Nobody has the right to decide the 15th Dalai Lama except the incumbent, Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju said.

by Anirban Bhaumik, Deccan Herald

New Delhi: India on Thursday endorsed the Tibetan spiritual leader 14th Dalai Lama’s move to rule out any role for China in selecting his reincarnation.

He made the comment a day after the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, who would turn 90 on July 6, entrusted the full responsibility of selecting his reincarnation to a trust based in India – a move intended to counter Beijing’s bid to influence the process of selecting the 15th Dalai Lama and use him to fizzle out the global movement against the occupation of Tibet by China.

“All those who follow the Dalai Lama feel that the incarnation is to be decided by the established convention and as per the wish of the Dalai Lama himself,” Rijiju said, adding: “Nobody else has the right to decide it except him and the conventions in place.”

His comment was the first reaction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in New Delhi to the statement the Dalai Lama made about the process of selecting his reincarnation in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile, formally known as the Central Tibetan Administration, in India. New Delhi publicly endorsed the Dalai Lama’s decision on his reincarnation, although it riled Beijing. Click here to read more.