Jammu: Sikyong Penpa Tsering of the Central Tibetan Administration attended the inaugural of the two-day National Working Committee meet cum Seminar today, organised by the Bharat Tibet Sangh in collaboration with the Department of Buddhist Studies of University of Jammu in Jammu.
Sikyong, who was invited as the chief guest along with special guest Major General Nilender Kumar Retd (National Vice President of the Bharat Tibet Sangh), presided over the press conference with journalists from around 20 media houses. The two shared their respective views on the recent border intrusion in Arunachal and expressed their concerns on India’s security when answering the medias.
The conference deliberated upon the reports of a recent border clash between Asia’s two giants.
In his address, Sikyong notified the gathering on China’s pervasive and manipulative propagandas intended to misinterpreting the factual historical status of Tibet and highlighted Middle Way Approach envisaged by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a pragmatic win-win solution for resolving Sino-Tibet conflict. He further highlighted Tibet as a repository of ancient Indian traditions while mentioning the derivation of Tibetan scripts from Devanagri and consequent adoption of Buddhism emanated from India and debunks China’s constant claim of Tibet as it’s part. He apprised the gathering of China’s mistreatment of Tibetans’ human rights and cultural aspects through introduction of colonial boarding schools to disconnect young Tibetans from their traditions, implementation of grid-lock system to constrain Tibetans, collection of DNA samples and scanning of iris to surveil dissidents inside Tibet among other concerning issues.
Furthermore, he pointed out Chinese government’s mismanagement of water resources inside Tibet through intensive damming and redirection of the courses causing severe repercussions to the Tibetans inside Tibet as well as to the riparian communities. In addition, its impact on the natural climatic conditions of Himalayans and Indian subcontinent, given Tibet’s fragile ecosystem and its location above tectonic conjunction that makes Tibetan plateau a seismic sensitive zone.
Similarly, he alerted China’s threat extends to all its neighbouring countries and, at large, to all democratic countries while he urged for collaborative efforts in containing the Chinese Communist Party, which he repeatedly implored in the west. For the benefit of everyone, Sikyong appealed governments to push Beijing for no preconditioned dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his representative saying the government in Beijing cannot seek legitimacy over Tibet from anyone except His Holiness and the Tibetan people.
Before concluding his talk, Sikyong expressed his gratitude to the organising Bharat Tibet Sangh and all the supporters of Tibet for their unwavering support.
The event was also addressed by Major General Nilender Kumar Retd and other speakers, namely Saurabh Saraswati (National General Secretary, Bharat Tibet Sangh), Dr Rajesh Sharma (Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Jammu), Prof. Ramnandan Singh (Head, Department of Buddhist Philosophy and Pali, Central Sanskrit University Campus, Lucknow), Kuldeep Sharma (Regional Convenor, Bharat Tibet Sangh) and Professor Naresh Padha (Dean Academic Affairs).
Following the conclusion of the inaugural session, Sikyong was interviewed by various Indian media houses and briefly interacted with the Ladakhi students of the university.
Attendees of the two-day National Working Committee meet cum Seminar consist members of Bharat Tibet Sangh from Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Panjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, and Uttrakhand, along with students and facilities of the university and others.