Assembly Mourns the Demise of an Indian Friend
Prof. Manohar Lal Sondhi |
Dharamsala, 25 November 2003: The Tibetans lost one of its oldest and most sincere supporters in Professor Manohar Lal Sondhi, a distinguished Indian Parliamentarian and a diplomat. The Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies expressed its deep shock over the demise of a true friend of Tibet.
In a press release issued here, Mr. Pema Jungney, the Chairman of the assembly, appreciated Mr. Sondhi’s philanthropic services to the Tibetans and their cause.
Mr. Jungney described the sudden passing away of Mr. Sondhi as a great and irreparable loss the to the Tibetan people and Indians.
” He was a true supporter of truth, justice and peace”, the release said.
Mr. Jungney said the vacuum created by the loss of such a great personality can not filled.
The Assembly conveyed its deepest condolences to the bereaved family members of Mr. Sondhi. He was 70.
Mr. Sondhi, a former Indian Foreign Service officer and Jan Sangh Member of Parliament, was appointed Chairperson of the Indian Council of Social Science Research soon after the BJP took over the reins in 1999. Formerly a professor of international relations at the School of International Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mr Sondhi was elected to the Lok Sabha from New Delhi in 1967. And rightly so, he, who had resigned from the Indian Foreign Service, had the right credentials as he was not only a scholar of international relations but had also been an active participant in the working of India’s foreign policy.
Educated at DAV College, Lyallpur Khalsa College and Law College, Jalandhar, the Delhi School of Economics and Ballilol College, Oxford, Professor Sondhi had topped the UPSC examination and joined the prestigious Indian Foreign Service. He had also written a paper on “Briefing materials on should Rajiv Gandhi visit China” when he was teaching at JNU.