A senior lawmaker of the ruling party of India has written to Prime Minister Modi urging to honour the Dalai Lama with India’s highest civilian award. Calls demanding the honour on exiled Tibetan spiritual leader based in India has ever been growing louder. He also requested India to raise the issue of Tibet with the United Nations.
According to the report by The Tribune, former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh and BJP veteran Shanta Kumar on Thursday appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to honour Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama with Bharat Ratna, the highest civilian award in India.
In a letter addressed to Modi, Shanta said, “His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, is one of the most revered spiritual leaders of the world who was also conferred with the Nobel Peace Prize… I urge the Prime Minister to honour the Dalai Lama with Bharat Ratna.”
Shanta also requested the Centre to raise the issue of Tibet with the United Nations. He said the massacre of Tibetans was one of the biggest tragedies of the world in which lakhs of innocent Tibetans were killed by China and the Dalai Lama was forced to take shelter in India. He has further claimed that in 1950, the government headed by then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru had committed a blunder when China was allowed to take over Tibet while it remained a mute spectator.
He said in the present international scenario, China had become a major threat, not just for India but for the entire world. This was evident from the fact that China was making efforts to capture the Indian territory. He said after the outbreak of Covid-19, the entire world was against China and it was a golden opportunity for the international community to “correct the mistakes of 1950 committed by the Congress government”.