Tibetans Ready to fight for India
Many Tibetans living in exile in India and in the western countries are ready to fight along with Indian soldiers against the Chinese, The Sunday Guardian has reliably learnt.
Highly placed sources said that some Tibetan leaders have conveyed to responsible Indian quarters their desire to fight against the Chinese dragon: “We are ready to pick up arms and fight shoulder-to-shoulder with Indian soldiers on the Tibet border—or in any theatre or in any manner.” Indian Army used to run a secret unit of young Tibetans, including women, in the dense hilly jungles of Chakrata, Uttarakhand, till the 1980s. Nicknamed “22”, the Tibetans were trained in military warfare. The Chinese had strongly objected to it when they learnt about this venture. The unit was disbanded following improvement in India-China relations. Meanwhile, US-based Executive Director of the Students for Free Tibet (SFT), Dorjee Tseten, told this newspaper that the world has witnessed the deadliest Chinese attack on Indian sovereignty in 45 years. “We pay tribute to the courage of the Indian soldiers and offer our condolences to the bereaved families,” said Tseten. “We have started an urgent online petition to call world leaders to stand with India against this illegal aggression by Chinese troops on Indian soil and work together to counter China’s expansionism.” “As a Tibetan refugee born and raised in India,” Tseten said, “I consider India to be my second home, which has given asylum to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people. For centuries, Tibet and India enjoyed peace and friendship; China did not share a border with India until 1959. Over 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a direct result of China’s occupation of Tibet. However, Tibetans inside Tibet and in exile have never wavered in our struggle against the colonial occupation of our homeland.” The SFT-India has joined five leading Tibetan organisations in Dharamsala—the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile—to issue a joint press statement to express solidarity with India.
A large number of Tibetans have signed the petition to call on members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, Indian Parliament, and world leaders to hold China accountable for their actions.
Pro-Khalistan Calls From US Increasing
The US-based pro-Khalistan Sikh For Justice (SFJ) has increased the frequency of its recorded phone messages asking Sikhs living in India to join the 2020 referendum to “free Punjab”. This writer has received such calls daily for the past one month. The caller is always Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, a US-based lawyer and chief campaigner for SFJ.
In view of the SFJ’s claim to start registration for “the Punjab referendum”, a heavy police bandobast has been made around the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The Ministry of Home Affairs has declared Pannu a terrorist. The Punjab Police on Thursday registered two separate FIRs in Amritsar and Kapurthala, against him and his associates, including an active SFJ member, Joginder Singh Gujjar, who reportedly came to India from Italy in February this year. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh recently said that Pannu was actively involved in promoting terrorism in Punjab.
42 feet Krishna statue in Kurukshetra
By the end of this year, Krishna-bhakts, who visit Jyotisar Tirtha, the birthplace of the Gita, in Kurukshetra, will be able to witness a 42-feet-tall bronze statue of Lord Krishna which is being built at a cost of Rs 10 crore.
The model of the Lord Krishna’s “Virat Swaroop” (universal form) was recently revealed. The Kurukshetra Development Board is hopeful of inaugurating the statue in December during the Gita Mahotsava. The idea of installing Bhagwan Krishna’s “Virat Swaroop” was conceived during the Congress regime. But its foundation stone was laid by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar during the Gita Mahotsava in 2017. The statue is being sculpted by Ram Vanji Sutar’s unit in Noida. Sutar earlier designed the Statue of Unity (of Sardar Patel) in Gujarat.
ICCR will have Vajpayee portrait
Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) will install a life-size portrait of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at its headquarters in New Delhi on his second death anniversary in August. ICCR president Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, who is a BJP Rajya Sabha MP, had planned it long back but the lockdown emerged to upset his plans. But the project is back on course again after unlock 1.0 was announced. Some had raised the issue on what basis the portrait was being installed. A solution has been found: Vajpayee was a former ICCR president who went on to become PM. Vajpayee had served as ex-officio president of ICCR under its then rules when he was Foreign Minister in the post-Emergency Janata government.
Scooter number plate for Rs 18.22 lakh
In Haryana’s Shahpur subdivision, the number HP-90-0009 was sold through auction for Rs 18.22 lakh on Tuesday. The number was bought by a Karnal-based company. The number has been bought for a scooter worth about Rs 80,000. SDM Shahpur said that a total of five VIP numbers were auctioned, fetching Rs 24 lakh.