About some facts of Government of India

     I am most happy and grateful for the opportunity you have given me to meet you all this evening. As you know the Government of India and Provincial Governments concerned have taken great pains and incurred heavy expenditure this year to improve the approaches and also the localities where the sacred Budhist places are situated. The total amount spent may add up to a crore of rupees in the course of this year. That indicates the interest which the Government of India and the people of India are taking in Budhism and its sacred places.

   You have been good enough to mention some points which I shall hav looked into. I will try to see that as far as possible no complaints are left unattended. You have mentioned Bodha Gaya. I have been personally connected with Bodha Gaya affair for a pretty long time. More than 35 years ago a deputation of Budhists from j Ceylon and Burma came here. It wanted to have control of the Bodha Gay temple. AT that time, though the Congress had nothing to do with th Government , it took up the matter and appointed a committee to make suggestions as to how best the Bodha Gaya temple could be managed in the interest of all and to the satisfaction of the Budhists. The Committee, of which I happened to be Secretary at the time, recommended that the management of the temple should be placed in the hands of a committee on which Budhists as well as Hindus should be represented. That was because the Hindus also worshiped the BHudha . Their method of worship may differ from that of the Budhists but they held Lord Budha in great veneration as one of the Avatars. We could not do anything at the time as there was a Mahant in actual possession of the temple and he did not agree to part with his right. In 1937, however, when the Congress for the first time formed Government in Bihar, it took up the question of the appointment of a temple committee once again. Unfortunately, however, the Ministry lasted only a short time and nothing much could be achieved. In 1946, the Congress again  came to power.