Jammu, Aug 29: A delegation consisting of Tibetan parliamentarians on Tuesday met the JKPCC Working President Raman Bhalla and submitted a memorandum to him. They highlighted the issue of Tibet and briefed the functioning of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile.
According to a JKPCC statement issued here, the lawmakers Dawa Tsering, Yeshi Dolma and Tenpa Yarphel appealed to Bhalla for the Congress Party’s support to the cause of Tibet and the Tibetans living in the state.
The MPs presented Bhalla with a souvenir and documents from the TPiE. Bhalla said he is well aware of the Sino-Tibetan conflict as he had an opportunity to listen to Prof Samdhong Rinpoche, former Kalon Tripa, a decade ago. He added, “As India’s Centre and State governments have rightfully shouldered the responsibility of providing the needed assistance to the Tibetans living in exile for the past more than 60 years, India will continue to do the needful in support of the Tibetans.”
The Tibetan delegates invited Bhalla to the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile in Dharamshala.
Bhalla was told that Tibetan people have been traumatized by systematic violations of their most fundamental human rights and threats to their distinct cultural and national identity since the People’s Republic of China (PRC) invaded Tibet in 1949. Over the last seven decades, the situation in Tibet has been deteriorating to the extent that it is now facing the imminent threat of cultural genocide and total annihilation of Tibetan identity.
They said Tibet and India have a millennia-old history of friendly coexistence and cultural exchanges. They have been neighbouring countries with rich ancient as well as contemporary civilizational ties. “There has never been, in past history, any sort of territorial boundary between India and China. However such a boundary has now come into being and that boundary continues to remain a subject of dispute and behind those boundaries are our Tibetan brothers and sisters who continue to suffer under the subjugation and repressive policies of China,” they said.
As such, it is critical that our status and rights as Tibetan people are recognized and reaffirmed, and that our call for a peaceful resolution is supported and strengthened, the lawmakers said, adding, “In order to resolve the Tibet-China conflict on the basis of the Middle Way Policy, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has made every effort to initiate a series of confidence-building measures during the nine rounds of talks which took place between 2002 and 2010.”
“Since 2010, no dialogue has taken place with the PRC and the ball is entirely in their court. Nevertheless, the CTA is open and firmly committed to dialogue and negotiation to resolve the Tibet-China conflict in the best interest of both the Tibetan and Chinese people through the Middle Way Policy,” they added.
