The Battle for Buddha continued from page 32
Similarly, Beijing has undertaken other cultural initiatives, such as the displaying of tooth and hair relics of the Buddha in a traveling exhibition in Myanmar. “All of this is to keep the Dalai Lama in his place,” said Jacob. “It’s to ensure that they have a handle on his succession, an influence on his succession, and that they will be seen as legitimately intervening in that succession.” At the same time, India has sought to build on the goodwill it receives naturally as home to the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhism and reach out to other sects. In 2007, for instance, the loan of an extensive collection of Buddhist art and artifacts from India’s National Museum subtly reinforced the message that the religion traveled from India to China and beyond in conjunction with an East Asia Summit where Beijing had sought to shoulder out New Delhi. Together with representatives from Singapore, China, Japan and Thailand, India has undertaken a $1 billion project to develop a modern university in the ancient Buddhist learning center of Nalanda, in modern day Bihar, under the leadership of Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. Beginning this summer, however, the struggle for soft power has begun to seem as though it were scripted by John Le Carré. The plot thickens in Lumbini For Lumbini, the story begins in July, when China’s state-run People’s Daily reported that a peculiar Hong Kong-based outfit called the Asia Pacific Exchange & Cooperation Foundation (APECF) had signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to create a “special cultural zone” in Lumbini. Touting a planned investment of $3 billion, APECF claimed to have the full support of the Nepal government for its scheme to build roads, telecommunications networks and tourist facilities in the area. The dusty, one-horse town of Lumbini could certainly use the money. But at nearly one-tenth of Nepal’s entire gross domestic product, $3 billion was a stupendous sum — and, some suspect, a wholly fictional one: a carnival barker’s cry, crude propaganda, or a “trial balloon” to gauge how Nepal might react. The answer was swift. Soon afterward UNIDO and Nepal, by turns, disavowed the project. It surfaced that both Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoist leader popularly known as Prachanda, or “Fearless,” and the controversial Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev, Nepal’s former crown prince, held positions on APECF’s board of directors. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) blasted APECF’s scheme as a threat to Lumbini’s status as a World Heritage site. And Culture Secretary Modraj Dotel resigned in protest over alleged pressure to approve the project. “What to me was worrying was the wheeling and dealing through which they had managed to get both Prince Paras and Prachanda, an unholy alliance from opposite ends of the spectrum,” said Kul Chandra Gautam, a former assistant secretary general of the UN who has publicly criticized the project. “All kinds of shady deals happen in Nepal, and for our most influential political leader to be made part of this venture to me sounded very fishy.” (Prince Paras is no longer listed as a board member by APECF’s website). Saathee.com
82
For Indian foreign policy think tanks, APECF — nominally a non-governmental organization (NGO) — was an obvious clandestine arm of the Chinese government. Its Lumbini project was a transparent attempt to leverage Buddhism to station platoons of People’s Liberation Army engineers within a stone’s throw of the Indian border. And the bizarre snafu of the fake agreement with UNIDO was simply another example, apparently, of the inscrutability of Chinese espionage. So, too, it goes in New Delhi. This week, Beijing’s special representative Dai Bingguo is in New Delhi hoping to flag off a “golden period” for India-China relations. But it’s lucky he made it at all, in the wake of the latest Indian salvo in the battle for Buddha. In November, Beijing scrapped Dai’s planned visit to discuss an outstanding dispute over China’s borders with Arunachal Pradesh and Kashmir in protest over an Indian rival to its own World Buddhism Conference. Organized by the Asoka Mission, another NGO that receives government funding, the meeting brought Buddhist leaders from around the world together with the Dalai Lama the same week that Dai was to arrive for talks. “Clubbed with the South China Sea dispute, clubbed with the Yellow Sea incident where the Chinese opposed the USS George Washington into that region and a host of other problems that China had with the US and their neighbors, including even with India, it did cost [Beijing] some soft power,” said professor Kondapalli. “The convention decided to set up an international Buddhist institution somewhere in India, to codify the Buddhist scriptures and so forth,” he said. Coincidence? Representatives of the Indian government say so. But just as in Lumbini, there are plenty of people ready to concoct a master plan behind the chaos.
Tax Matters
continued from page 66
business corporations, net operating losses, home office and other special deductions, active trading with mark-to-market accounting, H1 and other temporary work visa taxes, individuals with income in multiple states, ITIN applications and US tax resident tests for immigrant workers require special tax knowledge and are not suitable for online tax programs. Most of the tax programs will let you try for free before filing the actual return. This tax season try out some of the online tax programs and see if it works for your tax situation. And finally for those of us that prefer the comfort of human presence and discuss tax saving ideas, there will always be tax professionals that can be counted upon. Keep in mind this column and the articles published here are only meant to provide you with high level information about tax and business matters and in no way should you consider this as tax advice. Consult your tax and legal advisors regarding your individual tax and business situation. This Article provides only an overview to the complex Tax Laws. It is not exhaustive nor a substitute for Independent Tax Advice provided by a Tax Accountant or a Tax Attorney familiar with your case.
February 2012