Dirty Controversy about Kapilvastu

H. L. Singh

Many great men, writers and distinguished people have expressed their concern about the sancity of Lumbini, being the birthplace of the Buddha. Edwin Arnold, the author of the poem 'Light of Asia', who was and is still regarded as a great Buddhist thinker, wrote: "One of the greatest of the epoch-making events in the spiritual history of mankind was marked when the "Light of Asia" was set out brightly in the central part of India, or, in other words, when the spring of Great Wisdom and Compassion gushed up there, which, in the course of time, has come to enrich the human mind through and over many centuries to follow up to the present day."

There is a good deal of writings intended to establish connection of Kapilvastu with Koshala of India to the extent of saying that Kapilvastu was under Koshala. Sukumar Dutt, the author of Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India, wrote: "We must not forget that the Sakiya country, at least, which Buddhism arose, stretched up in the lower slopes of the Himalayas. And in the seventh century B.C. the most powerful Kingdom was the Northern Kosala, whose capital lay under the hills, and whose power mainly depended on the mountaineers drawn from its vicinity".
Sukumar Dutt also said, "He who brought Lumbini out of the mist of legends in the light of topography was no other than Emperor Asoka". Another Indian writer Dr. Nanda Kishore Devraj wrote: "The Buddha was born in 623 B.C. His father Shuddhodana, who was a king of solar dynasty under Koshala, was the chief administrator of the Shakya republic".

In the same light the book "2500 years of Buddhism" mentioned, "It was the seventh century before the Christian era. The civilized part of India was divided into sixteen realms, eight of which were Kingdoms and the remaining republics. Among the kingdoms the most powerful were Magadha and Kosala. The little Shakya republic was ruled by the king of Kosala who received tribute from the former. The Shakyas were of the Kshatriya solar race and called themselves rajas. In the middle of the century, their chief Shuddhodana had his capital at Kapilvastu".

Among the sacred places of Buddhism, Lumbini where the blessed one was born must inevitably come first. It has been identified with the site of Rummindei in the Nepalese Terai. As the birthplace of the Buddha, the site grew in sancity and importance..... of course, there still stands at the site a pillar engraved with an inscription commemorating the great Ashoka's pilgrimage to this place in the twentieth year after his consecration. "Here the Buddha was born", says the emperor, and this statement proves the identity of the sanctified spot beyond any doubt".

The British writer John Snelling shared the above view in the following words: The man who was to become the Buddha was born about 563 BC of Kshatriya stock at a place called Lumbini. This is situated in the Terai region of what today is the republic of Nepal, immediately below the Himalayan foothills on the northern edge of the plain of the River Ganges, due north of the holy city of Baneres. He was given the name Siddharth and took the clan-name Gautama. His father, Shuddhodana, has been variously described as the King or leader of a local people known as the Shakyas or even just as prominent citizen of Kapilvasthu, the Shakyan capital. The Shakyas were in fact just of a number of more or less independent people then inhabiting this part of northern India who were politically organized into tribal republics ruled by elected aristocracies".

John Snelling also cleverly noted that "Nepal can claim the supreme Buddhists accolade of being technically the Buddha's birthplace, Lumbini, which lies just inside its southern frontiers, is one of the four great pilgrimage-places for Buddhists".

Writing on the Chinese pilgrims' view about Lumbini, Indian writer Avadesh Singh said that Chinese pilgrims have mentioned that Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini forest close to Kapilvastu, the capital of Shakyas. It is worth mentioning that the Lumbini forest was 8 miles far south of the capital. Hiuen Tsang has written that Shuddhodana was the king of Kapilvastu, who was dependent on the king of Koshala.
The Japanese writer Nikkyo Niwano was misinformed when he said "The historical Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in north-eastern India about twenty-five hundred years ago... Shuddondana was the ruler of the Shakya state which, as was the custom in India at that time, was known by the name of the rulling tribe, rather than by the name of the land it occupied. The state of the Shakyas was a small country extending from the northern border of India into what is now southern Nepal. The remains of its capital city, Kapilvastu, and the palace in which the Buddha grew up still survive to remind us of the days when the land of the Shakyas was a vital minor state in northern India".

Controversy over Kapilvastu
That Gautam Buddha was born at Lumbini of Kapilvastu is a historical fact. Kapilvastu named after saint Kapila (early 6th century B.C.) was known not only as the home city of the Buddha, but was also known for its rith cultural heritage and natural splendors.

The hermitage of saint Kapila was on the side of the Bhagirathi river (which is now called Banganga). When King Bimbisara of Magadha asked the Buddha his birthplace, the Buddha said that it was the place from where the Himalayas could be seen. This shows that Kapilvastu was full-fledged city gifted with natural beauties. Later it was destroyed and due to neglet and natural wear and tear, identification of it became difficult.

Against this historical background, there are some attempts to distort this fact claiming that Kapilvastu is Piprahawa located in Uttar Pradesh, India. Sometime ago, Indian newspaper Aaj published a news headlined "Piprahawa in India is Kapilvastu, the home of Gautam Buddha." In the past, too, there were attempts by Indian scholars to establish that the Buddha was born in India and that the Buddha was an Indian. In books and other writings originating from India, there are numerous mentions of this claim. As a result of this claim, a vast population of the western world was misinformed that the Buddha was born in India. The Buddha was also called the ninth incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Because of the largeness of size, India has a great advantage over Nepal. The government of Uttar Pradesh is making maximum use of this advantage.

It is true that Gautam Buddha attained Enlightenment at Bodhagaya, Bihar, did Dharmachakraparivartana(turning the wheel of the doctrine) at Sarnath, a site near Benares, and passed away at Kushinagara in the Kasia district of India. This fact provided enough strength to the Indian scholarship to push ahead their claim. Since India was and is still a window of oriental culture and civilisation to the western world, it is but natural that Indian writings and literature should make a tremendous influence all over the world.

The main attraction of the Indian claim is the popularity of Buddhism. Even great Indian scholars were tempted to call the Buddha an Indian. K.M.Munshi and R.R.Diwakar wrote: "..... in 543 B.C. in Lumbini in Nepal's Western Terai, he was born of an ancient Indian prince five centuries before Jesus. His father ruled the tribe of Shakyas under the shadow of the Himalayas".

D. Servepalli Radhakrishnan wrote: "The Buddha did not tell that he was announcing a new religion. He was born, grew up, and died a Hindu".

Inspite of the above statements about Kapilvastu, the Shakya tribe to which the Buddha belonged to, the location of Kapilvastu was made a subject of controversy. There is no controversy about Lumbini, the pillar erected by Ashoka in 249 B.C., events of the Buddha's birth, childhood, renunciation, attainment of Nirvana and finally Parivirvana. Kapilvastu was referred to as the city where King Shuddhodhan reigned. It is a historical fact that the Buddha came to Kapilvastu after the attainment of Enlightenment, met his father, wife Yashodhara and son Rahula. The visit of Emperor Ashoka, Chinese prlgrims Fa Hsein in 403 A.D. and Hiuen-tsang in 636 to Kapilvastu, all the three from the Indian territory, and the accounts available from both the Chinese prilgrims found Kapilvastu in complete ruins. Hiuen Tsang wrote that the palace of King Shuddhodana was "in utter ruins" with some of its parts conveted into monastries and occupied by the mons of the the Hinayana faith. The controversy that Piprahawa is ancient Kapilvastu was raised in 1971 by Director of the Piprahawa expedition and archaeologist K.M. Srivastava. He made this claim on the basis of the discovery of an 'original' casket with relics of the Buddha. The story of the destruction Kapilvastu by Prince Virudhaka also called Vidudabha, son of Prasenjit, around 545 B.C. is a genuine story recorded in history. After the destruction of Kapilvastu, the Shakyas of that place went to different places..... some to Rajgriha and Vaisali, some to Vedi..... and others fled to Piplival (Piprahawa) where the Sakyas were afterwards known as Maurya.
The most important event in the history of Kapilvastu was the massacre of its citizens and the sack of the city by King Virudhaka of Kosala in B.C. 545. Virudhaka entered the town at the time of a truce and began killing the inhabitants washing the stone slabs of the Assembly Hall (Santhagara), where he was humiliated. When Lord Buddha visited Kapilvastu, after its destruction, he was ill wia a headache. Ananda, the disciple of the Buddha, was also greatly shocked seeing the city like a cemetery. When Ajatasatru of Magadha heard this, the same year he attacked over Kosala, burnt Virudhaka and his minister Ambarisha alive and annexed both Kosala and Kapilvastu in his dominion.

