All Rise! The Parliament Is in Session…
Monday, 17 October 2005, 9:30 am
Mock parliament in session |
Dharamshala: “If only this was true,” sighed the vice chair of the Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies, Dolma Gyari, as a group of Indian high-schoolers held here last Saturday a mock parliamentary session focused on India’s response to the cataclysm in Tibet before and since 1959.
Role-playing a typical sitting day in the Indian parliament, some 55 students of the Green
“The Communication Minister” |
Field Senior Secondary School, Nagrotta, weighed in with criticism almost every core issue of Tibet in an hour-long mock question-answer session.
Visibly impressed by the insightful, feisty debate between the “ruling” and the “opposition” parties, laced with a high standard of decorum, the panel of judges took turns to extol the performance of the students.
“The Railway Minister” flashes his portfolio |
“The way you conducted yourselves today was a lesson for the Tibetan legislatures, as much as the Indian parliamentarians,” Dolma Gyari said, before she, along with Information Secretary Thubten Samphel, awarded prizes to the best ten orators of the day.
In a bid to raise awareness on Tibet, the Himalayan Parivar, a support group which organized this event, is already planning to organize next month a district (county) level speech competition, and to request Kalon Tripa Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche to be the chief guest for the event.
(www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration.)