By Jaideep Sarin, IANS,
Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh) : The Tibetan leadership in India will hold its national general body meeting next month just before the parliament-in-exile gets down to amending its constitution to allow Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to retire from political authority.
Faced with a situation where the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, has refused to budge from his stand of seeking retirement from his political role as head of the exiled Tibetans, the meeting will deliberate upon the finer points of allowing the shifting of authority from the Dalai Lama to elected political authority.
The meeting, likely to be attended by 400-450 Tibetan leaders from India and other countries, will be held for three days from May 21.
This is the second time the Tibetan government-in-exile (TGiE) has called for the national general body meeting. The last meeting was held in November 2008, attended by nearly 600 Tibetan representatives, to discuss the future course of the Tibetan struggle.
The meeting will be followed by the special session of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile to be held May 25-28 where the actual amendment in the Tibetan Charter, which will allow the transfer of political authority from the Dalai Lama, will be made.
“It would be a big meeting, of the same magnitude that we had in November 2008. Around 420-450 people are expected to attend this three-day meeting. All present and former members of the cabinet, present and former members of parliament, newly elected prime minister and social activists who are working for the Tibetan cause will participate in this meeting,” Penpa Tsering, speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, told IANS.
“The only agenda that we would discuss in the meeting would be the proposed amendments in the charter. We would not take up any other issue as we want to focus on this matter only,” he added.
Tibetan MPs in exile are also attaching a lot of importance to the meeting and the special session.
“Making the amendment in the charter will be a historic decision. It is an important occasion in Tibetan history. All MPs should be present in parliament when this amendment is made,” MP Karma Yeshi told IANS.
For the amendment in the Tibetan Charter to be passed, three-fourths majority of the house of 43 MPs is required.
A high-level body, the Charter Amendment Drafting Committee, has already been formed by the Tibetan authorities here to work out the modalities on what all aspects of the charter need to be amended to allow transfer of political authority from the Dalai Lama.
The committee includes the Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) Samdhong Rinpoche, parliament Speaker Penpa Tsering, Deputy Speaker Dolma Gyari, Education Minister (Kalon) Thupten Lungrik and former speaker and MP Pema Jungney.
“It is our general meeting that will be held May 21-23, before the session of our parliament. The meeting is very important and many key issues will be taken up,” Lobsang Choedak, press officer of Central Tibetan Administration, told IANS.
“All members of the cabinet, MPs, the prime minister, members of the four schools of Buddhism, Tibetan NGOs, autonomous Tibetan associations, scholars, volunteers and social activists from various walks of life will attend this meeting,” stated Choedak.
The Dalai Lama had announced his decision to retire from his role as political head of the Tibetans last month. His formal communication to the exiled parliament was read in the house March 14.
Though the parliament, after a series of deliberations, urged him to reconsider the decision to retire and even passed a resolution to this effect, the Nobel Peace Prize winner declined to accept the plea and sent his retirement proposal back to the house.
The exiled parliament then formed a committee to look into all aspects of the devolving of powers of the Dalai Lama.
The amendment to the charter will be done by the outgoing house (14th parliament-in-exile). Newly elected members of the new parliament will take oath May 30. Elections for the Tibetan prime minister’s post and that of MPs was held March 20.