It is said that after the revival of Hinduism and after the emergence of Gupta rulers, Shakyas, Kapilvastu and Buddhism suffered a setback and the importance of Kapilvastu declined. The once prosperous and shining Kapilvastu was neglected. And, in course of time, due to this negligence, Kapilvastu was nearly forgotten. But this argument is less convincing. The destruction of Kapilvastu by Virudhaka is a concrete evidence of the disappearance of Kapilvastu.

According to scholar Bhuwan Lal Pradhan, the Indian government's motive in identifying Piprahawa as ancient Kapilvastu is worth suspicions as well as baseless. It is Tilaurakot which is ancient Kapilvastu. There are still the remains of ancient monuments, structures like stupas, monasteries, etc. The remains of the palace of Kingh Shuddhodana, old coins found there and the presence of the Banganga river known in the past by the name of Bhagirathi are living proofs of the authenticity of Tilaurakot as ancient Kapilvastu.

The claim made by the Uttar Pradesh government based on the discovery of a casket with the relic of the Buddha and the terracotta seals and structural remains is motivated by factors other than the cultural and archaeilogical ones. Besides this propaganda, the government of Uttar Pradesh has undertaken construction works to give a face-lift to Piprahawa and to win recognitin for Piprahawa as ancient Kapilvastu. Naugadh district of Uttar Pradesh was renamed Kapilvastu district some years ago. Besides this, some places of Uttar Pradesh have been renamed Siddhartha Janapath. Thus, it is evident that the Uttar Pradesh government's move, has been calculated towards seeking recognition of Piprahawa as ancient Kapilvastu.
Even before the discovery of the Lumbini pillar by Dr. A. Fuhrer, efforts had been made to study about the archaelogical treasures in Nepal and India. Charles Allen writes: "Vincent Smith, a Trinity College Dublin man, son of a well-known Anglo-Irish numismatist and archaeologist, ... read many times over the latest translations of the Indian travels of Fa Hian, Huan Tsang and others. While serving as magistrate of the town of Basti, about a hundred and twenty-five miles north of Benares, he thoroughly explored the surrounding countryside - and came to the conclusion that many of Cunningham's identifications of Buddhist sites in the plains country south of the Himalayan hills of Nepal were wrong. In 1885 Mr. Duncan Ricketts, manager of an estate whose lands extended to the Nepalese border, came to him with news of a stone pillar sticking up out of the ground about five miles north of his bungalow, well inside Nepalese territory. It was inadvisable for a British official to tresspass across the frontier, so Simith asked for a rubbing to be made of the inscriptions on the pillar. They were identified as 'medieval scribbling', so Vincent Smith left the matter there. It was probably the greatest mistake he ever made.

Like Vincent Smith, Dr. Lawrence Austine Waddell pored over Cunnigham's Archaelogical Survey Reports and came to the conclusion that Cunnigham had got a lot wrong, particularly in his siting of the places associated with Gautam Buddha's birth and death.

For many years past, Waddell later wrote, "I had been devoting a portion of holidays to a search for this celebrated ancient site- Kapilvastu as well as for that of the Buddha's death - Kusinagara ever since I had realised that General Cunningham's identification of the villages of Bhuila and Kesia with those sites was clearly altogether false.

Against this historical background, there are some attempts to distort the fact that the Buddha was born in India claiming that Kapilvastu is Piprahawa which is located in Uttar Pradesh, India. There were attempts by Indian scholars to establish that the Buddha was born in India. In books and other writings originating from India, this claim has been made.

As a result of this claim, a vast population of the western world was misinformed that the Buddha was born in India. An effort in this direction had already been made in the past. Because of the largeness of the size of territory, the vast academic settlements and the numerous communication networks existing in India, India has a great advantage over Nepal as far as publicising India as the birthplace of the Buddha is concerned.

