Kathmandu, July 5 (Inditop.com) Ahead of the Dalai Lama’s 74th birthday Monday, a fresh controversy has erupted in Nepal, home to a sizeable number of Tibetan refugees, after six Nepali lawmakers had an audience with the exiled Tibetan leader in Dharamsala town in north India.
At least one party has asked its MP, who was part of the delegation to Dharamsala, to explain why she met the Dalai Lama.
The visit took place last month when legislators from four parties were taken to Dharamsala by a Nepali NGO, Lumbini Foundation for Development and Peace (LFDP).
Two of the parties – Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) and Terai Madhes Loktantrik Party (TMLP) – are partners in the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal while the other two – Dalit Janajati Party (DJP) and Sanghiya Nepal Rastriya Manch (SNRM) – are fringe parties.
The six MPs, including two women, had an audience with the Dalai Lama June 22. During their three-day tour of Dharamsala, they also were invited to dinner by officials of the Tibetan government-in-exile that sits in Dharamsala as well as the speaker of the parliament-in-exile.
They also met the controversial Tibetan religious leader, the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who faced a challenge to his inheritance by two more contenders.
The visit would have gone unnoticed had not a pro-Tibetan website, Phayul, reported one of the MPs, Viswendra Paswan of DJP, as saying that after returning to Kathmandu, they would try to get the Nepal government to re-open the office of the Dalai Lama’s representative in Kathmandu.
The office was closed down by the Nepal government in 2005 saying that since it upheld the ‘One China’ policy, there was no room for a separate Tibetan embassy.
Paswan was also reported as saying that he would try to lobby with the Nepal government to issue identity cards to Tibetan refugees.
Though there are about 20,000 registered Tibetan refugees in Nepal, the actual number of the diaspora is larger still as Nepal stopped issuing fresh IDs under pressure from the Chinese government, which says there are no Tibetan refugees, but only “illegal migrants”.
The Nepal government also does not allow Tibetans refugees to register their marriages and their children have no documents, which makes travel, education and employment virtually impossible.
Taking note of the MPs’ visit, the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu is reported to have registered a stiff protest with the foreign ministry. However, the embassy could not be contacted for confirmation.
At least one MP, Rukmini Chaudhury, has been asked by her party, the SNRM, to explain why she went to Dharamsala without the party’s knowledge.
“We are a small party and our policy is not to talk on foreign policy issues but to focus on Nepal’s internal matters,” SNRM general secretary Khangendra Makhim told IANS. “Our only stand on foreign policy is that we would like good relations with all foreign governments.”
Chaudhury said she had met the Dalai Lama “purely due to religious reasons”.
“I am a Buddhist,” the lawmaker told IANS. “So I met the Dalai Lama. But I did not say anything at the meeting. Also, before we went to Dharamsala, I had not been informed we were going there. I had been told we would be attending a Buddhist seminar in New Delhi,” she said.
The TMLP, which recently joined the cabinet, also told IANS that it upheld the government’s ‘One China’ policy that regards Tibet to be an inalienable part of China.
Neither the MJF nor Paswan could be contacted for their comment.
The fresh Tibet controversy comes ahead of the Dalai Lama’s 74th birthday when China fears fresh demonstrations asking for a ‘Free Tibet’.
Siddarth Gautam, who heads the NGO that took the MPs on the controversial trip, however, says that all of them knew beforehand that they would be meeting the Dalai Lama.
“I am a Buddhist and respect the Dalai Lama,” he said. “The meeting was arranged so that Nepal could see through the disinformation campaign by the Chinese government and realise that the Dalai lama is not advocating a free Tibet.
“He is merely asking for better rights for Tibetans, which is a humanitarian issue and not a political one.”
