Japan has always been the quickest to extend relief to any country facing a humanitarian crisis. In the wake of its cataclysmic earthquake and subsequent tsunami, former Indian ambassador to Japan Aftab Seth hopes that India can extend the same measure of compassion to a country that is celebrated for its resurgence.
The P V Narasimha Rao government in the 1990s had been on the verge of bringing to India the ashes, believed to be the mortal remains of Subhas Chandra Bose now kept at the Renkoji Temple in Japan, but was dissuaded from doing so due to an intelligence report.
Japanese Emperor Akihito and his wife Empress Michiko'six-day on Saturday to India is expected to be defining moment in India-Japan relations.
A group of retired civil servants also called upon the PM to reach out to the families of the victims in Unnao and Kathua and "seek their forgiveness on behalf of all of us".