The fact that Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment at Bodhgaya in Bihar, delivered the first sermons at Sarnath, a site near Benares and passed away at Kushinagar in India Provided enough strength to the Indian scholarship to push their claim ahead.
Prof. A.T.D.E Perara of Sri Lanka who made a study of Kapilvastu wrote, Kapilvastu, according to Hsuan Tsang had the circuit of 4.000 li (equivalent to 664 miles). Hence, the argument put forward in favour of the tiny village of Piprahawa as representing the whole territory of the Shakya republic by an official in the service of the Department of Archaeological Survey of India carries little sense. As a matter of fact, it was the same department itself which after an intensive study of concerned areas declared at the close of the last century that Kapilvastu of Buddha's days is represented as today's Tilaurakot region of Nepal. Mr. Perara said further: "The search for the lost site of Kapilvastu, as mentioned above, was intensified only after the discovery.

Kapilavastu Day as Part of the World Peace Movement

Ram Kumar Shrestha



We shall find peace. We shall hear the angels; we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.” (Anton Chekhov) Undoubtedly a peaceful world is everybody’s yearning and dream and many philosophers and humanitarian activists are optimistic that we will get there, however; every day results make it seem that we are not making much progress. The world peace mission has been complicated because of the divergence of people involved and their ways of thinking. This suggests to us that we need to work in different ways to coordinate and cooperate with each other to achieve this goal. Although this mission is very difficult, it is not impossible if we are serious about bringing change. As part of the World Peace Movement, Nepali intellectuals living in different countries decided to commemorate Kapilavastu, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, Day as a global holiday in order to spread the peace message all over the world. Gautam Buddha, has been revered as a Peace Ambassador who is more and more able to persuade his followers to work more seriously in the World Peace Movement. This day could be very important for researchers interested in collecting information about Buddha and Buddhism as there could be flood of information especially on Facebook, Twitter and other online medias.

Kapilavastu, located close to Lumbini, is considered a holy pilgrimage place for Buddhists since it is known to be the birthplace of the Lord Buddha. The result of years of excavation and research by numerous international teams has concluded that Kapilavastu is in Nepal. UNESCO affirms the findings and has named Kapilavastu, and Lumbini as World Heritage sites.

Originally, on December 1, 1896, Dr Anton Führer, a German archaeologist, had claimed to have discovered the Buddha’s birthplace when he found the Asoka Pillar at Lumbini. Even though this site was originally discovered by Khadga Shamsher before Führer, Führer was credited with the find as he brought it to light and made it known to the international community. The Asoka Pillar is the most important evidence that proves that Buddha was born in Lumbini. Therefore, we decided to celebrate December 1st as Kapilavastu Day.

Buddha taught that the world must be thought of in procedural terms and not in terms of things or substances. The Buddha advised viewing reality as comprised of dependently originated phenomena and Buddhists deem this approach to experience as avoiding the two extremes of Reification and Nihilism. This is the understanding that any phenomenon exists only because of the existence of other phenomena in an incredibly complex web of cause and effect covering past, present and future. Stated in another way, everything depends on everything else and this seems to be the basic of Newton’s law of Motion, ''To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction”. A human being's existence in any given moment is dependent on the condition of everything else in the world at that moment, and in an equally significant way, the condition of everything in the world in that moment depends conversely on the character and condition of that human being. Everything in the universe is interconnected through the web of cause and effect; such that the whole and the parts are mutually interdependent. The character and condition of entities at any given time are intimately connected with the character and condition of all other entities that superficially may appear to be unconnected or unrelated. All things, therefore, are conditioned and transient; they have no real independent identity and thus do not truly exist, although to ordinary minds this appears to be the case. All phenomena are therefore fundamentally flimsy and empty. People with a broad mind are those who "see things as they are", renouncing attachment and clinging, transforming energy of desire into awareness and understanding, and eventually transcending the conditioned realm of form becoming Buddhas.

Buddha Dhamma (Sanskrit: Dharma) is not a religion, it does not give credence to a god or philosophy, but is the Law of Nature about how we should handle spirit, soul and body to bring them together in harmony and to begin to annul the ego and to stop any sorrow or affliction in our life! This way we can learn to cultivate true happiness and not create a dependent happiness that is just for a fleeting moment eventually taking us back to the root of our problems. It takes a lot of insight and deep reflection about us to see this reality.

