BJP bigwigs in attendance at Dalai Lama event, leader takes on China
The Dalai Lama thanked India on Saturday for giving shelter to him and said the Tibetans have turned their unfortunate circumstances into a path of enlightenment by reviving their spirit and influence wherever they are.
At a public event in Dharamsala marking the beginning of the 60th year of his exile in India, he got emotional and embraced one of the five Assam Rifles troopers who escorted him to India after his escape from Tibet.
Union culture minister Mahesh Sharma, MPs Shanta Kumar and Satyavrat Chaturvedi, and BJP leader Ram Madhav were present along with functionaries of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA).
Media reports had said earlier that India had told top officials to avoid events held by Tibet’s government-in-exile to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s life in India, fearful of hurting relations with China.
‘OVERWHELMED’
In 1959, Naren Chandra Das, now 80, escorted the Dalai Lama, now 82, on his arrival in Arunachal Pradesh. Dalai Lama has lived in exile ever since fleeing Tibet in March 1959 after a failed uprising against Communist rule in Tibet.
“I feel blessed once again as His Holiness touched me and bumped his head with my head,” Das told reporters after he was honoured at the event that marked the 60th anniversary of the Dalai Lama’s arrival in India. The event also marked the onset of a year-long ‘Thank You India’ campaign.
‘THIS IS YOUR LAND’
Ram Madhav expressed hope that the Dalai Lama “would be able to find a solution to the Tibetan issue through peaceful and democratic means that will facilitate your honourable return to your homeland.”
Addressing the Tibetan government-in-exile, he said, “We don’t want to use the word refugee (for you). This is your land. At the most, you are in exile and Tibet is waiting for you.”
China says Tibet has historically been part of its territory since the mid-13th century, and has governed it since 1951. But many Tibetans say the region was effectively independent for most of its history.
DHARAMSALA:
HARD-HITTING SPEECH Lobsang Sangay, the prime minister of the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile in India, urged his compatriots to strengthen efforts to make the return of the Dalai Lama to his native land a reality. He said Tibet has seen 60 years of destruction of its civilisation, culture and identity by the Chinese.
He said the Dalai Lama “dreamt of himself in a room in the Potala Palace (in Lhasa, the residence of the Dalai Lama) filled with light where he will be reunited with Tibetans. Thousands have been killed for the cause of Tibet. Many of them have burned themselves alive.”