कपिलबस्तु: प्राचिन र बर्तमान

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on April 28, 2011

 

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सन् १८१६ को सुघौली सन्धीपछि नेपाल र भारत  ईस्ट इण्डिया कम्पनीका वीचमा सीमाड्ढन हुँदा प्राचीन कपिलवस्तुको दक्षिणतिरको करिब आधा जस्तो भू-भाग भारतमा पर्यो । त्यसैले मगध नरेश अशोकले पुनर्निर्माण गरेका पुराना गुम्बा र बौद्ध बिहारहरु, भिक्षु आवास गृह, प्रार्थना प्रवचन तथा सभास्थलहरुका भग्नावशेषहरु, बस्ति, नौगढ महाराजगंज जिल्लामा भेटिन्छन् । श्रावस्ती, कुशीनगर, बैशाली राजगृह, पाटलीपुत्र, सारनाथ, बोधगया यात्राका क्रममा गौतम बुद्ध बाटोमा बिश्राम गर्ने ठाँउहरुमा निर्मित कतिपय स्तूपहरु भविष्यमा अरु पनि भेटिन सक्ने संभावनालाई इन्कार गर्न सकिन्न । तिनैलाई लिएर भारतले कथित कपिलवस्तु र कपिलवस्तुको राजधानी भन्नु पुच्छरले सिंगो शरिरको दम्भगर्नु जस्तै हो ।

कवि माधव घिमिरेद्धारा रचित “गाँउछ गीत नेपाली ज्योतिको पंख उचाली” भन्ने लोकप्रिय राष्ट्रिय गीतबाट “बुद्धले यही ल्याएथे शान्तिको पहिलो बिहान” जस्ता नेपालको बुद्ध भन्ने महत्वपूर्ण वाक्यांश हटाई ने.टि.भी. र रेडियो नेपालबाट प्रसारण गराउन थालियो ।

बिपक्षीमा मन्त्री परिषद्को सचिवालय, प्रधान मन्त्रीको कार्यालय, शिक्षा मन्त्रालय संस्क्रिति मन्त्रालय, त्रिभूवल बिश्व बिद्यालय-अंग्रेजी बिषय समिति, संस्क्रिति  बिषय समिति र इतिहास बिषय समितिलाई राख्न बाध्य हुन पर् यो । उत्प्रेषण रिट दिएको एक महिनापछि पाठ्यक्रमबाट उक्त अंश हटाएर पढाउने निर्णय त्रि.बि.बि. ले गर् यो ।  

-नारायणप्रसाद पौडेल (लेखक लुम्बिनि कपिलवस्तु बचाऔ अभियानका अध्यक्ष हुनुहुन्छ र यो लेख धेरै पहिला लेखिएको कारण नेपालको परिबर्तित सन्दर्भमा कतिपय कुरा असान्दर्भिक देखिए तापनि सामग्रीको एतिहासिकता कायम गर्न परिवर्तन नगरी यथाबत राखिएको छ । )     

कपिलवस्तु शांख्य दर्शनका प्रणेता कपिलमूनिको तपोवन । कपिलवस्तु शाक्यबंशीय राजा शुद्धोधनको राजधानी । कपिलवस्तु सिद्धार्थ गौतम बुद्धले २९ बर्षसम्म जीवनयापन गरेको ठाउँ । कपिलवस्तु लुम्बिनी अन्चलको एउटा जिल्ला । यसको इतिहास नेपालभन्दा पुरानो छ । बुद्धभन्दा जेठो छ । कपिलवस्तु नेपाल नजानेकोले पनि जानेको छ । नेपाल नसुनेकोले पनि सुनेको छ । बरु नेपाल भित्रैका कपिलवस्तु जिल्ला भित्रैका बासिन्दाका लागि कपिलवस्तु अपरिचित होला, हुन पनि सक्छ, तर पुरातत्वबिद्, इतिहासकार, सांस्क्रितिक अन्वेषणकर्ता, बुद्ध धर्मावलम्बी, भौतिकवादी, मानव अधिकारवादी, बिश्व शान्ति र समानताका पक्षपाति अहिंसा र असांप्रदायिक बिचारका अनुयायिका लागि कपिलवस्तु  प्रेरणाको श्रोत हो । कपिलवस्तु प्राचीन सभ्यता र संस्क्रितिको अमूल्य नीधि हो । नेपाल र नेपालीको गौरव हो  कपिलवस्तु । समग्रमा भन्नु पर्दा संसारलाई दुई-दुईवटा दार्शनिक दिने ठाउँको नाउँ हो  कपिलवस्तु । संसारलाई हेर्ने दुईवटा आँखा दिने यस्तो ठाउँ शायदै अन्त कतै भेटिएला । पुरातात्विक संग्रहालय हो  कपिलवस्तु । डेढ अरब बुद्ध धर्मावलम्बीहरुको पवित्र आस्थाको केन्द्र हो  कपिलवस्तु । धार्मिक तीर्थस्थल हो कपिलवस्तु ।

