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Tibetans Demand Indian Citizenship Email this page
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Bangalore: Tibetans living in exile in India have claimed the Indian citizenship and right to vote. They have also demanded to contest elections, which they think, will help strengthen their fight for Tibet, reported Alkesh Sharma for TNN. They want to see their spiritual leader Dalai Lama to be allowed to speak in the Parliament as well.
These demands that were raised by them would be passed as resolutions on the last day of the meet organized by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). The meet discusses the issue of growing number of cases of self-immolations among Tibetans to protest Chinese oppression that has over 400 Tibetans participating from across the world. Tibetans living in the country have the status of "foreigners", and have been demanding refugee status.

Sonam Dorjee, member of the CTA was quoted saying to TOI "Once we get voting rights, we can strongly lobby with the Indian government to take up the Tibet issue with China. We want Indian citizenship just like the U.S. and Switzerland provides citizenship in their country. We will be taken seriously by political parties and the ruling government only when we become vote banks."

Delegates have also recommended creating a quota in government jobs and in educational institutes for Tibetan youth.

Further, the participants have urged the Dalai Lama to visit Tibet following a series of self-immolations by Tibetans in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet. A delegation member said "Over 300 Tibetans, who are staying in Tibet, have sent their secret messages through various forums for the delegates. Many of them have expressed the desire that Dalai Lama should return to his homeland. They expressed that it was necessary to control self-immolations that is going on to protest against Chinese repression," as reported by TOI.

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