New Delhi: The Members of Core Group for Tibetan Cause – India (CGTC-I) held its first virtual meeting with the newly elected Honorable Sikyong Penpa Tsering today.
The purpose of the meeting was to formally extend the greetings of all the CGTC-I members and deliberate on expected outcomes, areas of progress, and result orientation in the upcoming activities and overall an appraisal of the core group functions.
The two-hour-long meeting began with the introduction of CGTC-I’s journey from 7 members in 2002 (with 1 National Convener and 6 Co-Conveners) to 22 members in 2021 (with 1 National Convener, 4 National Co-Convener, 17 Regional Conveners) representing all the respective organizations that has chapters functioning as Indian Tibet Support Groups’ members.
Following this, the members presented a photo screening honouring all the distinguished Members who have laid the foundation for Tibbat Mukti Sadhana and kept its flame burning as they handed it down to the present bearers.
It paid tribute to the towering Tibet champions from Jayaprakash Narayan to Madhu Limaye, George Fernandes, Satya Prakash Malviya, Dr. N. K. Trikha to Budhapriya Thool, Nirmala Deshpande to Sundarlal Bahuguna and many others.
Shri R. K. Khrimey, National Convener of CGTC-I in his address formally congratulated Hon. Sikyong Shri Penpa Tsering. He admired the wisdom of the Tibetan People for electing a worthy person who had acquired both the knowledge of the political framework and the administrative functioning of CTA.
Shri Khrimey revisited Core Group’s previous works, how far it had achieved, failures during the ventures and reconsolidation where it required. He said it is the sole wish of every Indian people that Tibet shall see the light of freedom during the lifetime of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and His Holiness shall return proudly to Tibet.
Next, Shri Surendra Kumar, National Co-Convener for Eastern Region, greeted Honorable Sikyong and sought his guidance in the Action Plans of the Members of Core Group keeping in mind the current pandemic scenario.
Shri Arvind Nikose, National Co-Convener for Western Region stressed the need to focus more upon practical methodology that hinders the interest of the Chinese Communist Party, citing the campaign of ‘Boycott Chinese Goods’.
Shri Amruth Joshi, National Co-Convener for Southern Region, expressed his double joy for Tibetans having an able leader elected as Sikyong and a leader who also hails from his home state Karnataka.
Shri Joshi reminded the vision and words of Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche that he noted ‘should reflect in the strategy while discharging respective assignments’.
Shri Pankaj Goyal, Regional Convener for National Capital Region; Shri Phunsok Ladakhi, Regional Convener for Northern Region-I; Shri Rishi Kumar, Regional Convener for Northern Region-II; Shri Sundarlal Suman, Regional Convener for East & Central UP; Shri Ravi Bakshi, Regional Convener for Western UP & Uttarakhand; Shri Sudesh Kumar Chandravanshi, Regional Convener for Eastern Region-I; Shri Pema Wanda Bhutia, Regional Convener for Eastern Region-II; Smt. Ruby Mukherjee, Regional Convener for Eastern Region-III; Shri Soumyadeep Datta, Northeast Region-I, Shri Narender Choudhary, Regional Convener for North West Region; Shri Sandesh Meshram, Regional Convener for Western Region-I; Dr. Mahendra Sanghpal, Regional Convener for Western Region-II; Shri J. P. Urs, Regional Convener for South West Region and Shri Jacob David, Regional Convener for South East Region all attended the meeting and felicitated the new Sikyong.
In his remarks, Honorable Sikyong Shri Penpa Tsering expressed his gratitude for the kind felicitation extended by the CGTC-I members.
In particular, he thanked them for constantly showing faith and support for the Tibetan cause as he commended their years of nationwide advocacy on Tibet.
In addition, Sikyong presented the challenges and priorities that lie ahead in his service for Tibetan people under the spiritual guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He reiterated his leadership commitments that include resuming the stalled dialogue with the Chinese government, harnessing the potentials of young Tibetan diaspora spread across 25 countries in drumming up the global Tibet advocacy.
He reminded the Members of the Core Group that time is critical and together, they must push every effort to expedite the resolution of the long-standing sino-Tibet conflict.
Mr. Tenzin Jorden, Deputy Coordinator, gave the vote of thanks. Mr. Choney Tsering and Mr. Jamyang Choephel from ITCO facilitated with technical support.
Some of the Members of Core Group including Dr. K. C. Agnihotri, National Co-Convener for Northern Region; Shri Harjit Singh Grewal, Regional Convener for Northern Region –III; Shri Lobsang Genchen, Regional Convener for North East Region-II and Shri S. Premananda Sharma, Regional Convener for North East Region-III couldn’t attend.
– Filed by ITCO