Dalai Lama. PTI file photo
A bipartisan delegation of the US Congress visiting India is set to meet the Dalai Lama, just weeks after a visit by the Tibetan leader to Arunachal Pradesh irked China.
Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Democratic Party in the US House of Representative, is leading the eight-member delegation of the US Congress. The delegation will visit Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh on Tuesday and Wednesday to meet the Dalai Lama.
This is the second time in a decade that New Delhi is allowing a US Congress delegation to visit the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in Dharamsala and meet the Dalai Lama — the spiritual leader of the Tibetans and the global icon of the struggle against the occupation of Tibet by China.
Pelosi, herself, had led the last US Congress delegation that had met the Dalai Lama in March 2008. The Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGIE) will host an official reception for the US lawmakers on the Tsuglakhang Courtyard in Dharamsala on Wednesday. The Dalai Lama will join the lawmakers at the reception, sources in New Delhi told DH.
They will also meet the Sikyong (President) of the TGIE, Lobsang Sangay, the sources said. The delegation’s tour of the TGIE headquarters is part of its “visits to India, Nepal, Germany and Belgium focusing on national security, global economy, bilateral and multilateral relations, and human rights,” according to a press release issued by the office of the Leader of the Democratic Party in US House.
The other lawmakers in the delegation are Jim Sensenbrenner (Republican), Eliot Engel (Democrat), Jim McGovern (Democrat), Betty McCollum (Democrat), Judy Chu (Democrat), Rep. Joyce Beatty (Democrat) and Pramila Jayapal (Democrat).