Mumbai, Sept. 18 -- union Minister Ramdas Athawale will lead a major rally in Mumbai on October 14 to demand that the complete control of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya be handed over to Buddhists. He asserted that the Mahabodhi Mahavihar Trust must be wholly managed by Buddhists.
The "Mahabodhi Mahavihar Mukti Andolan" rally will be held from Ranibaug, Byculla, to Azad Maidan. The date was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar's embrace of Buddhism in 1956.
Athawale, who is the union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment and chief of the Republican Party of India (RPI), demanded that the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Act of 1949 be amended. He criticised the current arrangement, under which the...