Chinese espionage modules may have penetrated the Buddhist lamaseries along Indo-Bhutan border
At a time when the Centre has turned its focus on tackling the NDFB(S) menace in collaboration with Bhutan and Myanmar, an unusual growth of Buddhist monasteries along the Indo-Bhutan border in the last 4-5 years from East Sikkim to Jaigaon under Jalpaiguri district has also sent alarm bells ringing in the security establishment.
At least 22 monasteries have come up in the area of strategic importance, which senior Intelligence operatives of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) that guards the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders feel has a China connection. “It clearly indicates an aggressive anti-India stance of China along the border,” they say.
Intelligence agencies, meanwhile, are conducting an audit of the mushrooming of the monasteries, the source of their funding and the design behind it. The agencies suspect the monasteries could be involved in a twin agenda of gathering Intelligence and indoctrinating the local population through exchange of culture, economy and development.
Beijing has already been running China Study Centers (CSCs) on the Nepalese side of the border and their numbers are also increasing. Eleven of the over two dozen CSCs are functional on the border.
China is influencing the Terai population, in general and those in Jhapa and Illam districts of Nepal, in particular. China, officials suspect, could use these centres as launching pads for exploiting the ethnic link between Nepalese population in Nepal and India.
The gradual growth of monasteries all along the Silk Route in East Sikkim, Kalimpong Sub-Division of Darjeeling and Malbazar sub-division and part of Alipurduar sub-division of Jalpaiguri districts of West Bengal may not be simply treated as growth of religious institutions. The growth ratio of monasteries is not proportionate to Buddhist population in the area, officials said. “Geoplitical location of these areas and its strategic importance from China’s point of view must be taken into consideration while assessing the reasons behind such abnormal growth in such a short period of time,” officials added.