E.T., Call Us Back! Making the Case for Alien Life

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on April 24, 2011

 

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By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK

Fuse / Getty Images

There’s no good evidence to date that life exists, or ever has existed, on worlds beyond the Earth — so it might seem odd that the field of science known as astrobiology is booming. Over the past decade or so, hundreds of biologists, geologists, chemists and astronomers have conducted research and attended conferences on astrobiology around the world, and NASA even has an Astrobiology Institute at its Ames Research Center in California.

That’s because there’s plenty to think about before we actually find alien life. What form, for example, is it likely to take? Where should we be looking, and how? How did life arise on Earth — was it pretty much inevitable, given the right conditions, or was it a one-in-a-billion kind of thing? Are there enough life-friendly planets out there to make the search worthwhile?(See the Hubble telescope’s greatest hits.)

Thanks to progress on all of these questions and more, scientists tend to be more confident than ever that life does exist out in the universe — and First Contact, a book by Washington Post reporter and editor Marc Kaufman, is a powerful reminder of why. Take Princeton geologist Tullis Onstott, whose story, along with those of many others, Kaufman tells. In 1996 Onstott ventured deep into a South African gold mine. Tapping into rock a mile (1.6 km) below the surface, he extracted bacteria that were living cheerfully in harsh conditions completely isolated from the rest of the biosphere.

Nepal-India Boarder History: 800 BC to 2011

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on April 25, 2011

 

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[We decided to keep all these information without correction so that readers could go through them and use their intellectual muscles to correct them in different ways ]

800 BC-2011  Search other dates

1. 624 BC

   624 BC - Even his birth date is disputed, though it is widely given as 624 BC. He is said to have been born into a princely family in Lumbini, inside Nepal’s border with India. Siddharth Gautam forbade images of himself during his lifetime and allowed his followers to … Show more From [arr] Film-makers call up Google to help find new face of Buddha - Related web pages www.mail-archive.com/arrahmanfans@yahoogroups …

   ►

2. 623 BC

   623 BC - Lumbini is renowned the world over for being the birth place of Gautam Buddha where Lord Buddha was born in 623 BC. The place is located in Terai plains and is at about 250 km south west of Kathmandu which is near Nepal India border in the north of … Show more From … Buddhist Train, Mahaparinirvana Express, Mahaparinirvan Special …- Related web pages www.indiarailtours.com/buddhist-special-train …

3. 620 BC

   620 BC - Gautama Siddhartha, the Sakyamuni Buddha, was born in 620 BCE in India on theNepal border. From Essential Reiki - Related web pages books.google.com/books?id=7jE7wTJJXBAC&pg …

4. 566 BC

   566 BC - Lumbini is that holy place where Lord Siddartha Gautam was born more then 2500 years ago, in 566 BC. It is situated about 250 kilometer west of Kathmandu near theNepal-India border. Lumbini is famous for its stone pillar of Ashoka, an Indian emperor, the… Show more

Stalin buses may appear on Russian streets

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on April 25, 2011

 

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Buses bearing portraits of Joseph Stalin may appear in several Russian cities as the country prepares to celebrate the

A commuter bus with a portrait of Joseph Stalin in St. Petersburg (RIA Novosti / Rostislav Koshelov)

66th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9.

