M A I N   N E W S

Centre to consult Dalai Lama
Installation of Karmapa

GANGTOK, April 23 (UNI) — Union Home Minister L.K. Advani has said the Centre would hold talks with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on the installation of the 17th Karmapa Urgyen Thinley Dorjee to the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim.

“We have to take into account many things before taking any decision of the early installation of the 17th Karmapa to Rumtek, any way, the Dalai Lama , with whom we often hold talks about him, is to be consulted,” Mr Advani told newspersons at Raj Bhavan here last evening.

Mr Advani said, “Several representatives of the Karma Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhism and Rumtek monks met me, requesting the Centre for the early installation of the teenaged monk to the Kagyu sect’s headquarters at Rumtek,” and added, since the Dalai Lama also wanted him (Karmapa) to stay and study at Dharamshala for some more time, “We need to consult him on the issue, keeping in mind several aspects surrounding the young monk,” the Home Minister added.

The minister, however, maintained that the “early” installation of the living god of the Kagupa sect in Rumtek’s dharma chakra centre, was not possible.

Mr Advani said the centre was considering reopening the border trade route between China and India through Sikkim. The trade route was declared closed soon after the 1962 Indo-China conflict.

The Union Minister said, “We are considering to restore the border trade route with Tibet and China through the Nathula border pass on the erstwhile silk trade route between Gangtok and Lhasa”.

Yesterday, Mr Advani made two attempts by a helicopter to visit the 14,000 feet border pass at Nathula, some 54 km from here, but failed due to bad weather in the upper region.

He, however, visited the mountain pass today by road before flying to the Tin-Bigha corridor between north Bengal and Bangladesh. The Home Minister also pledged to take up the issue of financial compensation to the former Chogyal’s family which was promised by New Delhi at the time of merger of Sikkim with the Indian Union in 1975.

The Home Minister, who declined to comment on whether China has made any defence structures in the Sikkim sector like those on the western sector, said he would visit several outposts between Bangladesh and India in north Bengal today.

Describing infiltration as a “very serious problem”, he said, “the Centre has instructed all state governments in the east and the north-east to appreciate the gravity of the problem.”

Mr Advani who will visit the Tin- Bigha corridor said, “Negotiations are on to settle the issue of exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh”. Mr Advani also ruled out the possibility of setting up a CBI inquiry for the recent massacre of 22 people in Kabrianglong in Assam.