Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya arrived in New Delhi today for a three-day visit. This is her first trip to India since she took office in her home country in September this year. Amarasuriya will meet Indian political leaders to discuss bilateral issues of mutual interest, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. Her visit to India comes more than six months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to the island nation. “This will be my first official visit to India as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka. India and Sri Lanka, as you are aware, are closely bound together by history, culture and shared values. Our relationship is one of great depth and importance and I look forward to using this opportunity to strengthen our cooperation in every field, such as trade, investment, education, development and beyond,” Amarasuriya said. The India connection The Sri Lankan Prime Minister has an Indian connection. She is an alumna of Hindu College at Delhi University, and will also visit her alma mater. Amarasuriya earned a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Delhi from 1991 to 1994. In September, when Amarasuriya became the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Hindu College Principal Anju Srivastava expressed pride in the college’s distinguished alumna. “This is a great honor and an important occasion for us. It is like homecoming for Amarasuriya… She studied sociology from 1991-1994,” Srivastava told reporters ahead of Sri Lanka’s prime minister’s visit to the college. Our relationship is one of great depth and importance and I look forward to using this opportunity to strengthen our cooperation in every field. Srivastava said Harini was a student of Sociology from 1991 to 1994, and “we are extremely proud of her achievements”. She expressed hope that Amarasuriya’s “time at Hindu played a role in shaping her path to success.” Amarasuriya also holds a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of Edinburgh. The Hindu College organized a series of events to welcome Harini Amarasuriya on Thursday. “There is a social and ethnographic lab of the sociology department which has become functional recently. We wanted to name the lab after her as a tribute to her visit and her alumnus. She will unveil the new board during her visit,” said Srivastava. During her visit, Amarasuriya will unveil a new ethnographic laboratory of the sociology department in the College. She will also take a tour of “Classroom 27, where she attended classes. “Classroom number 27 has been part of the sociology department for decades. We hope to take her to the room and corridors where she spent most of her time as a student,” Srivastava told Hindustan Times. The college will welcome the guest with a ceremonial Guard of Honor by 16 NCC cadets and a symbolic tree plantation on the college’s front lawn. Hindu College and Politicians Hindu College is one of the most prestigious colleges of the Marge Boshir College in South Delhi. the North Campus of Delhi University, has a long list of alumni who later joined politics. Former Hindu College students turned BJP leaders include Meenakshi Lekhi and Nupur Sharma, though not all were active on campus in the 1990s. Other prominent alumni, like Hardeep Singh Puri and Subramanian Swamy, also joined the BJP later but were not student politicians in the 1990s. (With agency input)
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