Dalai Lama regrets remarks on Nehru
Buddhist spiritual leader says Tibetans ready to be part of China if guaranteed full rights
The Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama yesterday regretted blaming former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 and thanked him for sheltering thousands of exiled Tibetans after they fled from their motherland.
“My statements [on Nehru] have created a controversy. I apologise if I said something wrong,” the 83-year-old Nobel laureate told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.
Speaking to the students at the Goa Institute of Management at Sanquelim in north Goa on Wednesday, the Dalai Lama had said: “Mahatma Gandhi wanted to give the prime ministership to [Mohammad Ali] Jinnah. But Nehru refused. He was selfcentred. He said, ‘I want to be Prime Minister’. India and Pakistan would have been united [had Jinnah been made Prime Minister at the time]”.
The Dalai Lama, however, apologised for the remarks yesterday and thanked Nehru for supporting the Tibetans’ cause when thousands of them, including monks, fled their motherland after China annexed the mountain country in 1950.
“I had a close relationship with Nehru, who suggested to have separate schools to ■ preserve the Tibetan thought. He [Nehru] supported the Tibetans’ cause,” the 14th Dalai Lama said.
He was addressing “Thank You Karnataka” event here, a part of “Thank You India — 2018”, organised by the Central Tibetan Administration to mark its community’s 60 years of exile in the country.
Tibetans are ready to be a part of China if guaranteed full rights to preserve their culture, the Dalai Lama said yesterday.
“Tibetans are not asking for independence. We are OK with remaining with the People’s Republic of China, provided we have full rights to preserve our culture,” the 83-year-old spiritual leader said.
“Several of Chinese citizens practicing Buddhism are keen on Tibetan Buddhism as it is considered scientific,” the Nobel laureate said.
Born in Taktser hamlet in northeastern Tibet, the Dalai Lama was recognised at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso.