Dalai Lama in Delhi amidst demand for Bharat Ratna

New Delhi, August 27

The arrival of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in Delhi for five days comes amidst demand from Parliamentarians and civil society to make him the third foreign recipient of the Bharat Ratna after Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan and Nelson Mandela.

The Dalai Lama arrived in Delhi on Friday after a month-long sojourn in Ladakh and will stay here for five days. There is no information about his public programmes or whether he will meet the political leadership in Delhi.

The demand for Bharat Ratna has wider resonance and has also been made by former Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, academic Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Union Minister Chanderesh Kumari, former Himachal CM Shanta Kumar and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Himachal Chief Minister Jairam Thakur had planned to greet the spiritual leader personally on his birthday last month but was unable to reach Dharamsala due to bad weather. PM Narendra Modi had also wished him on his birthday along with several CMs and Union Ministers. The communication has since increased. The Dalai Lama on August 9 had congratulated Jagdeep Dhankhar on being elected Vice-President.

The birthday greetings to Dalai Lama from the political leadership, his month-long stay in Ladakh where the Indian army is in a confrontation with the PLA and India’s refusal to explicitly state its backing for ‘One China’ commitment over Taiwan have given rise to talk that India’s Tibet policy is undergoing a change.

The All Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet (APIPFT) which met here earlier this month put forward three proposals. Besides seeking the Bharat Ratna award for the Dalai Lama, it wanted him to address a joint session of Parliament. The 10-member APIPFT also wants the Foreign Office to appoint a special coordinator for Tibet-related issues as the US State Department has done.

The APIPFT was revived last year and its meeting with the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile in December led to a sharp reaction from the Chinese embassy. Its convener has also pushed for a bill, although in his private capacity, a bill that bars China from interfering in the succession of Buddhist spiritual leaders.