By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, May 12 – China has taunted the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama for ‘faking love of cricket to please India’ by attending an Indian Premiere League cricket match here in his hometown. An article published by the Communist Party’s mouthpiece People’s Daily accused the Dalai Lama of describing himself as a “son of India” and “pretending a love” for India’s most popular sport to “please the Indian government.”
“The religious leader was trying to prove to be a worthy son of India by participating in the country’s favourite pastime… Cricket is one of the most popular sports in India and the Dalai Lama of course has to have fun with his ‘dad’ since he wants to be a son of India,” the article said.
The Tibetan leader met with players of Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings before a game between the two sides on April 18 at the newly built ground of the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association which had invited the 1989 Nobel Peace laureate.
The Dalai Lama said he had never been much of a sportsman, but recalled once beating Zhou Enlai, the former Chinese premier, at table tennis. Sri Lankan players had earlier been warned by their government in Colombo to avoid meeting the Dalai Lama because it would anger China. Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakara and skipper Mahela Jayawardene had not attended an audience with the Tibetan leader held a day before the match at the Theckchen Choeling temple here.
The People’s Daily claimed the Dalai Lama had no business to speak on “China’s internal issue concerning Tibet” if he was the “son of a foreign country”. However, the exile Tibetan government based here had earlier said that the Tibetan leader’s ‘son of India’ remark was taken out of context by China. Thubten Samphel, the spokesperson for the exile Tibetan government based here had told an Indian daily that the Dalai Lama considered himself to be “a citizen of the world”, and his ties to India were in the context of Buddhism’s ancient links to the country. “China should be focussing on the larger and more pressing problems facing Tibet, rather than dwelling on such small issues,” he was quoted as saying by The Hindu.
At an event to mark 50 years of Indian hospitality to the Tibetans in New Delhi last year, the Tibetan leader said, “Tibetan Buddhist culture is from India. I am a son of India”. The Tibetan leader says at events attended by Indians that he considers himself a “son of India” having spent over 50 years in the country where Buddhism was born.
China’s propaganda machinery often uses articles and opinions in the communist party mouthpiece People’s Daily and government mouthpiece Xinhua to attack the Dalai Lama and the exile Tibetans whom it accuses of “splitting the motherland.”
