It is a global practice to display photographs of foreign dignitaries through billboards, festoons and banners in the cities they visit and Bangladesh is not an exception.
But, during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka, the organisers neither considered diplomatic sensitivity nor aesthetic value of displaying the photographs.
Different billboards and festoons sponsored by the Planning Ministry, Railway Ministry and Social Welfare Ministry were displayed in the city, which gives a notion that the Indian Prime Minister is the guest of the respective ministries, not of the government.
Just outside the Prime Minister’s Office, where the official talks between the two ministers were held, three big festoons sponsored by the Planning Ministry were put up beside a dirty lamppost, where a torn poster underneath is very much visible.
Out of the three festoons, the middle one displayed a picture of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. And the left and right ones displayed pictures of the two prime ministers.
Usually the prominent person or persons are displayed in the middle. If that is the case, the Planning Ministry might have considered Mamata Banerjee as the most important foreign guest.
In Karwan Bazar area, a small Narendra Modi festoon, hanging in a lamppost, covered the face of a model and just behind it, two small festoons of Dove shampoo showed how poor the aesthetics of the Planning Ministry’s festoon is.
In the same location, a Social Welfare Ministry sponsored festoon hanging on a barbed wire displayed pictures of the two prime minister along with a picture of Social Welfare Minister Syed Mohosin Ali.
A senior government official said there are certain practices to put up billboards, festoons or banners of foreign dignitaries.
“The Foreign Ministry fixes the location considering the aesthetic issue and asks the Public Works Department to put up billboards and no names of sponsors is mentioned in those as the person is the guest of the government, not any specific ministry,” he said. “But in the case of Modi’s visit, everybody seems very enthusiastic, which is unfortunate.”
About displaying the picture of Mamata in the middle, he said: “The relationship between Modi and Mamata is sensitive and this type of display should not have happened.”