Santiniketan: If Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina sought to address her domestic as well as international audience from the cultural stage of Santiniketan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee flagged affairs of state.

Modi's first stop in Santiniketan on Saturday was Amra Kunja, where Visva-Bharati's convocation was held. The stress of the speech of the Prime Minister, who is also the chancellor of the varsity, was a clear indication that he came on a bilateral mission.

In his 18-minute speech, the Indian Prime Minister iterated how India stood committed to friendship with Bangladesh. He started his speech in Bengali and Hasina broke into laughter. Modi described how the relationship has reached a " sonali addhyay (golden chapter)" in recent years.

Not only was his speech peppered with praise for Bangladesh for its achievements, it also held out a promise. "The Prime Minister has a vision to turn Bangladesh into a developed country by 2041 and India will do everything possible to help her realise this dream," said Modi, who later met Hasina for a one-to-one meeting.

A source later said the Bangladesh Prime Minister was very pleased with the outcome of the summit meeting.

What they discussed was kept under the wraps but the "informal summit meeting" was good news for New Delhi.

Last month, Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had an informal meeting in Wuhan, which apparently helped the two countries cover "a lot of ground".

Last week, Modi had another informal summit in Russia with President Vladimir Putin.

Against the backdrop of murmurs that India is losing some of its trusted friends like Bangladesh and Bhutan to China, the summit promised the beginning of a new era.

Mamata's messages In September 2011, Mamata had dropped out of the team that accompanied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his maiden Bangladesh visit. But on Saturday, the chief minister, who has been keeping a keen eye on national issues, played an active role as Singh's successor tried to engage with his Bangladesh counterpart.

When Hasina and Modi posed for the cameras after the ceremonial inauguration of Bangladesh Bhavana, Mamata wasn't just another bystander. Hasina called her to step forward, probably realising that the picture looked incomplete without her.

The shutterbugs clicked but the shoot was far from over. All of a sudden, Hasina prodded Mamata to come by her side and the chief minister did so with alacrity.

"Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is very dear to us," she started her speech to a round of applause.

The usual cultural pleasantries followed but Mamata made it a point to dwell equally on Tagore and Nazrul before rolling out a list of what she had done to commemorate the national poet of Bangladesh.

She referred to Bangabandhu, too. "We have plans to set up a Bangabandhu Bhavana," Mamata said.

As Mamata was the first speaker, she probably tried to pre-empt Hasina on the sensitive topic river water-sharing. "A lot of water has flown down the Padma-Jamuna-Meghna rivers and a lot of water will flow in future as well," Mamata said, which some interpreted as a suggestion that the Teesta issue could be a work in progress.