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Turkish PM all praise for India

The Turkish prime minister hailed India as a great democracy, saying the country's contemporary history disproved conclusively the argument that democracy and the problems of development were incompatible.

Addressing an audience in Ankara on the occasion of the release of his translation of Rabindranath Tagore's Gitanjali, Bulent Ecevit said he had devoted part of his creative life to India's philosophy, culture and civilisation and was an ardent admirer of the democracy in the country.

India's achievement as a vibrant democracy was all the more remarkable, considering the formidable challenges the country faced as a multi-cultural, multi-linguistic and multi-religious society, he said.

Ecevit, a three-time prime minister of turkey, warmly recalled his early life devoted to the study of Sanskrit and Bengali literature. He described Tagore as a great humanist, philosopher and social reformer, apart from a literary giant and an artist.

He said he had an unfulfilled dream to visit Santiniketan.

In addition to Gitanjali, Ecevit has translated several other works of Tagore. He has also translated the Bhagavat Gita and portions of the Upanishads.

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