NEW DELHI: India’s efforts to reclaim its Buddhist legacy by developing Buddhist circuits have been mired by delays owing to inter-state rivalries. The government was left red-faced as the Thai Ambassador, who went to tour these sites, offered that his country will develop one of the roads.
Sources in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the Southeast Asian countries have been keen on reaffirming their Buddhist ties with India; Vietnam has been trying to establish that Buddhism spread to the country from India via sea route.
“It displays apathy towards our heritage. We have not been able to develop anything there, no infrastructure; the condition of roads is bad,” an official told The Sunday Standard on condition of anonymity, adding that in the second half of 2016 then Thai Ambassador Chalit Manityakul undertook the journey to various Buddhist sites, including Bodh Gaya, where under the Bodhi Tree Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment.
“Thailand even offered to build a road as a symbolic gesture of the historic links between the two countries,” the official added.
An official tried to downplay the lack of coordination between the Union Ministry of Tourism and the governments of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, among others, on the development of Buddhist circuits and said development schemes were in the planning stage.
“The Union government will be identifying places where airports or rail links can be revamped, and the state governments will be providing the land for these projects and hotels and other infrastructures. These things take time,” an MEA official added. “We have only been able to provide for the double entry visa, that will allow pilgrims coming to visit the Buddhist sites to go to Nepal to visit other places and re-enter India.”
In 2014, the Ministry of Tourism had identified places such as Bodh Gaya, Vaishali, Rajgir and Kushinagar in Bihar, and Sarnath and Shravasti in Uttar Pradesh as the places on the Buddhist map of India.
Under the Swadesh Darshaan scheme, it had released `100 crore to develop world-class amenities such as hotels, roads and rail links, but in vain. The government had identified three circuits. First is the Sacred Circuit, including visits to Gaya (Bodhgaya), Varanasi (Sarnath), Kushinagar, Piparva (Kapilvastu) with a day trip to Lumbini in Nepal.
The second one is Extended Sacred Circuit retracing Buddha’s footsteps and will include visits to Bodhgaya (Nalanda, Rajgir, Barabar caves, Pragbodhi Hill, Gaya), Patna (Vaishali, Lauriya Nandangarh, Lauriya Areraj, Kesariya, Patna Museum), Varanasi (Sarnath), Kushinagar, Piparva (Kapilvastu, Shravasti, Sankisa) with a day trip to Lumbini in Nepal. The third is a Buddhist Heritage Trails with visits to other states.