A delegation of ten Karmapa devotees met UPA Chairperson and Congress President Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence on Saturday morning at 11 am. The delegation included former Indian Ambassador to Mongolia, Karma Topden, former Loksabha MP from Ladakh, P. Namgyal and National Commission for minorities member Mrs. Spal Angmo apart from Lamas from Sikkim. The meeting lasted for around ten minutes.

The delegation submitted memorandum to the UPA Chairperson and informed about the 3-day prayer meet at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. A memorandum about the baseless allegation on HH the 17th Karmapa was also given to the UPA Chair. Sonia Gandhi, on her part, expressed solidarity with the Buddhist community in these difficult times. Mrs. Gandhi said that she would go through the memorandum and look in to the matter. She also assured that she would raise the matter with the Central govt. and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

In the meantime, two day after the Himachal government dilly dallying on clean chit to HH the 17th Karmapa, today, the Karmapa Reception Committee (KRC) and the Joint Action Committee (JAC) expressed their happiness on the “clean chit” given to the Karmapa by the Himachal Pradesh government. Karmapa Office of Administration has also not issued any press release regarding denial by Himachal government of its clean chit to the Karmapa. In the meantime, former Congress minister and MLA GS Bali blamed the Himachal government on Sunday of making contradictory statements on the 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje’s position in the ongoing probe.

While the actual status of this “clean chit” remains to be confirmed and clarified by more sources, the KRC and JAC have welcomed the same. These reactions have come in response to a press statement issued by the Himachal Pradesh chief secretary, Rajwant Sandhu, that “there is no involvement of the Karmapa. We have reasons to believe that some donations came for the monastery and the Karmapa has nothing to do with that. Monastery functionaries were managing the affairs.”

The KRC and JAC also expressed its gratitude towards all devotees for coming out in support of the XVIIth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje at a time when he was being hounded by media speculation and allegations. The clean chit is regarding allegations of his involvement in benami land deals or anything illicit in the cash recovered from the raid on the Sidhbari monastery.

The KRC and JAC spokesperson, Thukchuk Lachungpa, while addressing a press conference on Saturday in Gangtok, stressed that the faith of the people in the Karmapa had never been shaken and now that an official clean chit had been issued by the Himachal government, which had carried out the raids, it offered some reason to cheer.

He stated that the conviction of the people that the truth would eventually prevail, has come true.

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