Tibetan Parliament gives its nod to Dalai Lama's wish to quit

Dharamsala, Mar 25 (PTI) A fortnight after the Dalai
Lama expressed his desire to give up his political duties,
Tibetan Parliament in Exile on Friday agreed to amend its
Charter to grant his wish but proposed that he continues as
the 'symbolic head' of the exiled Tibetan government.
Giving its formal approval to the Dalai Lama's wish to
quit as the political head of the community, the Tibetan
Parliament in Exile passed four resolutions on the last day of
its Budget session Friday to prepare the ground map for the
transition of power from the spiritual leader to
democratically elected representative.
Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile
Samthong Rimpoche told the Tibetan Parliament here that the
House has agreed to the desire of the spiritual leader for an
amendment in the Tibetan Charter (Constitution) to relieve him
of his political duties.
"The charter shall be amended accordingly. And for
that an amendment committee shall be constituted shortly," he
said.
The chairman of the present (14th) Parliament has been
authorized to choose this committee, he said.
"The Parliament will meet in a specially convened
session by the end of May this year, (before the 15th
Parliament takes over), to approve the amendments," he added.
The amendment committee shall give the report by April
11 and then the cabinet shall discuss it with the Dalai Lama,
said MP Dhawa Tsering.
Earlier, the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile discussed the
report of the three-member committee which proposed amendments
to the Tibetan Charter to devolve political and administrative
powers of the Dalai Lama to the elected leadership of Tibetan
Parliament-in-Exile.
The committee proposed that a new clause should be
added to the Tibetan Charter to give a new designation to the
Dalai Lama in which he continues as a symbolic head of the
Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
The Tibetan Parliament has accepted the Dalai Lama's
wish about a fortnight after the Tibetan spiritual leader, who
has been carrying on a six-decade-long struggle for freedom of
Tibetan Buddhists, announced his decision here to retire as
political head of Tibetan government-in-exile and to hand over
his "formal authority" to a "freely-elected" leader.
At the time of announcing his decision to quit as
political head, the 75-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader, had
however, made it clear that he was committed to playing his
part for the "just cause" of Tibet.
Making the announcement in his speech on the 52nd
anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising Day here on March 10, the
Nobel Peace Laureate had said, "As early as the 1960s, I have
repeatedly stressed that Tibetans need a leader, elected
freely by the Tibetan people, to whom I can devolve power."
"Now, we have clearly reached the time to put this
into effect," the Dalai Lama, who had escaped to India in 1959
after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, had told
hundreds of exiled Tibetans at the Main Temple in this hill
resort on the occasion.
As per the resolutions passed by Tibetan Parliament
today, a new committee consisting of members of the cabinet
and Parliament would discuss threadbare the changes to be
made in the Charter to facilitate the transition of power from
the Dalai Lama to an elected representative and submit its
report before April 11.
A general House of Tibetan Diaspora consisting of
members of Parliament, Heads of Tibetan Institutions,
representatives in other countries and other heads would be
convened to hold further discussions on the report of the
committee on transfer of political responsibilities and a
special session of present Tibetan Parliament would be
convened in the third week of May to give final approval to
the amendments to be made in the Charter.
The result of elections of Prime minister and new
Parliament would be declared on April 27 but the term of the
present Parliament would expire in June and the purpose of
convening a special session of present Parliament was to hand
over the political responsibilities to the new government,
Kelon Tripa (Prime Minister) Samdhong Rinpoche said while
talking to mediapersons.
The Dalai Lama had conveyed his decision to give up
his political responsibilities to the exiled Parliament on
March 14 with request to make suitable amendments in Tibetan
Charter to pave the way for transition of power to elected
people.
The Parliament then passed a resolution on March 18
urging Dalai Lama to reconsider his decision but he refused to
buzz and returned the resolution to the Parliament.
Kalon Tripa (PM) Samdhong Rinpoche presented
recommendations to the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile on ways to
amend the exile Charter and bring a new power structure to the
Tibetan government-in-exile as the Dalai Lama retires from
political leadership.