Sheikh Mujibir Rahman, Oman’s Sultan Qaboos named for India’s Gandhi Peace Prize

India decision to award the Gandhi Peace Prize to Bangladesh’s father of the nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, comes days before PM Modi makes his first foreign visit after the Covid-19 pandemic to Bangladesh.

India on Monday named Bangladesh’s father of the nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and Oman’s longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos for the Gandhi Peace Prize, an official statement by the government said.

This is the first time that the prestigious prize for 2019 and 2020 has been awarded posthumously.

Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said of Oman was the Middle East’s longest-ruling monarch, and known internationally for his diplomatic balancing in the volatile Persian Gulf. He often served as a facilitator of talks between adversaries, Iran and the U.S. He was a key to meeting India’s energy security needs in the Persian Gulf.

The award carries an amount of Rs. 1 crore, a citation, a plaque and an exquisite traditional handloom item.

The decision to confer the award for 2020 on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh, his first foreign trip since the outbreak of Covid-19. PM Modi will attend the national day programme of Bangladesh on March 26 as the guest of honour and participate in the commemoration of what New Delhi has described as “three epochal events” – Mujib Borsho, the birth centenary of Bangladesh’s father of the nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, 50 years of diplomatic ties, and 50 years of Bangladesh’s war of liberation.