The decision has been met with controversy by a society that remains deeply split over the role of the Soviet general secretary in the fate of the state.

Meanwhile, Mosgortrans, a company operating transport in the capital, told Echo of Moscow radio station that they have nothing to do with the idea and there will be no Stalin portraits on their vehicles.

Mikhail Fedotov, the head of the Presidential Council on Human Rights called the project a provocation, saying that it would only cause anger among the population. “We should not create yet another source of disagreements within the community. I am against such things,” he is cited as saying. Fedotov believes that federal authorities, such as Antimonopoly service should intervene in the situation. “Stalin is neither a product, nor a producer. Therefore it is purely a political advert, which is against the law,” he said.

The majority of the population considers Stalin a bloody dictator whose mass political repressions in 1930s claimed millions of innocent people and turned the lives of others into a nightmare. However, many still believe that Stalin was not that evil and Russia owes its industrial development to him and praise him for the victory in WWII.

According to a representative of the organizing committee of the “Victory Bus” action, Dmitry Lyskov, the role of the Soviet leader in the Great Patriotic War (as WWII is called in Russia) has been erased from history. The idea of placing Stalin portraits on commuter buses is aimed exactly at changing that situation, he told Echo of Moscow.

Estonia votes to vote by phone

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on April 25, 2011

 

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by Jennifer Guevin

Citizens in Estonia can now vote with their cell phones.

Parliament in Estonia voted on Thursday in favor of a measure that would allow citizens to vote via mobile phone in the next Parliamentary election (in 2011), according to the Associated Press.

Estonia has a history of being tech-forward. In 2005, it became the first country to offer online voting for a national election–although only about 1 percent of the votes cast that year were made online. In that election, people were required to insert their nationally-mandated ID cards into readers attached to their computers so their identity could be verified.

In order to vote by phone, Estonians will have to get a special chip for their handsets from the SK Certification Centre, which issues ID certificates and provides the mobile payment and ticketing system used on publish transportation. The chip will verify the voter’s identity and authorize them to vote.

I’m all for technology, especially technology that encourages people to vote and allows them to be spend less time in long lines waiting to do so. And certainly, some types of jobs, personal obligations, and physical limitations make it extremely difficult for voters to get to the polls on election day. So, for many people, this will be a big win. But given how long ballots tend to be here in California (and in San Francisco, in particular), I have to wonder if this convenience would be more trouble than it’s worth for others. Personally, I’ll think twice about subjecting my poor thumbs to voting by phone if this technology ever makes its way to the States.

@news.cnet,com

India raises UTL unpaid Royalty issue, meets Nepal Army Chief, but why?

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on April 25, 2011

 

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Indian Military personnel be allowed to guard Nepal’s northern frontier with China, Nepal should be under India’s Security Umbrella, stationing of Indian Air Marshals at Tribhuwan International Airport, presence of Indian military officials at each and every districts of Nepal in the name Ex-Gurkha pension Camps and now a strange Indian proposal has come which is to permit India deploying its security machinery to guard embassy premises and their officials.

India- the self declared honest friend is apparently hell bent on destroying whatever image of Nepal remains in the comity of nations as a nation-state.

At a time when third country nationals feel more and more unsafe in the streets of Kathmandu due to frequently happening broad day light firing incidents with fatal casualties carried out by Indian state nurtured criminals who enter Nepal through the open border, Indian foreign minister S.M. Krishna claimed at the bilateral meeting held in Hotel Yak and Yeti upon his arrival that Nepal should allow his country to take care of its citizens in Nepal because they feel unsafe in Nepal.

Arm twisting of the highest order.

Krishna was right in what he said, “Either we need to be assured that we are safe, if not we should be allowed to take care of our officials.”

If Nepal allowed this facility to India then the next moment countries like China, Pakistan, France, Germany, United States of America and Israel and many others will follow suit and demand the same from Nepal.

