Sources stated that the government is considering a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Lumbini in Nepal, the Buddha’s birthplace and a UNESCO world heritage site, ahead of Buddha Purnima (birth anniversary) on May 16. According to the sources, Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba would also be at Lumbini to commemorate the anniversary.
Mr. Deuba’s visit, which comes a month after a bilateral visit to India, is not scheduled to include a stop in Kathmandu at this time. The Prime Minister’s journey to Nepal will be one of three in May since he resumed overseas travel following the emergence of the last Omicron form of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is currently traveling Europe and will head east for the Quad Summit in Japan, which will take place on the 23rd and 24th of May.
Kathmandu’s next envoy
While no official bilateral negotiations are scheduled during the visit to Nepal, the government is moving rapidly to name the next Ambassador to Nepal, who will take over once Vinay Kwatra takes over as Foreign Secretary on Sunday, and who will be in place before the visit.
According to a source familiar with the decision-making process, South Block has considered a number of senior IFS officers who have served in Kathmandu or at the “North” desk, which oversees relations with Nepal and Bhutan, and are fluent in Nepali, but could ultimately choose an official with knowledge of regional dynamics, particularly China, to lead the mission in Nepal.
The Prime Minister’s journey to Kathmandu will be brief, and he will pay his respects at the Mayadevi temple, which marks the birthplace of the Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama, almost 2,500 years ago.
Mr. Deuba is also anticipated to attend the May 16 festivities, which are part of a three-day ceremony commemorating Buddha Purnima for the first time since the pandemic began in 2020.
Ceremony of lighting the lamps in Nepal’s Temple
The two Prime Ministers are expected to attend the Mayadevi temple’s lamp-lighting ceremony, according to temple trustees. According to the sources, the Ministry of External Affairs and security personnel, as well as Nepali government officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Culture, have already undertaken a reconnaissance of the arrangements for the visit. Mr. Modi will travel from Delhi to Kushinagar International Airport, which was recently opened, and then fly by helicopter to Lumbini, which is close to the India-Nepal border.
Mr. Modi’s travel to Nepal would be his first since his re-election in 2019. He visited Nepal four times during his last term, including twice in 2014 and twice in 2018. Plans to visit Lumbini in the past, which he had stated he would undertake in 2014, have been postponed multiple times due to a variety of factors. The truck blockade in 2015 strained relations between the two countries, as did the Kalapani border issue with the KP Sharma Oli government in 2019. Mr. Modi and Mr. Oli made comparable religious and cultural tours in May 2018 when they visited Janakpur and Muktinath, but the visit to Lumbini was postponed due to schedule conflicts.
Mr. Deuba’s visit to Delhi in April 2022, during which four agreements and a number of infrastructure projects were launched, would be followed by a re-energization of ties. It is also likely to put to rest a disagreement over the Buddha’s birthplace, which arose after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar referred to Buddha as one of the world’s “greatest Indians,” a statement that the Kathmandu government formally condemned, claiming that the Buddha was born in Nepal.