India Raids Holy Money To Karmapa - 2

By Manuwant Choudhary

McLeodganj, Dharamsala: Drinking ginger tea with a Tibetan Member of Parliament-in-exile at the Chonor House overlooking a spectacular view of the hills and the plains beyond, one would have thought Tibetans are happy being sheltered in India.

They are happy to escape the Chinese occupation and oppressions in Tibet and in India they are free to practice their religion and breathe easy.

Recently, the Dalai Lama said while China used every means to control the Tibetans, the Tibetans in Tibet look towards India.

But it has been 50 years since the Dalai Lama fled China into exile and the younger Tibetans are getting impatient. Last year they even attempted to walk back to Tibet but the Indian police arrested them.

And for 50 years not a single Tibetan has got Indian citizenship.

On December 22 2010 the Delhi High Court gave a landmark judgement after a young 25-year-old Tibetan girlNamgyal Dolkar approached the High Court as she was being denied an Indian passport.

The Delhi High Court ruled in her favour due to a changed citizenship rule which allowed citizenship under naturalisation to all those who arrived here before 1986 and their children.

In the case the Ministry of Exernal Affairs had argued that according to a ministry of Home Affairs policy decision that a Tibetan who enters India after 1959 will not be given citizenship under naturalisation under Sec 6 (1) of Citizens Act. Only by marriage to an Indian can the case be considered for citizenship.

According to the Demographic Survey of Tibetans-in-Exile 2009 the total population of Tibetans outside Tibet is 1,27,935.
This includes 70,556 male and 57,379 female.

94,203 live in India.
13,514 in Nepal.
1298 in Bhutan.
18,920 elsewhere.

It is noticed that Tibetans in the United States and Canada do not resist taking that countries passport.

So i asked Mr. Penpa Tsering how Tibet's parliament-in-exile views the citizenship issue and he replied, "We welcome the Delhi High Court order but we think its a personal choice whether Tibetans want the citizenship or not."

But what about the disadvantages in not being an Indian citizen, and he replied, "We do get private jobs easily but yes we cannot get government jobs. Also sometime at educational institutions we are treated as a foriegner."

Tibetans do not vote in the Indian elections, either.

They vote for their own Tibetan parliament-in-exile.

The reason I am going to such detail is not to bore you but to bring home certain truths about life as a refugee.

The Tibetans may have escaped Chinese occupation and violence to a free India, but even here the bureacratic oppression they face is formidable.

Some of this bureacratic opression is faced by every Indian as well.

I have always wondered why this bruhaha over the money found at the Karmapa residence when in fact the Karmapa himself entered India illegally, crossing over the Himalayas, I am sure he doesn't have a Chinese passport.

It is the Indian government who granted him asylum.

So it is also teh Indian government who should have made sure that all his legal requirements are met so that the Karmapa can live and stay in India without a hitch.

The Karmapa is not an ordinary person. He heads the religious sect so it is natural people from aroundthe world will come to him.

I had covered the Karmapa on his first visit to Bodh Gaya and at the Gaya train station as he got out he smiled.


There were a dozen intelligence officials accompanying him and he has never really been on his own.

At McLeodganj he lives in a temporary accomodation under Indian security, virtually under house arrest.

Every move is watched.

In a decade just once he was allowed foreign travel to the United States of America for 15 days only.

A Chinese spy being allowed foreign travel?

India's government is in trouble and it must be liberal in its use of legality and not misuse government machinery to harrass the Karmapa and confiscate money meant for the poorest of the poor.

India Raids Holy Money To Karmapa - 1

By Manuwant Choudhary

McLeodganj, Dharamsala: The road leading to the Dalai Lama's residence has always been busy but this time there is an unease evident as I take a photo of the Karmapa from a CD being sold on the roadside, the young tibetan CD seller Nwalkho burst out almost apologetic, "You are taking his photo because of all the foreign money found at Karmapa residence. It was so simple...they just had to take it to the bank and put it there."

Not quite simple as that.

But to the simple minds of Tibetans a daily shout from the Indian media saying their Karmapa is a Chinese spy has shocked them but with a confused disbelief.

A Ladhaki Buddhist girl said, "So many TV crew are on this road but no one speaks to them. Everyone is so scared."

I travelled to Mcleodganj, which is on the upper reaches of Dharamsala, to tell the other side of this story.

So I met Mr. Penpa Tsering - a Member of Parliament of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile. The Tibetan parliament meets only twice a year in September and March. But when there is no parliament in session there is an 11 member standing committee of parliament empowered to take important decisions.

So when the story broke that 6 crore rupees worth of money was found at the Karmapa residence which included money from 25 foreign countries, the 11 member committee led by Mr. Penpa Tsering met on January 28, 2011.

Mr. Penpa Tsering is the Speaker, "We met and discussed the matter following which we met the Karmapa and found him to be in a calm mood. We went there to not just enquire but also to express our solidarity with him."

The Karmapa's first reaction on meeting the committee was, "I do not know whats really happening."

He then told the committee, "I do not deal with financial matters."

It is at the age of 16 in late 1999 that Ogyen Trinley Dorje escapes from Chinese controlled Tibet into exile to India. He first meets the Dalai Lama on arriving in India and the Indian government grants him a refugee status.

