Kolkata: Bangladesh will be the first country to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Man Ki Baat’ programme while PM’s speech will be aired in Bangla language.
Not only people in Bangladesh will hear Modi’s voice but this will be also the first time when the citizens of neighbouring country will get a chance to ask questions to the Indian prime minister.
All India Radio has made the arrangements to air ‘Man Ki Baat’ through their upcoming Bangla language service channel Akashvani Maitree.
The PM’s speech is likely to put more emphasis on Indo-Bangladesh "relationship and friendship".
The purpose behind this new initiative from India is to strengthen the bilateral ties and to break the monopoly of Pakistani and Chinese radio channels in the neighbouring country.
Prasar Bharti CEO Jawhar Sircar told Economic Times, “This is the first major outreach that Akashvani made to Bangladesh by upgrading its own special Bangla service to access talent and knowledge from Bangladesh
“There had been some concerted efforts, inimical to our country. Bangladesh has been targeted by such forces through radio. There had been attacks on the freethinkers in Bangladesh too,” said Amlanjyoti Mazumdar, director at AIR's external services division said.
“We will try to motivate the people living there with our tradition and culture. Both sides of Bengal share almost similar culture and tradition,” he further added.
The channel will be innaugrated by President Pranab Mukherjee this month in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
