Dec 22, 2000
Category: Tai Situ Rinpoche
Camp: New Delhi 110 001
July 31 ,1998
To. Shri K.R. Narayanan,
His Excellency the President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan,
NEW DELHI
Sub: Ban on Tai Situ Rinpoche – Dharana at Jantar Mantar.
May it please Your gracious Excellency,
By the blessing of the Three Jewels we pray this finds you in good health and spirits, sagaciously handling affairs of our great nation, together with your patriotic and competent Cabinet Ministers.
The Golden Jubilee celebration of our independence from colonial rule will shortly come to an end. At this auspicious juncture we are aware of the continuing threat to our sovereignty from across the icy Himalayas. This has been amply amplified by our hon´ble Union Defence Minister recently.
We, as citizens of India consider it our privilege and duty to draw Your Excellency´s gracious attention to some threat to our national security as given below. It is common knowledge that certain alien residents in India together with many abroad are intent on subverting the social and political fabrique of our country.
Four years ago, August 2, 1994, by order No. 28/94, the Govt. of India had shown considerable maturity in imposing a ban on the entry of Tai Situ Rinpoche, a Tibetan Refugee Lama, from abroad. He had grown up Darjeeling and Sikkim and then settled down in Bir, Himachal Pradesh. Since 1981, Tai Situ Rinpoche became involved in a large variety of activities promoting Chinese interests primarily in the Himalayas, concerning which the central Govt. as also various govts. have complied extensive dossiers.
It must have been on the basis of such substantiated evidence that the central Govt. issued this ban against Tai Situ Rinpoche.
It is in our humble opinion, we feel that there exists no cogent reasons for this ban to be lifted or modified in any manner as the circumstances which led to its imposition in the first place, still continues to exist. Tai Situ Rinpoche moved abroad in 1994 from where he continues to promote Chinese interests under his personal supervision, whilst his friends and agents implement these plans in India, from within the sanctified institutions of Buddhist Monastries such as the Dharma Chakra Centre Rumtek, Sikkim; Sherbaling Monastery, Bir, Himachal Pradesh; Mahe Monastery near the border, Ladakh; Majunatilla, Delhi and elsewhere.
On the other hand, this would be an ideal juncture for Your Excellency to extend this ban to his many comrades such as Gyaltsab Rinpcohe of Ralang/Rumtek, Sikkim.
It has hurt us to learn that his former attorney, now a senior minister in Your Excellency’s cabinet, Sri Ram Jethmalani, is sparing no efforts to have this ban revoked by Your Excellency. Strictly, the Union Minister for Urban Housing and Development has absolutely no concern with such matters, any such attempt being beyond his jurisdiction, would bring to question the motives behind such an attempt.
We would therefore urge Your Excellency to hold extended consultations with intelligence agencies, Chief of Defence Forces and others, and re-affirm this prohibition of re-entry on Tai Situ Rinpoche.
These dossiers will give Your Excellency remarkable insights into, for example, Tai Situ involvement with the smuggling Mafia in India and abroad. Apparently he finances his subversive activities using the money earned through these channels, while projecting an image of religious inscrutability. Rumours have it that a few of His Holiness XVI th Gyalwang Karmapa´s personal antique religious artefacts from Rumtek, Sikkim are being sold clandestinely in Taiwan and elsewhere.
Events since 1981 clearly show that Tai Situ Rinpoche has succeeded in corrupting the corridors of power in Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, J&K. An extrapolation will imply that he wields co. An extrapolation will imply that he wields considerable influence in New Delhi as well, not to mention of course the Dalai lama and his Tibetan Government.
The national security of our nation stands to be in perpetual jeopardy should such individuals be permitted free access to our country. Mr. Jethmalani´s proposal to have this prohibition lifted is certainly not in the interest of our country. On the contrary it reeks of personal and vested interest.
It is therefore that we oppose it vehemently and are staging a peaceful Dharana and procession at Jantar Mantar, July 27 31, 1998.
Your Excellency’s gracious attention is therefore respectfully drawn to some of Tai Situ Rinpcohe´s illegal/unlawful activities directed against Indian interests. Extensive details of these will be available in Govt. dossiers on him.
(a) Tai Situ Rinpoche along with the Taiwanese Minister Chen Li An and then Chief Minister Nar Bahadur Bhandari of Sikkim are deeply embroiled in the on-going controversy at the Dharma Chakra Centre, the famous Karmapa Monastery at Rumtek, in the East District of Sikkim. Chen Li An went to Sikkim between November 28 and December 4, 1993 as a personal guest of Tai Situ and Nar Bahadur Bhandari and Karma Topden, M.P. entring the border state surreptitiously. Later Karma Topden also clandestinely hosted his visit to his farmhouse.
(b) Chen Li An, has since been banned from entering India in he future by the External Affairs Ministry of the Government of India on the basis of an official assessment that he had indulged in objectionable activities during his clandestine visit to Sikkim in December, 1993. The ban order preceded a ¨secret note¨(EWA, UO No. C /104/3/92-TB) dated 20.1.94 signed by Director ( China) Ashok K. Khantha and marked to V.S. Aliwadi, Joint Secretary (F) in the Union Home Ministry.