Buddha counselled, “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.” The main problem for many is that even when one agrees with the reason, in practise we disagree with the way to be followed. Because of this we complicate the problem, making it worse every day thus making ourselves and others unhappy. Problems do not arise from those who do not know, but from those who know but pretend not to know. Due to this attitude, the world is devastated a lot. Until we purge ourselves of this habit nothing will happen on the journey to create a wonderful and safe world for future generations.

As Malcom X exclaimed, “You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom. And, as Albert Einstein said, “Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression; for every man to present his views without penalty there must be a spirit of tolerance in the entire population.” Most people think seriously about their responsibilities and rights but not about their duty to others. So many use their freedom to rape others and deny them of their freedom. This attitude could be the result of not having this broad thinking spoken of earlier and not respecting others. Ultimately this results in missing our goal of attaining world peace.

“The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established,” said Bahá'u'lláh. Arms could not be the source for a secure feeling. This always creates knowing or unknowing pressure both to the owner and the other party. The United Nations Security Council Summit’s resolution calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons was its first resolution dedicated to nuclear proliferation and disarmament and the first chaired by a U.S. President. In addressing the Security Council’s members, President Obama declared: "The historic resolution we just adopted enshrines our shared commitment to the goal of a world without nuclear weapons." Building on the extraordinary leadership of Presidents Obama and Medvedev, (who in April committed to working together to eliminate all nuclear weapons), this resolution is a significant step toward an international consensus on this goal and a stirring moment for so many who have worked on this issue for so long. World leaders are recognizing that whatever stability nuclear arsenals may have provided during the Cold War is now outweighed by the growing risks of proliferation and nuclear terrorism; and the only way to eliminate the nuclear threat is to eliminate all nuclear weapons. They have resolved to work together in the common interest of security to achieve this goal. The US has spent more than 5.5 trillion dollars in developing their nuclear arsenal and France has spent about 1.5 trillion dollars; these figures do not include the costs of testing, fissile material production, storage and disposal. As these figures are larger than many developing countries’ annual budget, we can imagine how much the situation of the world would improve if these funds were used for the benefit of the people worldwide who are currently struggling to have education, minimum health care, food and housing. Eliminating all nuclear weapons will require people from around the world to get involved. Let’s join our hands with the citizens from every country around the world who are already part of this movement and join “Global Zero” at www.globalzero.org.

A peace movement could be defined as a collection of activities aimed at ending, or at least minimizing, violence and wars in a variety of different situations through an assortment of methods. Due to the complex nature of this goal, it is deemed necessary to properly coordinate cooperation among different peace movement forerunners and organisations for peace to become a worldwide reality. Even though the path to world peace has been rough and the goal, as of yet, unattained, this has not deterred those who are committed to achieving peace in their lifetime.

Even though people claim to love their children dearly, many are irresponsible when it comes to making the world a better place for them. Instead of taking action, they blame others and defend or hide their irresponsible behaviour due to egoism. This is very interesting and sad. As human beings are responsible for the deteriorating situation, they are also responsible for improving the situation and saving their own children. So which way will we go? Will we be blamed as slaughterers or kind and wise by our own children and grandchildren? This decision is in our hands. Currently, it is not too late, however, tomorrow it could be.