संघारमै उभिएको अप्रत्याशित भविष्य

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on April 26, 2011

 

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By रमेशनाथ पाण्डे

शीतयुद्धसँगै पूर्व-पश्चिम द्वन्द्वको कठिन चरण अन्त्य भएको दुई दशकपछि बल्ल अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय सम्बन्ध सञ्चालनको चरित्र र विधिमा उल्लेखनीयपरिवर्तनको क्रम सुरु भएको छ । यो प्रक्रियालाई अरब देशहरूमा भइरहेको ‘कलर रिभोलुसन’ मा शक्तिशाली पश्चिमी देशहरूले देखाएको विरोधाभासपूर्ण अभिवृत्ति र यसलाई भारत, चीन र रूसद्वारा दोहर्‍याएर दिइएको चुनौतीले चरित्र र स्वरूप दिन थालेको छ । यसै अवस्थामा एकातिर आफूलाई ‘तटस्थ’ बताइरहेका युरोपका देशहरूले तटस्थताको स्थापित मान्यतालाई नै पुनः व्याख्या गरेर आफ्नो अडान फेरेका छन् । लिबियामा नेटोको कमानमा स्विडेनका लडाकु विमानहरू पनि क्षेप्यास्त्र प्रहारमा सामेल भएका छन् । दोस्रो विश्वयुद्धमा तटस्थ बसेको स्विटजरल्यान्डले पनि लिबियामा आक्रमण गर्ने नेटोका विमानहरूका लागि आफ्नो हवाईमार्ग उपलब्ध गराएको छ । अर्कोतिर इटाली, टर्की र पोल्यान्डले नेटो सैनिक कारबाहीलाई विरोध गरेका छन् । तर अमेरिका र फ्रान्सका राष्ट्रपति तथा बि्रटेनका प्रधानमन्त्रीहरूले आफ्ना देशका तीन प्रमुख अखबारहरूमा लेखेको संयुक्त लेखमा सुरक्षा परिषद्को प्रस्तावलाई ठाडै उल्लंघन गर्दै ‘गद्दाफी सत्तामा रहेेसम्म नेटो र यसका सहयोगी देशहरूले सैनिक कारबाही जारी राख्नुपर्छ भनिएको छ । हालै सम्पन्न बि्रक्स -ब्राजिल, रूस, भारत, चीन र दक्षिण अफ्रिकाको हैनन, चीनमा सम्पन्न राष्ट्र र सरकार प्रमुखहरूको बैठकले सैनिक तागतको प्रयोगलाई अस्वीकार गर्दै प्रत्येक देशको स्वतन्त्रता, सार्वभौमिकता र अखण्डतालाई सम्मान गर्नुपर्ने अडान सार्वजनिक गरेको छ । अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय सम्बन्धमा लोकतन्त्रलाई विकास गर्नुपर्छ’ भन्ने बि्रक्सको ३२ सूत्रीय हैनन घोषणापत्रको अर्को निकै महत्त्वपूर्ण बुँदा हो । यसरी उदीयमान दुई आर्थिक महाशक्तिहरू चीन र भारत तथा विश्वको दोस्रो ठूलो आणविक शक्ति रूस समेतको बि्रक्सद्वारा प्रस्तुत अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय सम्बन्ध सञ्चालनको चरित्र र विधिमा नेटोभन्दा पृथक अडानले नयाँँ विश्व व्यवस्थाको निर्माण सुरु गरेको छ ।