(c) Since 1992 Tai Situ has been making every effort to bring in and install a young Chinese boy Urgyen Thrinlay Dorje, currently under the privileged tutelage of the Govt. of the Peoples Republic of China, from Tibet as the XVII Gyalwa Karmapa at the Dharma Chakra Centre, Rumtek, Sikkim. The Buddhist population of Sikkim loyal to India has unanimously opposed this move.
(d) Tai Situ Rinpoche bribed former Chief Minster of Sikkim, N.B Bhandari and promised the establishment of a pro-Chinese State Government in the tiny state of Sikkim in the November, 1994 Assembly elections. Your Excellency is undoubtedly aware that China has hitherto refused to recognise Sikkim as an integral part of India.
(e) Tai Situ indulged in benami land transactions adjacent to the Gurgaon- Haryana Road, New Delhi in early 1994. He purchased 500 acres of land to float his ¨Chinese International Centre¨. Fortunately, the CBI officials foiled the entire attempts of Situ. In the face of such damaging evidence ,Mr. Jethmalani Adv. had then failed to defend his client then.
(f) Tai Situ´s men continue to be involved in the criminal activities of trafficking in animal products of endangered species -skin, bones etc. On two occasions in 1992-93 in Delhi and were arrested by the customs officials in the capital. Situ was also involved personally in gold smuggling rackets and arrested twice in Delhi and Calcutta respectively as early as on 29.10.1986. Feb 1993 he was apprehended by Indian customs at Calcutta airport loaded with massive amounts of gold and was released only upon the intervention of Royal Bhutanese Customs authorities.
(h) Such criminality is certainly not welcome to our country particularly when carried out under the cover of a diplomatic Bhutanese passport. Your Excellency could personally request H.M. the King of Bhutan to have such passports issued to people of dubious distinction, impounded forthwith by His Majesty’s Government
(i) Yet another, Ven Bokar Rinpoche and his nephew, Lodro Donyo of Mirik, Darjeeling, W.B. are both ardent supporters of Tai Situ and float around the world under Nepalese passports under various aliases. They also enjoy close proximity to the Chinese Govt. and are allowed to travel freely to and from China. In view of this they too should be declared persona non grata.
(j) Situ´s loyal portage Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche continues to systematically carry on anti-India activities from within the premises of the Dharma Chakra Centre, Rumtek, Sikkim which has fallen in the firm grip of the Chinese agents since early August,1993, as also his monastery Palchen Ling in Ralang in Sikkim. Therefore, it is not only that the prohibition ban against Tai Situ should never be lifted, but there are cogent and valid grounds for the immediate expulsion of Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche from the country.
(k) It has been discovered that amongst other activities, Tai Situ has organised smuggling rings in India Nepal and China. It has been reported that he has formed two parallel Khampa business groups, the one in Kathmandu, the other in Lhasa, Tibet. Since Tai Situ appointed his internal general secretary, Kargay to be incharge of the Kathmandu group and Bhu Chung Chung, a member of the Bureau of Public Security in China, to head the Lhasa venture. In organising this contraband trade, Tai Situ hired people from Tibet and brought them illegally into India to work as carriers and to be used as an intimidating and coercive force where necessary. According to Delhi police, Bhu Chung Chung and another associate, urgyen came to Delhi with Antelope fur, or pashmina, worth $ 2.5m. in the open market. Urgyen was arrested but Bhu Chung Chung escaped.
We, therefore, entreat and implore upon Your Excellency to graciously study our submission above, have them investigated and should Your Excellency find that our petition is justified and in the national interests, order that this prohibitory ban be retained on Tai Situ, and extended to cover Goshir Gylatsab Rinpoche of Ralang/Rumtek, Sikkim and various others such as Ven Trangu and Bokar Rinpoches as given above as well.
We remain Your Excellency´s,
Most obedient servants,
Shree Naryan Singh
Encl: Photocopies of various documents, press clippings, photographs etc. -20 pgs.
Copies to :
1. Shri L.K. Advani
Hon´ble Union Home Minister
Government of India, New Delhi.
2. Mr. George Fernandes
Hon´ble Union Minister for Defence
South Block, New Delhi.
3. Mr. J.M.C. Balayogi
Hon´ble Speaker
Lok Sabha Secretariat
Parliament House, New Delhi.
4. Mr. Ram Jethmalani
Union Minister for Urban Development
Government of India, New Delhi.
5. Mr. Krishna Kant
Hon´ble Chairman
Rajya Sabha Secretariat
Parliament House, New Delhi.
6. Dr. Farooq Abdullah
Hon´ble Chief Minister
Jammu & Kashmir
Srinagar.
7. The Hon´ble Chief Minister
Himachal Pradesh
Shimla.
8. Mr. P.K. Chamling
Hon´ble Chief Minister of Sikkim
Tashi Ling, Gangtok, Sikkim.
9. The Director
Central Bureau of Investigation
C.G.O. Complex, New Delhi
10. The Home Secretary
Ministry of Home Affairs
Government of India
North Block, New Delhi.
11. The Secretary
Ministry of External Affairs
Government of India
South Block, New Delhi.
12. The Press for information and necessary action.
(Source: http://www.karmapa.org.nz/news/71/64/Ban-on-Tai-Situ-Rinpoche—Dharana-at-Jantar-Mantar/”)
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