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

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

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

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

Supporting demand for a complete independence of Tibet, Kapoor said 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 Vlivostok region even after signing a treaty with it nearly 150 years ago. China should come forward to resolve border dispute without violence like a good neighbour and “hand over” Tibet to Dalai Lama, he said.

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

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

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

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