KATHMANDUPATI – India has said that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini in Nepal. The Ministry of External Affairs made it clear that the birthplace of Buddha is Lumbini that is located in Nepal. Issuing a statement on Sunday, Anurag Srivastava, the spokesperson of India’s External Affairs Ministry, said that Buddha’s birthplace was Lumbini in Nepal. The statement of India follows Nepal’s reaction to a recent remark of S Jaishankar, India’s Minister of External Affairs, on Gautam Buddha.
Earlier today, Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday issued a statement and took an exception to the remark of Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar who had said that Gautam Buddha is one of the greatest Indians.
“Who are the greatest Indians ever that you can remember? I would say one is Gautam Buddha and the other is Mahatma Gandhi,” Indian External Affairs Minister Jainshankar had said at a webinar on Saturday. The remark not only met criticisms in Nepal, but Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that the ‘matter remains beyond doubt and controversy and thus cannot be a subject of debate’.
Within a few hours of Nepal’s statement, the spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, Anurag Srivastava, clarified the minister’s remark and reiterated India’s position that Buddha was born in Lumbini in Nepal.
“EAM’s remarks yesterday at the CII event referred to our shared Buddhist heritage. There is no doubt Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini, which is in Nepal,” said Srivastava, in response to a media query at a press briefing on Sunday.