The illusion of past, present and future

by Robert Lanza and Deepak Chopra

The universe evolves backward in time, not the other way around as we were taught in school. "The histories of the universe," concedes Stephen Hawking, the famed physicist "depend on what is being measured, contrary to the usual idea that the universe has an objective observer-independent history."
Life is not just a collection of atoms -- proteins and molecules spinning like planets around the sun. It is true that the laws of chemistry can tackle the rudimentary biology of living systems, but there is more to us than the sum of our biochemical functions. Conversely, physical existence cannot be divorced from the animal life that coordinates experience. We are connected not only by intertwined consciousness, but by a pattern that is a template for the universe itself.
Quantum physics tells us that objects exist in a suspended physical state until observed, when they collapse to just one outcome -- we don't know what happens until we investigate, and our investigation influences that reality. Whether or not certain events may have happened some time ago, may not actually be determined until some time in your future -- it may actually be contingent upon actions that have not yet taken place.
Bizarre? Maybe you don't believe this is real. Consider an experiment that was published in Science a couple of years ago. Scientists in France shot particles of light "photons" into a measuring apparatus, and showed that what they did -- now, in the present -- could retroactively change something that had already happened in the past. As the photons passed a fork in the apparatus, they had to decide whether to behave like particles or waves when they hit a beam splitter. Later on -- well after the photons passed the fork -- the experimenter could randomly switch a second beam splitter on and off electronically. It turns out that what the observer decided at that point, determined what the particle actually did at the fork in the past. At that moment, the experimenter chose his reality.
Of course, we live in the same world. No physicist challenges the fact that particles do not exist with definite physical properties until they are observed. Every particle has a range of possible physical states, but it's not until the actual act of observation that it takes on defined properties. So until the present is determined, how can there be a past?
According to eminent physicist John Wheeler, one of Albert Einstein's last collaborators, "The quantum principle shows that there is a sense in which what an observer will do in the future defines what happens in the past."
It was only with the advent of quantum physics that scientists began to consider again the old question of the possibility of comprehending the world as a form of mind. Since that time, physicists have analyzed and revised their equations in a vain attempt to arrive at a statement of natural laws that in no way depends on the circumstances of the observer. It seems only natural that the daily circuit of, say, moon round earth, though satiable only by a mind, was independent of any perception whatever. But this was to prove an illusion.
In these days of experiment and disconnected theory, one point seems certain: the nature of the universe cannot be divorced from the nature of life itself. Indeed, the quantum theory implies that consciousness must exist, and that the content of the mind is the ultimate reality. If we do not look at it, the moon is gone. In this world, only an act of observation can confer shape and form to reality -- to a dandelion in a meadow, or a seed pod, or the sun or wind or rain. Anyway, it's amazing, and even your dog can do it too.
According to biocentrism, space and time are not the hard objects we think (Lanza and Berman, Biocentrism, BenBella, 2009). Wave your hand through the air. If you take everything away, what's left? The answer, of course, is nothing. The same thing applies for time -- you can't put it in a marmalade jar. Look at anything -- say this page. You can't see it through the bone that surrounds your brain. Everything you see and experience right now is a whirl of information occurring in your mind. Space and time are simply the mind's tools for putting everything together. We carry them around with us like turtles with shells. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, they are not "real and insurmountable."
In the end, even Einstein admitted, "Now Besso" (one of his oldest friends) "has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us...know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."
(To be continued)
Robert Lanza, MD is considered one of the leading scientists in the world. He is the author of Biocentrism-Consciousness-Understanding-Nature-Universe

Published in the San Francisco Chronicle


Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/the-illusion-of-past-pres_b_326250.html

ओबामाका परमाणु कार्यसूची

जोसेफ एस. न्ये


घरेलु राजनीति तथा आफ्नो आणविक कार्यसूचीसम्बन्धमा अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय कूटनीतिमा पाउने सफलताले नै ओबामा विश्व नेताका रूपमा प्रभावकारी हुने नहुने निर्धारण गर्नेछ।

इरानको एउटा सैनिक शिविरमा आणविक प्रशोधनको गोप्य क्षमता विकास गरिएको घोषणाले राष्ट्रपति बाराक ओबामाको परमाणु प्रसारको विषयलाई विश्वको प्रमुख कार्यसूची बनाउने प्रयास स्पष्ट बनाएको छ। सन् २०१० को वर्ष निकै गम्भीर हुनेछ।
सेप्टेम्बर महिनामा पिटसबर्गको जी-२० शिखर सम्मेलन र संयुक्त राष्ट्रसंघमा धेरै मुलुकहरू ओबामाको आणविक कार्यसूचीमा काम गर्न सहमत भएका थिए। यिनै बैठकबीच इरानले गोप्यरूपमा आणविक अश्त्र निर्माण गर्नसक्ने स्तरको युरेनियम उत्पादन गर्न अर्को आणविक प्रशोधन कारखाना गोप्यरूपमा बनाइरहेको थाहा भयो।
अक्टोबरको सुरुमा, इरानी अधिकारीहरूले जेनेभामा संयुक्त राष्ट्र सुरक्षा परिषद्का स्थायी समितिका सदस्य र जर्मनीका प्रतिनिधिसँग भेट गरी अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय परमाणु ऊर्र्जा एजेन्सीलाई गोप्य कारखानालगायतको निरीक्षण गर्न दिने सहमति जनाएका थिए। यसबाहेक, उनीहरूले आफ्नो न्यून स्तरको युरोनियमलाई आणविक इन्धन बनाउन इरानबाहिर पठाइने छ पनि भनेका थिए।

