Dharamshala: On the occasion of the 77th anniversary of Indian Independence Day, the Central Tibetan Administration observed a brief ceremony to mark the day. The celebration led by Sikyong Penpa Tsering was attended by the heads of the three pillars of democracy, Kalons, heads of the autonomous bodies, Secretaries and senior officials of the various departments of the Central Tibetan Administration.
As the ceremony began, the tricolor Indian national flag was unfurled by Sikyong followed by the singing of India’s national anthem. After the ceremony, Sikyong addressed the media personnel and expressed his congratulatory greetings to the government and people of India on this historic day.
Sikyong applauded the remarkable achievement of India stating, “India went through turbulent times during the British colonial period for a long time and then gained independence in 1947. In these last 77 years, India has made a lot of progress, economically, militarily, in terms of security, not in terms of being belligerent towards others.”
“I, on behalf of Tibetans inside and outside, wish to congratulate every Indian people to enjoy this day because we are going through a period where we don’t have freedom in our country and you can very well imagine how these conditions were when India was under British colonial rule. And we would like to again congratulate the government of India and people of India and also ask the people of India to cherish this freedom because this doesn’t come itself, you have to work towards the fundamental rights of the people. We are going through a very difficult period now and you have been supporting us throughout. We also look for a day when we go back to Tibet in a free atmosphere.”
Speaking about the undying hope for a return to Tibet, he asserted, “We always remain hopeful as I said if there is no hope then the cause would have died much before so it exists even today because of the hope that we keep having. So without hope it doesn’t make sense to or does not give a purpose to your cause so hope is very much there and everybody knows that there is a lot of dynamism in international politics today so you never know when China is going to change and there will be a day where bright sunshine will envelope the land of Tibet.”
In a strong message to the Chinese government, he expressed, “Everybody is born free in this world so we cant expect a government to control every part of an individual’s life so there should be respect for people’s aspirations. Unless you respect people’s aspirations, whoever is the ruling government will not survive for long so there has to be consideration to the wishes and the aspirations of the people. All the tactics, all the news that is coming out of China, all the amendments to rules or new rules that they are making today is not a good sign. That is a sign of paranoia from the Chinese government so this will not bode well. This will breed more dissatisfaction among the people and it will eventually result in situations which may not be in the control of the leaders of the Communist party. So if there has to be peace, if there has to be a government that is beneficial to the people then there has to be more understanding and the present Chinese leadership should have the wisdom to move to a governance that is beneficial both for the government and the people and for the whole world. ”