NEW DELHI, Dec 2, Reuter: Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was sent warm congratulations to Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto in a letter which Indian officials say could herald a new era of harmony between the two traditional adversaries.
The Indian Prime Minister said he wanted to work closely with Bhutto to make their shared subcontinent safe, according to copies of the letter given to journalists on Friday by a Foreign Ministry spokesman in New Delhi.
The release of the letter was India’s first official reaction since Bhutto became Prime Minister of Pakistan on Thursday, the first woman elected to lead a Moslem nation. *You and [are both children of an era which followed the creation of Pakistan,” Gandhi, 44, said in reference the setting up of the Islamic nation when Britain withdrew from the subcontinent in 1947.
I would wish to work closely with you for removing the irritants which have vitiated relations between our countries,” Gandhi said in his letter expected to be personally delivered to Bhutto by India’s Ambassador in Islamabad.
Gandhi and Bhutto share other bonds. They both succeeded parents in office, Gandhi immediately after his mother was assassinated and Bhutto nine years after her father’s execution.
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