PM Modi's visit to Bangladesh's Orakandi would send positive message to Matua community: BJP MP

Dhaka [Bangladesh], March 26 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Shantanu Thakur on Friday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Orakandi in Bangladesh would send a positive message to the Matua, Namasudra, Rajbansi and other Scheduled Castes (SCs) in India.
Thakur, who is currently at Orakandi, welcomed PM Modi in Bangladesh, during the latter's two-day visit to take part in Mujib Borsho and Independence Day celebrations. He lauded PM Modi and his counterpart Sheikh Hasina for taking the two nations forward.
"PM Modi is coming to Orakandi and will visit several other places in Bangladesh. This signifies that relations between India and Bangladesh are going to be very strong in the future. It is a very good thing that the Prime Ministers of both countries met each other," said Thakur, who is Lok Sabha from West Bengal's Bangaon.
"PM Modi's visit to Orakandi would send a positive message to the Matua, Namasudra, Rajbansi and other Scheduled Castes (SCs) in India. It (PM Modi's visit) is creating a distinct identity in the world for the Matua community and other backward communities from both countries are getting recognition. Both Prime Ministers have important roles in taking the countries forward," he added.
During his visit, the Prime Minister will pay respect to Harichand Thakur at his shrine in Orakandi. Harichand Thakur was the founder of the Matua sect, a community that holds significance in the cultural ethos of Bengal. Thakur's shrine in Orakandi is the founder of the Matua Mahasangha, which was a religious reformation movement that originated in Orakandi in about circa 1860.
On March 27, PM Modi will visit the famous Jeshoreshwari Kali temple in Satkhira.
During the visit to two temples, PM Modi is expected to exchange views with the locals as wells.
The Prime Minister had arrived at the Dhaka airport earlier today for his two-day visit to Bangladesh. He received a warm welcome from his counterpart Sheikh Hasina.
PM Modi later visited the National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar Upazila, Dhaka and laid a wreath to commemorate the fallen freedom fighters of the 1971 Liberation War.
He also received a warm welcome from members of the Indian diaspora at a hotel in Dhaka.
The Prime Minister's visit comes as Bangladesh is celebrating its 50th independence day and the centennial birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
PM Modi will later call on Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid during the visit and will hold restricted delegation-level talks with his counterpart Hasina.
This is PM Modi's first foreign visit since the COVID-19 outbreak. (ANI)