Rajapaksa is scheduled to participate in a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a Buddhist University at Sanchi, 45km from state capital Bhopal.
The Government of Madhya Pradesh in central India has snubbed Tamil Nadu’s regional Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) party by bluntly refusing its request to cancel Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s scheduled visit to Sanchi next week.
Rajapaksa is scheduled to participate in a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a Buddhist University at Sanchi, 45km from state capital Bhopal.
The state’s Chief Secretary R. Parsuram told Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency in Bhopal on Friday: "The Sri Lankan President is coming to Sanchi as scheduled, and there will not be any change in the programme.""A delegation of MDMK also met the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the issue.
It was explained to them that the state government has extended invitations to the heads of 15 countries to take part in the event, and not just to Sri Lanka, and urged them not to hold the planned protest," the chief secretary said.
Bhutan Prime Minister Lyonpo Jigme Thinley has also confirmed participation at the event, Parsuram said.
"We consider Sanchi as a symbol of peace and the university is being set up with the aim of promoting Indian and Buddhist studies and there is no other motive behind it," he added.
In a letter to the state chief minister, MDMK general secretary Vaiko urged the state government to cancel President Rajapaksa’s visit, scheduled on September 21, because it will amount to "unpardonable betrayal against not only Tamils of Tamil Nadu, but also Tamils all over the world."
MDMK is opposed to the visit of the leader owing to the alleged genocide of Tamils in the island-nation.
Vaiko further said in the letter: "MDMK will hold a black flag demonstration at Sanchi against Mahinda Rajapaksa on September 21 through peaceful means, in a democratic manner."
He also said people of Tamil Nadu were "terribly shocked" over the announcement made by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj that, on her invitation, Rajapaksa will participate in the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Buddhist University, being set up at world famous Sanchi.
However, unfazed by the opposition from MDMK, the Madhya Pradesh government has decided to go ahead with the Sri Lankan President’s visit as scheduled.
A world heritage site, Sanchi is a popular tourist destination for Buddhist pilgrims to India from across the globe. It is a site of special significance for Sri Lankan Buddhist pilgrims because it was from here that Emperor Asoka’s son Mahinda went to Sri Lanka with the Buddha’s relics to propagate Buddhism in the island.
It was also at Sanchi that the relics of the Buddha’s two chief disciples Sariputta and Maha-Moggallana are burried in an underground chamber at the temple. Sri Lanka built the chaitiyagiri temple at Sanchi in the 1950s.
It is the location of several Buddhist monuments dating from the third century BCE to the 12th CE and is one of the important places of Buddhist pilgrimage.
(Island)