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Dalai Lama wants stronger political front

By Manjeet Sehgal Warrior | The Telegraph

The Dalai Lama poses with Prem Kumar Dhumal, chief minister of northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, in Dharamshala on 17 December 2008.Reuters/Amit Kanwar/India

Spiritual leader the Dalai Lama today said the movement he spearheaded for nearly five decades needed a “political front” if the vexed Tibetan issue was to be solved.

The Nobel Peace Laureate said the Tibetan issue could no longer be “solved on a religious front.” Only a “strong political front”, he added, can find a solution to the problem.

“The future course of the Tibetan movement will be decided by the elected government under Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche .”

The comment came three weeks after a conclave of exiled Tibetans declared they would be forced to demand full independence if no concrete results emerged.

The 73-year-old monk also hinted at his retirement but did not announce a date for stepping down. “I am in a semi-retirement stage and have no political powers. I had already delegated my political powers to the de facto Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Samdhong Rinpoche is now my boss.”

The government-in-exile, however, said the Dalai Lama was not retiring. “His holiness the Dalai Lama has been misquoted again by a section of the media. He is not retiring yet and has just said that he is in a semi-retirement stage,” spokesperson Thubten Samphel said. “There is nothing new.”

Copyright © 2008 The Telegraph

Published in The Telegraph, India