Mr. Tsering explains, "the Tibetan-parliament-in-exile does not interfere with the workings of the various religious sects, but one thing we can say is that the Karmapa is not a Chinese spy."

"The money that has been found is simply the offerings made to him by his followers. "

Initially when the Karmapa arrived, a trust was set up in 2003 called the Saraswati Trust. Then in 2006 another trust was set-up called the Karma Garchae Trust and in 2009 it is the Karma Garchae trust that applied for blanket permission for recieving foreign contributions under Foriegn Contributions Regulations Act.

But so far the permissions have not come.

Mr. Tsering goes on, "Then there is something called the Labrang. All high Lamas have this and this is basically unregistered and under the management committee of the monastery. All offerings collected by the Labrang personnel are put in a box and on a given day the responsible persons of the Labrang make an inventory of offerings."

"Since the FCRA permissions have not come in they cannot go and deposit it in the bank or return it to the disciples who made the offerings."

Mr. Tsering says the Tibetan parliament-in-exile holds that the Karmapa is personally not involved in this and even as patron of the trusts his name is not there on the Trust Board. "Earlier it was there but it was later removed since patrons cannot be on the Trust Board."

The Himachal Pradesh police have seized the 6 crore rupees and arrested Shakti Lama(alias Chosang Dhargy), the cashier to the Labrang. They also detained a property owner Mr. Bhardwaj but released him later but detain two of his representatives.

The Himachal Pradesh police suspect Karmapa's china links because of the Chinese Yuan's found, but Mr. Tsering says, "Of the 6 crore rupees found less than a crore was Chinese Yuan. There are Buddists in China also and even Tibetan pilgrims from china offer Yuans."

Police are probing a hawala angle to this.

But on the interpol website there is an interesting case study which says Hawala is a legitimate way to transfer money and it existed long before the banking system came into being. You could give the money to an agent in one country and the beneficiary would recieve it in another country by another agent without the money having actually travelled.

So in the case of the Karmapa, money has travelled from 25 countries, hence its not hawala.

It is money brought in by pilgrims and offered to the Karmapa, unsolicited.

If it was hawala money would have come to him in Indian currenny and he would have deposited the same in the banks without any fuss.

The Dalai Lama who has himself had an unblemished 50 years in India as an exiled leader has said the money is for charity.

The Karmapa on his arrival in India had gone straight to meet the Dalai Lama and the Dalai Lama had received him warmly.

The Dalai Lama has done more for India's positive image than all our politicians and I am not sure why we want to fritter away the goodwill.

The Tibetans have been grateful to India to a fault.

I am a critic of Jawaharlal Nehru but his single great act was to grant asylum to the Dalai Lama and his people fleeing Chinese oppression, even at the risk of the Chinese declaring war on India.

But todays Congressmen have no such courage.

India's home minister Mr. P Chidambaram says this on the Karmapa, "I have not concluded anything so I cannot share my conclusions with you."

But I have not heard the Indian government say anything on the Karmapa.

The Chinese government says the Karmapa is not a Chinese spy and India's suspicion only indicates India's deep distrust towards China.

The Indian media say the Karmapa plans to build `China freindly' monasteries across the Himalayas.

I disagree.

I would think we have a `China friendly' government.

Mubarak Must Go

Egypt is in chaos and the world watches.

Hosni Mubarak must go.

And he must go now.

His speech on television saying he would leave after September is another lie as the anti-government demonstrators believed.

Mubarak has unleashed his goons to attack protestors and journalists. This video shows how CNNs Anderson Cooper was caught up in the mob and he just managed to escape.

The United Nations should step in and send peace-keeping forces. What we see is Egypt heading towards civil war. The world must step in before more lives are lost.

Mubarak's soldiers just watch the violence.

A Raja Arrested

Former telecom minister A Raja arrested by the CBI which probes the multi-million rupees telecom scam.

The Congress Party spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi says there is no collective responsibility in the corruption as far as the government is concerned.

But he remains evasive on questions whether the telecom minister Raja had kept the Prime Minister informed vis-a-vis 2 G spectrum allocation.

One is not confusing the criminal liability from the collective responsibility, but if there is a criminal liability of Raja and there is policy support to 2 G pricing from the cabinet, then it can be a criminal liability as well as a collective responsibility.

Opposition parties are still harping for a JPC probe when in fact, they should ask this government to go.

Sick of hearing law will take its own course.

Not Indian Students, Radio Tag S M Krishna

By Manuwant Choudhary

It is shocking to see 30 Indian students being radio-tagged in the United States simply because the university `Tri-Valley' closed down and US authorities say instead of confining students the radio collar is a better alternative.

And our foreign minister S M Krishna seems to agree with the US and says that more than a lakh students go to the US, so radio tags for a dozen students should not be an issue.

Surely, if this is his view then I would say we should radio tag SM Krishna and all our cabinet ministers.

At least we will know what and where they go.

And surely, in a billion plus population a dozen ministers being radio-tagged will not matter.

As for the US, they must investigate their own visa procedures rather than radio-collar legitimate students whose only fault was they did not know the university would fold-up.

There are enough fake universities in Bihar and India, why would they spend so much to go to the US for a fake degree?