यी उपायहरू कार्यान्वयन गरिएमा त्यो महत्वपूर्ण पाइला हुनेछ। इरानले आणविक अप्रसार सन्धि उल्लंघन गरेर आफ्ना कारखानामा आणविक अश्त्र बनाउने क्षमता बढाउने व्यापक आशंका गरिएको छ। भनाइ र गराइमा कति मेल खान्छ भन्ने स्पष्ट छैन।

यति नै बेला, विश्वको ९० प्रतिशत आणविक अश्त्र भण्डार गर्ने अमेरिका र रुस जेनेभामा यही डिसेम्बरमा समाप्त हुने आणविक अश्त्र नियनत्रणसम्बन्धी पहिलेको सन्धिको ठाउँमा आणविक हतियार न्यूनीकरण रणनीति बनाउन लागेका छन्। वार्ता सफल भएमा सबै प्रकारका आणविक युद्ध सामग्रीमा एक तिहाइसम्म कटौती हुन सक्छ।

त्यसपछि अमेरिकी सिनेटले अर्को वर्ष नयाँ सन्धि अनुमोदन गर्न सक्नेछ। सिनेटले १० वर्षपहिले अस्वीकृत गरेको आणविक परीक्षण निवारण सन्धिको मस्यौदा पुनः प्रस्तुत गर्न पनि ओबामा प्रशासनले कांग्रेससँग परामर्श गरिरहेको छ।

राष्ट्रिय सुरक्षाको आकार र संरचना प्रभावित हुने अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय सम्झौतामा सिनेटमा बढी विवाद हुने गरेको छ। आणविक परीक्षण निषेध सन्धि र हतियार कटौतीसम्बन्धी प्रस्तावित रणनीतिसम्बन्धमा विपक्षी विधायक र विचारकले आशंका व्यक्त गर्न थालिसकेका छन्। ओबामाले दुवै सन्धिहरू २०१० मा सिनेटमा प्रस्तुत गरेमा उनले सन्धिहरूले राष्ट्रिय र अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय सुरक्षालाई सुदृढ बनाउँछन् भनेर जनतालाई सहमत गराउनु पर्नेछ। त्यसो गर्न उनी विफल भएमा सिनेटले एउटा वा दुवै सन्धि अस्वीकृत गर्न सक्छ र त्यसको आणविक अप्रसारका क्षेत्रमा नकारात्मक असर पर्नेछ।

गत मे महिनामा आणविक अप्रसार सन्धिका १८९ सदस्य राष्ट्रहरूले भियनामा यसको वर्तमान स्थितिको समीक्षा गरे। सन् १९७० मा यो सन्धि लागू हुँदा अमेरिका, सोभियत संघ, बेलायत, फ्रान्स र चीन गरी ५ राष्ट्रमा मात्रै आणविक हतियार हुने गरी नियन्त्रण गरिने अपेक्षा राखिएको थियो। समग्रमा भने सन्धि सफल नै भएको हो।

सन् १९६०को दशकमा राष्ट्रपति जोन एफ. केनेडीलगायत धेरैले अहिलेसम्म आणविक अश्त्र भएका बीसौँ मुलुक हुनेछन् र तिनको प्रयोग हुने जोखिम धेरै हुनेछ भन्ने ठानेका थिए। भाग्यवश, स्थिति त्यस्तो भएन।

सन् १९७० पछि सन्धिमा हस्ताक्षरै नगरेका ३ वटा मुलुक भारत, पाकिस्तान र इजरायलले आणविक अश्त्र बनाएका छन्। यसबाहेक, उत्तर कोरियाले सन्धिको उल्लंघन गर्दै २ पटक अश्त्र परीक्षण गरिसकेको छ। इरानको विवादास्पद आणविक अश्त्र कार्यक्रमले अहिले आणविक अप्रसारसम्बन्धी विश्व व्यवस्था नै भताभुंग पार्ने डर उत्पन्न भएको छ।

