Bangladeshi envoy. Chief Secretary Manoj Pant was also present during the interaction.
“I expressed that both sides of the border—united not just by language but also by a shared love for mangoes and traditional sweetmeats—should always keep the two people bound by shared history in each other’s mutual interests,” Mr. Hamidullah said.
After the fall of Sheikh Hasina regime in Bangladesh in August 2024, the West Bengal Chief Minister has, on numerous occasions, called for cordial ties between India and Bangladesh and spoken about the cultural and linguistic ties between the people of West Bengal and Bangladesh.
The meeting comes days after Ms. Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging the Centre to engage with the Bangladesh government to investigate the recent incident of vandalism at the historic Kachari House, the ancestral house of Rabindranath Tagore in Shahzadpur.
Published – June 23, 2025 10:33 pm IST
