With West won, Narendra Modi looks East

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to be keen to be part of the Kailash Mansarovar yatra pilgrimage this year to Tibet and could take the new motorable route from the Nathu La border point in Sikkim to Shigatse, the second biggest city in Tibet from where the pilgrims can comfortably travel to Mansarovar and Kailash using the well laid out highway.

If he does so, Mr Modi will become the first Indian Prime Minister in office to have been part of a pilgrimage during his tenure.

In order to make the pilgrimage easier for the pilgrims who have been taking the traditional arduous route, the Modi government had taken up the matter with China for opening of the new route.

The Chinese side had reciprocated and had indicated Beijing’s willingness to open the new route which — though longer in terms of distance — will cut down the time spent by pilgrims by half from the current arduous route on which they travel by foot.

Prime Minister Modi is also likely to visit China later this year on an official visit and the dates could be finalised during the visit of external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj who will travel to China on a four-day visit starting Saturday.

During her visit, Ms Swaraj will hold talks on “issues of concern” with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and attend Russia-India-China (RIC) meeting. The visit comes soon after the Chinese state-run media slammed President Obama’s just-concluded visit to India. Home minister Rajnath Singh also said on Wednesday that India is a “worshipper of peace” and that “China should understand this.”

So far as the Kailash-Mansarovar yatra is concerned, Prime Minister Modi had wanted the second route for the Yatra, keeping in view the terrain difficulties of the existing routes through Uttarakhand and Nepal, which involves an arduous journey.

The Modi Government had told Parliament last year that the government was discussing an additional route with China.