Dalai's retirement proposal radical, says Rinpoche

DHARAMSALA: Even though, the exiled Tibetan parliament continues to deliberate on the formal proposal of the exiled spiritual head of Tibetan community, the Dalai Lama to devolve his political authority, the de facto Prime Minister of Tibet Samdhong Rinpoche, stated here on Thursday that Dalai Lama’s formal proposal to retire from his political engagements as radical and forward looking. Speaking to TOI, he saidthat as of now the possibility of the Dalai Lama’s proposal going throughappears to be extremely little. He said that the Tibetan community has beenperhaps shocked by the retirement proposal of the Dalai Lama adding that theywere finding it very difficult to come to terms with it. The Tibetans wereworried and concerned about what would happen to the Tibetan cause in thepost-Dalai Lama era, said Rinpoche. He said that the Dalai Lamathough had present his formal proposal to the exiled Tibetan parliament onMonday which was currently holding its annual budget session had been dwellingon the aspect of retiring from his political duties. He said that the retirementof the Dalai Lama would definitely have impact on the Tibetan movement but addedthat it would continue emphasizing that the new elected government of exiledTibetans for which elections would be held on Sunday would be able to carryforward the movement. He said that since the Dalai Lama had set upthe proper infrastructure in terms of installing exiled democratic politicalsystem for Tibetan community and only thing was needed to continue thegovernance of the exiled Tibetan movement along with the responsibility ofpushing further the Tibetan movement for Tibetan cause. On being asked about themajor highlights of his tenure since Rinpoche would also be demitting his officein view of the elections for the post of elected prime minister called as KalonTripa on Sunday, said that it was up to the Tibetan community to see and assesswhat had been done in his two tenures to move forward in resolving the Tibetissue. He said that during his two terms the exiled Tibetangovernment had made sincere efforts and held negotiations with the Chineserepresentatives to find amicable solution of the problem. When asked that wouldTibetans be able realize their dream to return to their homeland to get genuineautonomy as envisaged by Dalai Lama’s middle-way approach, he said thatfor this to happen, it was difficult to set any time-frame.