Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be conferred the first Netaji Subhas Award for her outstanding contribution to the struggle for restoring democracy in her country.
Debabrata Biswas, general secretary of the All-India Forward Bloc and a member of the Netaji Foundation, which will give the award, told PTI in Kolkata that he had written to Suu Kyi on December 27, conveying the foundation's decision.
Another Forward Bloc leader G Devarajan said U Thang, the spokesman of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, had spoken to him on telephone and accepted the invitation.
As Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest in Myanmar, is not in a position to personally receive the award, leaders of the NLD will arrive in Kolkata to accept it on her behalf, he said.
Devarajan said Suu Kyi's father, late Gen Aung San, had supported Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose when he entered Burma in 1943 with the INA to fight Anglo-American forces.
He said the award will be given on a day between January 23 and January 25, during Netaji's birthday celebrations.