BJP MP for Bharat Ratna to Dalai Lama; says China should free Tibet

BJP’s Kangra MP Kishan Kapoor urged the Centre to confer the country’s highest civilian order Bharat Ratna on the Dalai Lama and called for the freedom of Tibet from China.

The Bharat Ratna will be the best gift from the Union government to the Dalai Lama on his 85th birthday, said Kapoor, who congratulated the Tibetan spiritual leader on the occasion in Dharamshala on Monday.

“It is a matter of great fortune for the people of the state, especially the people of my constituency, that the Dalai Lama, after the exile from Tibet, settled in McLeodganj,” he said.

Supporting the demand for a complete independence of Tibet, Kapoor said the way China has taken over it through excesses is unfortunate.

He said China is habitual of seizing neighbouring territories that is why it is laying claim to Russia’s Vladivostok region even after signing a treaty with it nearly 150 years ago. China should come forward to resolve the border dispute without violence like a good neighbour and “hand over” Tibet to the Dalai Lama, he said.

Earlier too, the demand for conferring the Bharat Ratna on the Dalai Lama has been made by several people.

Shanta Kumar, a senior BJP leader and former CM of Himachal Pradesh, had in April 2019 submitted to the Union Government a letter signed by the MPs of several political parties, supporting the Bharat Ratna for the Dalai Lama.

Former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao too had posted just days after the clash between Indian Army personnel and Chinese troops in Galwan Valley that he should be given the award.

Historian Ramachandra Guha in a article last year had argued that India should affirm its respect for the Dalai Lama by openly honouring him with the Bharat Ratna.