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Tibet support groups to frame new action plan at conference in Delhi today
The All India Tibet Support Groups Conference is held every three years and members and representatives of all Tibet support groups in India take part in the gathering
Tibetan groups and leaders from across India will gather in Delhi today for a conference that will finalise an action plan and to persuade the Indian government to have a clear policy on the cause of Tibet, including the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama.
The All India Tibet Support Groups Conference is held every three years and members and representatives of all Tibet support groups in India take part in the gathering.
The representatives will focus on an action plan for clear policies on Tibet by the government of India that is in line with the Tibet Policy and Support Act 2019 passed by the US Congress.
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The US law backs the rights of the Tibetan people to select their own leaders, including the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama, without interference from the Chinese government, as well as the human rights of the Tibetan people and protection of Tibet’s environment and water resources.
The conference will also focus on the importance of Tibet to India at a time when the bilateral relationship between New Delhi and Beijing has been affected by China’s recent actions, people familiar with the matter said.
The conference is being held against the backdrop of Beijing’s insistence that the Chinese government alone can choose the next Dalai Lama. Chinese officials have also said that no other country, including India, should interfere in this process.
The two-day meet is being organised by the Core Group for Tibetan Cause-India, a coordinating body for some 15 major and other smaller Tibet support groups in India.
The conference will also focus on the significance of Tibet’s ecology for downstream countries, especially India, and on strengthening the Tibet movement and support groups in India to resolve the Tibetan issue peacefully. In this context, delegates will highlight the threat posed by Chinese dam projects on the Brahmaputra to livelihoods in downstream countries.
More than 200 delegates are expected to participate in the conference, at which Penpa Tsering, president of the Central Tibetan Administration, will be the keynote speaker.
Sujeet Kumar, convenor of the All Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet (APIPFT), senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar, and Khenpo Sonam Tenphel, the speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, are among those expected to attend the conference.
The Tibet support movement in India started under the leadership of Jai Prakash Narayan, who orhanised the All India Tibet Convention, in Kolkata in 1959. Following the Dalai Lama’s call for genuine autonomy for Tibet, the movement gathered the support of 212 Indian parliamentarians in 1988.
The All Party Indian Parliamentarians Forum for Tibet (APIPFT), which has formed in the 1970s, was revived in December 2021 to back the Tibet support groups.