त्यस प्रकारको भय अन्त्य गर्न आउने धेरै वर्षसम्म बारम्बार समन्वित र दिगो प्रयास गर्नु आवश्यक हुन्छ तर एसटीएआरटी र सीटीबीटीको पुनः अनुमोदन सहयोगी हुनसक्छ। उदाहरणका लागि, हतियार कटौटीसम्बन्धी नयाँ सन्धिले अमेरिका र रुस बीचको सम्बन्धमा सुधार हुनेछ र त्यसले इरान र सुरक्षा परिषद्मा रुसको स्थिति सकारात्मक बनाउने छ। सिनेटले सीटीबीटी स्वीकृत गर्दा आणविक परीक्षण निषेधसम्बन्धी अमेरिकी अडानको साख पनि पुनः कायम गर्नेछ।

आगामी मार्च महिनामा ओबामाले आणविक तस्करी र आतंकवाद नियन्त्रण गर्ने नयाँ उपाय खोजी गर्ने उद्देश्य राखेर ओबामाले विश्व आणविक सुरक्षा सम्मेलन आयोजना गर्नेछन्। यसबाहेक आणविक अश्त्र अन्त्य गर्ने उनको दीर्घकालीन लक्ष्यलाई सपना होइन यथार्थ बनाउन अरू थुप्रै तयारी गर्नुपर्ने हुन्छ।

आक्रामक अश्त्र घटाएर विश्वमा स्थिरता कायम राख्न ओबामाले रुसीहरूसँग छोटो दूरीका आणविक अश्त्र र क्षेप्याश्त्र प्रतिरोधक हतियारका विषयमा छलफल गर्नु आवश्यक छ। साथै, कुनै न कुनै बेला उनले आणविक अप्रसार सन्धिको धारा ५ अनुसारको आणविक हतियार क्रमशः समाप्त गर्ने स्पष्ट मार्गचित्रका लागि पारदर्शिता र प्रमाणीकरणको अवस्था अझ राम्ररी बुझ्न चीन, फ्रान्स, बेलायतसँग पनि वार्ता थाल्नु पर्नेछ।

साथै, ओबामाले यस्ता दीर्घकालीन सबालका कारण आफ्नो ध्यान गम्भीर तत्कालीन विषयबाट अन्यत्र लैजान पाउने छैनन्। संसार थुप्रै परमाणु अश्त्रधारी मुलुक भएको खतरनाक ठाउँ भइरहँदासम्म ओबामाले आफ्ना मित्रहरूलाई अमेरिका आणविक प्रसार रोक्न चनाखो भइरहने छ भनेर विश्वास दिलाएर आफ्नो साख बचाइराख्नु पर्नेछ। नत्रभने, हतियार कटौतीमात्र गर्दा अरू मुलुक चिन्तित हुनेछन् र आआफ्नै अश्त्र बनाउनेतर्फ प्रवृत्त हुनेछन्। यसको फलस्वरूप आणविक अश्त्र भएका मुलुकको संख्या बढ्नेछ। ओबामाले अन्ततः दक्षिण अफ्रिकाले जस्तै आणविक अश्त्र त्याग गर्न लगाउने उद्देश्य राखेर उत्तर कोरियालाई ६ पक्षीय वार्तामा फर्कन सहमत गराउनु आवश्यक छ। यस्तै, उनले इरानसँग पनि आणविक अप्रसार सन्धिप्रति प्रतिबद्ध रहन र आणविक हतियार नबनाउने आफ्नो वचन पालना गर्न लगाउन वार्ता गर्नुपर्नेछ।

घरेलु राजनीति तथा आफ्नो आणविक कार्यसूचीमा अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय कूटनीतिमा ओबामाको सफलतामा नै विश्व नेताका रूपमा उनको प्रभावकारिता निर्भर हुन्छ। यस अतिरिक्त, उनले सन् २०१० मा गर्ने प्रगतिमा नै ६० वर्षदेखि कायम आणविक अश्त्र प्रयोग गर्नु हुँदैन भन्ने विश्व मान्यताको भविष्य पनि निर्भर हुनेछ। © Project Syndicate, 2009.


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