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A day off for Vajpayee

By Amit Baruah

The Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, with his delegation at the Longmen caves in Luoyang, Henan province, in China on Wednesday. — PTI

SHANGHAI June 25. It is a day off for the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, who flew in a special Chinese Boeing 737 aircraft from Beijing to see the Longmen caves in Luoyang, northern China, in Henan province this morning.

His official meetings over, he spent a full day in Luoyang, viewing the impressive Buddha statues as well as the White Horse Temple, built in 67 A.D.

Despite the oppressive heat, the Prime Minister spent nearly an hour viewing the Buddha statues — which extend to a height of 17 metres.

A Chinese guide gave Mr. Vajpayee a detailed account of the Longmen caves.

In 1993, the then Prime Minister, P.V. Narasimha Rao, also visited Luoyang — Mr. Vajpayee following suit is a clear indicator of the importance and beauty of the Longmen caves and White Horse Temple.

But, Mr. Vajpayee departed from the "Rao route" in one important aspect when he arrived tonight in Shanghai from Luoyang, becoming only the second Indian Prime Minister after Rajiv Gandhi to set foot in this Chinese boom town.

Tomorrow, Mr. Vajpayee will "drive by" Pu Dong, the spanking new business district that was put on show for the U.S. President, George W. Bush, when he visited Shanghai for the APEC Summit in November 2001.

Whatever Western analysts say about the "exaggerated" figures of Chinese economic growth, the fact of the matter is that one can actually see the economic development that has taken place in this country. And, Pu Dong is the symbol of this growth.

As his six-day trip draws to an end on Friday afternoon, the Prime Minister still has one engagement left — an address at a seminar on "India and China: Opportunities and Challenges in the IT Sector."

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