{"id":52933,"date":"2017-05-13T06:46:32","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T10:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=52933"},"modified":"2017-05-13T08:13:35","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T12:13:35","slug":"narendra-modi-plays-the-buddhist-link-as-winning-card-to-make-sri-lanka-accept-india-as-reliable-development-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=52933","title":{"rendered":"Narendra Modi Plays the “Buddhist Link” as Winning Card to Make Sri Lanka Accept India as Reliable Development Partner."},"content":{"rendered":"


\nBy<\/p>\n

P.K.Balachandran<\/strong><\/p>\n

The visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday played the \u201cancient Buddhist link\u201d card with aplomb in a bid to give a firm historical and cultural foundation to his plea that Sri Lanka should accept India as a reliable development partner, Glorifying the teachings of the Buddha and pointing out their relevance to addressing the problems of the crisis-ridden modern world, Modi said that Vesak day is a day for rejoicing as well as reflection on the \u201ctimeless truth of the Dhamma\u201d which the Buddha preached.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n

\"\"

facebook.com\/
narendramodi<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

He was in Colombo as the Chief Guest at the UN-backed International Vesak Day Celebrations at the invitation of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena. Vesak marks the birth, enlightenment and mahaparinibbana (liberation or death) of the Buddha.<\/p>\n

The Buddhist Dhamma\u2019s call for the inculcation of generosity, proper conduct, wisdom, energy, tolerance, truthfulness, determination, loving kindness and equanimity is of great relevance to the conflict-ridden present day world just as it was in Buddha\u2019s time, Modi said. He quoted the Buddha to say that the Dhamma is the greatest gift one can bestow.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The South Asian region, of which India and Sri Lanka are part, is blessed to have given the world the invaluable gift of Buddhism, Modi said, and went on to describe Vesak Day as a day of \u201cenormous significance for Sri Lanka, India and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

India and Sri Lanka share a Buddhist heritage, the Indian Prime Minister said. He recalled that it was from India that the \u201cfragrance of Buddhism\u201d spread to other parts of the world including Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Although Buddhism disappeared from India, its ethos stayed on. Modi claimed that Buddhist ideas manifest themselves in the Indian national psyche even today (though there are very few Buddhists as such in India). India gave Si Lanka Buddhism at the time of Emperor Ashoka, and Sri Lanka has preserved it to this day. In a reverse movement, which took place many centuries later, Anagarika Dharmapala, a Sri Lankan, journeyed to India to revive Buddhism there.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the earliest times to the present day, Buddhism has given radiance to the relationship between India and Sri Lanka,\u201d Modi said.<\/p>\n

Linking past connections through Buddhism to connections of the present day Modi said that the Vesak celebrations afford \u201c a great opportunity for strengthening ties and taking a quantum jump in several field of cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

To assure Sri Lankans that the cooperation with India will not be weighted in favor of the latter, Modi said that the \u201cbenchmark of progress in India-Sri Lanka development cooperation will be Sri Lanka\u2019s satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

He promised that India\u2019s 1.2 billon people will stand by Si Lanka as it progresses towards development and prosperity.<\/p>\n

Modi urged cooperation in the field of connectivity, trade, industry, Information Technology, energy and sharing of knowledge. He pointed out that the foundation for cooperation is quite strong given the fact that India\u2019s development cooperation with Sri Lanka is already worth US$ 2.6 billion.<\/p>\n

To please Sri Lanka\u2019s Sinhalese Buddhists and Tamil Hindus alike, Modi announced that he has decided to provide from August this year, a direct Air India flight between Colombo and Varanasi which is near the famous Buddhist shrines at Sarnath and Bodh Gaya and which is also a holy place for the Hindus as the abode of Lord Vishwanath.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:South Asian Monitor<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By P.K.Balachandran The visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday played the \u201cancient Buddhist link\u201d card with aplomb in a bid to give a firm historical and cultural foundation to his plea that Sri Lanka should accept India as a reliable development partner, Glorifying the teachings of the Buddha and pointing out their relevance …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Narendra Modi Plays the “Buddhist Link” as Winning Card to Make Sri Lanka Accept India as Reliable Development Partner.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52933"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52939,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52933\/revisions\/52939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}