Dalai Lama does what he hinted 23 years ago

MCLEODGANJ: The supreme spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetans had given ample indications in 1987-1988 that he was readying a crop of democrats to take their decisions "as if he was not there". Speaker of Tibetan parliament-in-exile Penpa Tsering told The Times ofIndia, "His Holiness got frustrated and sent a note in 1987-1988 asking the PM and parliament to decide their issues on their own."

Between 1960 and 1990, the Dalai Lama had to take a lot of decisions, but he then forced the people's representatives to take their own decisions, he said. In 1990-1991, the Dalai Lama dissolved both the parliament and cabinet and the process of preparing a draft charter was initiated. As per the new charter, professor Samdhong Rinpoche, a Gandhian, took over as speaker on May 29, 1991 with the parliament being fully authorized to take its decisions. Rinpoche continued as speaker for two terms before becoming the first directly elected prime minister in 2001. He continues till today. March 20 elections will decide a new PM.

The PM earlier used to be one of the cabinet members approved by the Dalai Lama. Earlier, the entire cabinet used to be proposed by parliament to the Dalai Lama for selection. For last three years, he has not even been coming to parliament and sending his written statements to the House of Representatives. For almost the same period, he has not been meeting the cabinet also. The Dalai Lama made it clear during his meetings with diplomats that the elected leader was his political boss while he was their spiritual guru. He had been pushing for democracy since 1960 when the first parliament was for

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