Tagore’s plaque in Iranian parliament

Amid efforts for a greater diplomatic bonhomie between India and Iran, poet and nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore will find a place in Iran’s Majles (Parliament) 79 years after his visit to Tehran.

Amid efforts for a greater diplomatic bonhomie between India and Iran, poet and nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore will find a place in Iran’s Majles (Parliament) 79 years after his visit to Tehran.

HT Image

A plaque inscribed with his poem ‘Paroshye Janmodine’ (A birthday in Persia) will be unveiled by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in the Majles museum. A statue of scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose will also be unveiled by Kumar at the University of Tehran’s science and technology park.

Kumar will lead a six-member parliamentary delegation to the Iranian Parliament on November 2.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in September and is scheduled to visit Tehran soon. A delegation from the Iranian central bank also visited New Delhi and held discussions with RBI and finance ministry officials to explore different avenues of economic cooperation.

While Iran supplies almost 20% of India’s oil import, New Delhi is looking forward to Iranian investments in the petroleum sector. Two Iranian banks have also applied for license to open branches in India. New Delhi has also assured Iran that it will soon ink the bilateral Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement and the Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement.

The two countries have also agreed to set up a payment mechanism to facilitate bilateral trade. Tagore visited Iran on April 28, 1932. Tagore also visited Shiraz city to pay homage to renowned Iranian poets Hafiz and Sa’adi.