By Jaideep Sarin, IANS,
Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh) : Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, Thursday said that he was deliberately keeping away from the biggest meeting of Tibetan leaders here as he did not want to influence their discussions.
“I have made it very clear that it is now up to the Tibetans. If I mention something then that may have hampered their free expression. Therefore, for the time being, I decided to remain complete silent,” the 1989 Nobel Peace prize winner told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.
The Nov 17-22 meeting of top Tibetan leaders has attracted nearly 600 delegates from all over the world. The meeting was called by the exiled Tibetan Parliament at the instance of the Dalai Lama to discuss and give suggestions for the future course to be adopted for the struggle for Tibet.
But the Dalai Lama can meet delegates of the meeting at a special sitting here Sunday.
Initially the ministers of the exiled Tibetan government here, which is not recognised by any nation, had also wanted that they be excused from attending sessions of the meeting as participants could get influenced by their pro-government views. However, the ministers were told to participate in the meeting and give their views independently.
The Tibetan leader told a gathering here that the Tibet issue was a complicated one. He said that India should help in resolving it.
“India and Tibet is having the relationship of a ‘guru and chela’ (teacher and disciple) and when chela is in trouble, the guru must look after him,” the Dalai Lama said.
He refused to say anything on the relations of the exiled government with China. “No comments,” he said when asked about it.
The eighth round of talks between China and the exiled Tibetan government failed earlier November after the Chinese side rejected a memorandum submitted by the exiled government seeking autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule.