India's PM pledges Karmapa review
Deccan Chronicle, Feb 27, 2011
Gangtok, Sikkim (India) -- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assured a Buddhist delegation that he will personally look into the matter of Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje and review the entire case.
A Buddhist delegation called on the Prime Minister on Saturday to discuss the problems facing the Karmapa.
A press release issued by the Joint Action Committee of Buddhist Organisations of Sikkim, former Finance Secretary, Kunzang Sherab, said that the Prime Minister reassured the delegation that 'he fully understood the sentiments of the Buddhists' and promised that as soon as the Budget session was over, he would personally look into the matter and review the entire case.
The delegation comprised Lok Sabha MP PD Rai, former MP and Union Minister from Ladakh P. Namgyal, former member of the National Commission of Scheduled Tribes Lama Lobzang and former MP and Ambassador Karma Topden.
They also submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister requesting him to 'look into all the problems that the Karmapa was facing and allow him to visit Sikkim'.
The Centre on February 16 is understood to have given a clean chit to the Karmapa in the case relating to the huge foreign currency haul from his house, saying the money had come in the form of donations and offerings by devotees.
This was the conclusion arrived by the central government after its agencies probed the case following the recovery of foreign currency to the tune of Rs 7.5 crore from the Gyuto Monastery, the transit home of the Karmapa, in Himachal Pradesh.