Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina huggedCongress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra when she called on her onSunday, prompting the latter to describe the hug as "overdue".
"An overdue hug from Sheikh Hasina Ji whom I havebeen waiting to meet again for a long time. Her strength in overcoming deeppersonal loss and hardship and fighting for what she believed in with braveryand perseverance is, and always will be a great inspiration for me," Priyankatweeted after the meeting with the Bangladeshi premier along with former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh, her mother and Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi andCongress leader Anand Sharma.
The meeting lasted around half-an-hour with the Congress leaders discussing issues concerning the two countries. The "deep personal loss" that Priyanka wrote about was the assassination of Sheikh Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rehman and most of the family on August 15, 1974, in Bangladesh. She escaped death because she was in Germany with her husband.
Itwasn't until May 1981 that she was not allowed to return to Bangladesh aftershe was elected to lead the Awami League Party.
SheikhHasina is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Bangladesh and won a fourthterm in December 2018.
PrimeMinister Hasina's four-day official visit to India ends Sunday. Earlier thisweek, she held a series of bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi ontrade, connectivity and people-to-people ties and also attended theIndia-Bangladesh Business Forum, held on the sidelines of the World EconomicForum.
