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'Same emotions': PM Modi says he was waiting to meet Bangladesh's Matua community since 2015
A long-cherished wish has been fulfilled, PM Modi said as he addressed the people of Orakandi in Gopalganj. He said he received great affection from the Matua community of West Bengal, especially from Boro ma Binapani Devi Thakur.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a two-day trip to Bangladesh, met the Matua community members of Orakandi on Sunday and said he felt the same emotions as felt by Matua community members in India after coming to Orakandi. "I was waiting for this opportunity for many years. When I visited Bangladesh in 2015, I had expressed my desire to visit Orakandi," he said.
India will upgrade one middle school and set up a primary school in Orakandi, PM Modi said.
Commencing his speech with 'Hari Bol, PM Modi said, "I got the opportunity to come here by the grace of Shri Shri Harichand Thakur."
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"I was speaking to some people here. They were saying who could have thought that India's Prime Minister would visit Orakandi. I am feeling the same emotions my Matua brothers and sisters in India feel coming to Orakandi," PM Modi said. "I have always been very close to the family members of the Thakurbari," he said, referring to Boro ma, Binapani Devi Thakur, the former head of the sect who passed away in 2019. He also referred to Lok Sabha MP Shantanu Thakur, who belongs to the Thakur family.
His address to the Matua communities of the neighbouring country comes at a time when West Bengal is polling for the first phase of its eight-phase election. Matuas in West Bengal, those who have come to India after partition, make up for a large vote bank in 24 Parganas (North and South) and Nadia.
"The way India and Bangladesh governments are working towards strengthening their ties, Harichand Thakur and Thakurbari have been doing this for ages. This place symbolises the spiritual tryst of India and Bangladesh," PM Modi said adding that both India and Bangladesh want to see the world progressing through their own progress. "Both nations want to see stability, love, and peace in the world instead of instability, terror, and unrest," he said.
Matua Mahasangha is a religious group of Hindu Scheduled Caste population that launched a religious reformation movement under Harichand Thakur from Orakandi, where PM Modi visited on Saturday. After Partition, Thakurnagar of North 24 Parganas in West Bengal became another centre of this Matua community.
