“May I now request the two prime ministers to step down.”
It was a comment by the Chief Protocol Officer anchoring a ceremony on signing of memorandum of understanding after talks Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina, leaving almost everyone at the event in splits.
What the officer meant was to request Modi and Hasina to come down from a raised platform and release a Hindi translation of unfinished memoirs of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The event had taken place at Hyderabad House where Modi and Hasina witnessed exchange of MoUs between the two sides and released the book besides launching a new bus and train service between Kolkata and Khulna in Bangladesh.
As his comments drew loud laughter from media persons and some officials, the protocol officer, after a pause, said, “I now request the two prime ministers who have not stepped down to jointly release the Hindi translation of the unfinished memoir of Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman.”
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Photograph: Vijay Verma/PTI Photo
