Posts tagged Lumbini

Sudeshna Sarkar (IANS):

Maoist chief and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda finally broke his party’s deafening silence on the controversial $3 billion deal signed in Beijing to transform Lumbini in southern Nepal into a “Buddhist Vatican” without the knowledge or consent of the host country, Nepal.

The former revolutionary said the Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation (APEC), the Hong Kong-based NGO that had signed the deal with the UN Industrial Development Organisation to develop Lumbini, was not Chinese.

Not Chinese? APEC chairman Xiao Wunan is a Party member and a high ranking government official in China’s National Development and Reform Commission. Mr Dahal seems to be anxious to mitigate the political fall-out of his APEC engagement. But this is probably not good enough.

(via daijiworld)

Indian Express quotes Prachanda on his involvment in the Chinese Lumbini plans:

“I am not pro-China. It is wrong to label me pro-China simply because I was supposed to attend the meeting of the Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation for the development of Lumbini,” he said at Tribhuvan International Airport prior to his departure to Malaysia.

He will attend the meeting of Asia Pacific Exchange and Cooperation Foundation in Malaysia, scheduled to kick off on Monday.

The foundation, of which Prachanda is a co-chairman, brought forward a USD 3 billion dollar plan to turn Buddhas birthplace into a “special economic zone” and a “Mecca for Buddhists”. The plans were heavily critisised as non of the local stakeholders had been consulted.

Nevertheless, Prachanda continues to see great benefits for Nepal:

This will not only develop Lumbini, but also bring economic prosperity to the entire country.