हैननमा पाँच बि्रक्स देशहरू विशेष गरी चीन, भारत र रूसले अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय राजनीतिको नवीन तर्क पद्धति प्रस्तुत गर्दै अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय सम्बन्धमा सैनिक शक्तिको प्रयोगलाई अस्वीकार गर्ने र आर्थिक क्षेत्रमा अमेरिकी डलरको प्रभुत्व अन्त्य गर्ने बाटो पनि समातेका छन् । अब यी देशहरूले आपसमा अमेरिकी डलरको प्रयोग रोकेर आफ्नै  राष्ट्रि्रय मुद्रा उपयोग गर्नेछन् । सन् १९४४ देखि अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय रिजर्भ मुद्राको रूपमा स्थापित अमेरिकी डलरलाई विस्थापित गर्ने यो कदमको अर्थ हो बि्रक्स अब विश्व व्यवस्थाको महत्त्वपूर्ण हिस्सा भएर शक्तिकेन्द्रको भूमिका लिन अग्रसर भएको छ । थुप्रै राजनीतिक मतभेद भएर पनि साझा सोच र अडान लिन बि्रक्स देशहरूबीच सहकार्य हुनु असामान्य घटनाक्रम हो । विश्वको आर्थिक सामथ्र्य पश्चिमी देशहरूबाट भारत र चीनमा सरेको वर्तमान अवस्थामा यी दुवैले आफ्नो  नवआर्जित हैसियत प्रदर्शन तथा रूसी शक्ति पुनर्जागृत भएको घोषणाले अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय राजनीतिमा आधारभूत परिवर्तनको निणर्ायक चरण सुरु भएको छ ।    

EXCLUSIVE: YouTube Finally Goes Hollywood With New Movies on Demand Service (Updated)

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on April 26, 2011

 

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By Sharon Waxman

YouTube will imminently launch a movie-on-demand service charging users to stream mainstream Hollywood moviesoff the world’s largest video sharing site, TheWrap has learned.

The new service means a full-bore challenge to Apple’s iTunes service – currently the most powerful player in paid video streaming — and a welcome new revenue stream for Hollywood as home entertainment revenues continue their steep decline.

The service may start as early as this week or next, and is expected to be announced soon by YouTube.

Major studios including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Universal have licensed their movies for the new service, as have numerous independent studios, including Lionsgate and the library-rich Kino Lorber, according to movie executives with knowledge of the deals in place.

YouTube has been laboring to bring all the major Hollywood studios on board before announcing it, according to one executive involved in the deal. But so far Paramount, Fox and Disney have declined to join.

(Update 7:37 p.m. PST) YouTube, which had earlier declined to comment for the story, issued a statement after this story was published, pointing out that it has rented movies for a year, while declining to comment on the broader initiative it is about to launch with the major studios on board. 

“We’ve steadily been adding more and more titles since launching movies for rent on YouTube over a year ago, and now have thousands of titles available,” a spokesperson said. “Outside of that, we don’t comment on rumor or speculation.”

But in fact the video giant has never rented mainstream movies on this scale during the traditional DVD window. The major studios, who were once leery of YouTube, now see it as a potentially lucrative platform.

“We think it will start with VOD, but broaden to include sell-through over time,” said a senior executive at one Hollywood studio that has signed the deal with YouTube. “We are pretty excited because we are happy to see new entrants come in transactionally rather than a subscription model.”

Read also: Mark Cuban: YouTube Can Change the World, But It Can’t Make Money Streaming Movies

The service is the biggest studio VOD deal since all the major studios signed on to Apple’s iTunes rental service in January 2008. Fox, Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount, Universal, Sony, MGM, Lionsgate and New Line were all on board for that initiative. Apple charged as low as $2.99 rental fee for that service.

It was not clear what YouTube would charge. But it means the site’s 130 million monthly users will be able to pay to watch movies as they come out into the DVD market; it is the first serious foray by the Google-owned company into mainstream movies and charging money for video.

Hollywood studios have long struggled to find a way to marry their high quality content – for which they want to be paid – with the largest video site in the world best known for cats peeing on toilets.

Paramount and Fox have declined to be part of the service at this time, according to knowledgeable executives. Disney’s status is still unclear, and a spokeswoman declined to comment for this story.

For movie and YouTube fans, the service means that movies they often see at the cineplex will be available on the same day and date as they can be rented at video stores or iTunes, far ahead of other subscription streaming services such as Netflix.

“What’s really good about their approach is rather than another subscription offering, they’re going into a fresh area where there has been fewer leaps forward,” said the studio executive.

The executive said that Hollywood studios were excited by having a tech giant like Google involved in a new streaming service, with the hope that the parent company would develop new technologies to encourage sell-through purchases of movies that could be securely stored in a digital locker.

At a seminar this month where Google executives discussed their strategy for movie advertising, Robert Kyncl, YouTube’s vice president of TV and film entertainment hinted at a plan in the offing.

