World Tibet Network News Wednesday, April 22, 1998

The Tribune, April 14, 1998

By: Tavleen Singh

India has a new Prime Minister and so does China. It should be a good time to start talking a new about Tibet. But, it will probably not happen unless Richard Gere can make the Tibetan cause as fashionable in India as he made AIDS last week. Suddenly, out of the glitzy firmament of Mumbai cinema, out of that city's business world and out of the drawing rooms of Delhi appeared an extraordinary number of people who appeared to be desperately concerned about the spread of AIDS. They were ready to model, dance on tables, pay good money, do almost anything for the pleasure of saying they had dinner with Richard Gere. It was his presence again at the bedside of Tibetans fasting for days in Delhi to draw attention to human rights violations in Tibet, that brought them a few moments of focus in the national press.

So, if we want rich and powerful Indians to start pressurising our new government to talk a little tougher to China then we are going to need Richard Gere. The Tibetans themselves seem fully aware of the power of Hollywood so on my first night in Dharamsala, where I went recently to interview the Dalai Lama, I met a Tibetan Journalist and a member of Tibet's Parliament in exile who informed me immediately that Richard Gere was also in town but that I may not find it so easy to meet him because he was avoiding media people. "He is here only for the teachings that His Holiness is giving so he is reluctant to talk to journalists". I saw him the next day, seated amid a large group of Western Buddhists, eyes closed, totally absorbed in the words of the Dalai Lama which were being translated for non-Tibetans over FM Radio into English, Spanish, French and Russian.

As things turned out I did not get to speak to him but when I met the Dalai Lama we began the interview, inevitably, with my asking him whether he had seen "Seven Years in Tibet" or "Kundun" yet. He had not but admitted readily that Hollywood had concentrated attention on the Tibet cause at a time when it was almost being forgotten.

The attention comes, as I pointed out earlier, at a fortuitous time since both India and China have new Prime Ministers who may, perhaps, be braver about facing Tibet's terrible tragedy than their predecessors have been. In our own case we also have George Fernandes as Defence Minister and no other political figure has been more forthright and more consistent in his support for Tibet than him. Even this, though, may not be enough for the new BJP government to change our traditional policy of not saying anything that could be remotely construed as criticism of China.

When I asked the Dalai Lama about how much support he felt the Indian Government had given him and his cause he said, with his usual gentleness, that he was deeply grateful for how much the Indian Government had done to allow Tibetans in India to preserve their culture. Tibet's government-in-exile has been assisted in a variety of ways but in the political field he feels that the Indian Government has been "over-cautious". It reminded me of the first time that I interviewed the Dalai Lama in Leh in 1976.

Ragu Rai and I had gone up on behalf of the The Statesman to do what we in the trade call "a colour piece" on the Kalachakra sermon. It was the first that the Dalai Lama was preaching it in Ladakh and it had a special significance for him because of Ladakh's proximity to Tibet. By a strange coincidence Mao Tse Tung died on the very day that had been set for the interview.

This should have meant that my questions to Tibet's spiritual and temporal leader concentrated more on politics than spirituality. But, we were in the midst of Indira Gandhi's Emergency so as an Army General stood over my head to ensure that I asked no political questions. I felt obliged to explain my constraints to him and he smiled and said "It is the day that Mao Tse Tung has died and you want to ask me about religion and not politics".

This time in Dharamsala it was easier to talk about politics. Did he believe, I asked, that it would be possible for him to go back to Tibet in his life time? "I have full confidence" he said "in the past ten or fifteen years so much has changed, people are fed up with the old totalitarian system... and after the return of Hong Kong we can see that China is wiser, more experienced, the economic situation is better, there is more confidence... I think change now could be quicker".

The Dalai Lama has for several years now been asking not for the complete Independence of Tibet but for some kind of autonomy that would allow Tibetans in Tibet to practice their own culture which has so far been crushed under the feet of Communist China. "I am looking forwards" he said "and not towards the past. There can be a solution that could be for our mutual benefit. I want to invite Chinese journalists to come and see what we are really doing . We are not anti-Chinese, not even anti-Communist. Our struggle is to preserve our ancient culture and traditions which we feel are relevant not just to us but to the world. We feel we can make a contribution".

Tibetans in Tibet still face repression and torture. Many manages to still to come across the border, suffering all manner of hardship, to tell tales of sadness and anguish. No Indian Government has so far dared speak out against this which is puzzling when you consider that China has never defended us on Kashmir and, in fact, is often under suspicion for helping Pakistan build its missile programme.

Will a BJP Government be any different? Only if public opinion in India begins to demand a change in our policy and where public opinion is concerned it would be fair to say that despite the Dalai Lama's presence in India for 39 years we have quite forgotten Tibet. So, come back Richard Gere and let's see what you can do.