“Imagine if you had a video store on YouTube, where you could rent or buy the movie without being sent elsewhere,” he said.

But when asked about specific plans for streaming movies, Kyncl said: “Obviously, there are things coming, but we can’t talk about them yet.”

YouTube has been flirting with Hollywood for several years, and has struggled to figure out how to stream movies in concert with the major studios for at least the last two years.

The shift that led to the culmination of this deal seems to be the arrival of Kyncl from Netflix in September 2010, where he ran content acquisition. He brought on board two Paramount executives, Alex Carloss and Malik Ducard, recently let go from that studio’s digital team in an executive reshuffle.

@therap.com

Hawaii senator alleges Obama hiding true father

Posted by Ram Kumar Shrestha on April 26, 2011

 

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In a new twist to the birther debate, a state senator from Hawaii alleged that the reason US President Barack Obama has

President Barack Obama gestures during a fiscal policy meeting in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, April 4, 2011. (Office White House Photo by Pete Souza)

not release a full birth certificate is not because he was born abroad, but because he is hiding the identify of his true father.

Republican State Senator Sam Slom said the real issue in this debate is not over Obama’s citizenship, but his fathers’.

“My particular point of view… is that [Obama] probably was born [in Hawaii] and that the real issue is not the birth certificate, but what’s on the birth certificate,‘ Slom said in an interview on New York’s WABC 770 AM radio station. “It could have to do with what his name is on the birth certificate, who is actually listed as his father, the citizenship of the father.”

In the 2008 presidential campaign the debate over Obama’s birthplace and his citizenship began, but then settles for a while. Recent months however have seen an increase in birther debates. Some allege Obama may have been born in Kenya, or even Indonesia. The schemes range.

Potential Republican presidential contender Donald Trump recently released his certificate and then challenged Obama to do the same. He followed his challenge up by sending private investigators to Hawaii to research the US president’s birth.

Obama has spent millions in legal fees to conceal his past records – birth, health, employment and educational records. Slom argued that as long as Obama fights to hide information the more important the issue to find the truth remains.

कलाकार प्रेमराजा महत कपिलवस्तु दिवस विश्व अभियानका सांस्कृतिक दूत घोषित

काठमाडौं चैत २६ । नेपाली लोक गायन र संगीत क्षेत्रका लोकप्रिय कलाकार प्रेमराजा महत कपिलवस्तु दिवस विश्व अभियानको तर्फबाट नेपाली संगीत र सामाजिक क्षेत्रमा उहाँले पुर् याउनु भएको योगदानको कदर स्वरुप सम्मानित हुनुभएको छ । नेपाल संयोजक निलकण्ठ उप्रेतीको सभापतित्वमा आयोजित कार्यक्रममा सार्क सल्लाहकार केदार शाक्य र विश्व सल्लाहकार डा कविताराम श्रेष्ठले उहाँलाई सम्मान गर्नुभयो । सो अवसरमा उहाँलाई अभियानको तर्फबाट कपिलवस्तु दिवस विश्व अभियानका सांस्कृतिक दूतको घोषणा पनि गरियो । उहाँ नेपाल सरकारको तर्फबाट संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिकाको मेरिल्यान्ड र पेनसिल्भानिया राज्यका लागि मानार्थ कन्सुलेट हुनुहुन्छ । कलाकार प्रेमराजा महतलाई नेपाल सरकारले पर्यटन बर्षको दूत्को रुपमा समेत घोषणा गरेको छ । कार्यक्रममा सार्क संयोजक राज श्रेष्ठले अभियानको परिचय दिनु भएको थियो भने डा कविताराम श्रेष्ठले अभियानको उद्देश्यमाथि प्रकाश पार्नु भयो । कार्यक्रममा नेपाल सल्लाहकार डा कुसुम शाक्य, चन्दा थापा, सुरेश कोइराला र हिमाल जङ्ग भण्डारीले कपिलवस्तु दिवस अभियानप्रति समर्थन र सदासयता प्रकट गर्नु भयो ।

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