Shimla: While addressing an election meeting in Mandi Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, accusing the rival Congress of “being afraid to take his name”.
“I often talk to the Dalai Lama. He represents our vibrant culture and our government has worked to promote this culture,” Modi said at Mandi’s Paddal ground.
The address came on a day when Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister and Congress leader Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu met the Dalai Lama at the latter’s residence along with Davinder Jaggi, the party candidate for Dharamshala in the bypoll for the assembly seat.
On 1 June, voters in Himachal Pradesh will vote for not only for the state’s four Lok Sabha but also six assembly seats — including Dharamshala, Kinnaur, and Lahaul and Spiti, the constituencies with the highest numbers of Tibetan Buddhists. And as the election frenzy reaches a crescendo, the Tibetan spiritual leader finds himself catapulted to national news, with both the Congress and the BJP making a beeline to meet and woo him.
This is despite the negligible number of Tibetans-in-exile registered to vote in Himachal Pradesh — election data shows only 800 of them are registered voters this time around, out of the state’s total electorate of 56.38 lakh voters.
According to political observers, the Dalai Lama holds significant influence over voters in areas like Kinnaur, Dharamshala, and Lahaul and Spiti — all three of which have a significant number of Indian Buddhists as well. While two of these seats will see assembly bypolls, Kinnaur is an important assembly segment that comes under the Mandi parliamentary seat.
On its part, the BJP frames its courting of the Dalai Lama in terms of its support of the Tibetan independence movement against China.
Spoke to His Holiness @DalaiLama and conveyed heartfelt greetings to him on his 88th birthday. Wishing him a long and healthy life.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 6, 2023
“We have always supported Tibet in its fight for justice,” party spokesperson Randhir Sharma told ThePrint. “Modi ji rightly said that the Congress was always afraid of siding by the Tibetans.”
Despite his party leaders meeting the Dalai Lama, Congress leader Sanjay Awasthy believes the spiritual leader “should not be dragged into politics”.
“We all respect him,” he said. “People’s connection with him should be beyond politics.”
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‘Leaving nothing to chance’
According to various estimates, Buddhists make up a significant portion of the population in Lahaul and Spiti (15 percent) and Kinnaur (5-7 percent). This number includes both Tibetan refugees and Indian Buddhists who follow Tibetan Buddhism.
In a ruling in 2014, the Supreme Court held that Tibetan refugees born in India between 26 January, 1950, and 1 July, 1987, are allowed to vote. This ruling enabled over 9,000 Tibetans living in Himachal Pradesh to vote but only a fraction registered themselves.
Despite this, political leaders in India have made consistent efforts over the years to woo the Dalai Lama. In July 2023, Modi called him to wish him on his 88th birthday.
On 15 April this year, Jai Ram Thakur, the state’s former BJP chief minister and the current Leader of the Opposition, and Bollywood actor and the party’s Mandi candidate Kangana Ranaut met the spiritual leader at his residence in Dharamshala’s McLeodganj.
Ranaut’s visit came months after a controversial post by her drew outrage from Buddhists. In a tweet in 2023, she had posted a meme featuring the Dalai Lama and US President Joe Biden. The photo of the Tibetan leader had his tongue sticking out, with a caption underneath reading: “Both of them have the same illness, definitely they could be friends.”
She later apologised after a group of Buddhists protested outside her office in Mumbai.
But the tweet wasn’t forgotten. On 20 May, Ranaut was shown black flags over it and her cavalcade allegedly attacked during a campaign visit to Kaza in Lahaul and Spiti.
While the BJP candidate blames the Congress for the protest, the latter has denied any role.
Other BJP leaders who made such ritualistic visits to the Dalai Lama include BJP’s Dharamshala candidate and former state minister Sudhir Sharma.
These come in the light of intense campaigning, especially for the assembly bypolls.
Lahaul Spiti will see a three-cornered contest between Congress rebel Ravi Thakur, who is fighting on a BJP ticket, BJP rebel and former legislator Ramlal Markanda, who is contesting as an independent, and Anuradha Rana, a firebrand leader and Congress’s first woman candidate for the seat in over half a century.
The Dharamshala bypolls, too, are heading for a three-way contest.
Here, Sudhir Sharma, a Congress rebel who is now a BJP candidate, will take on Congress’s Jaggi, a former mayor of Dharamshala, and BJP rebel Rakesh Chaudhary, an Independent who is eyeing the area’s substantial OBC votes.
Meanwhile, the Mandi parliamentary seat is set to see a two-way contest between BJP’s Ranaut and Congress’s Vikramaditya Singh.
According to Congress leaders ThePrint spoke to, the bypolls are especially significant for both parties. For the Congress, they offer a chance to replicate its 2022 election win, when it swept the state’s assembly polls. They also offer a chance the gain the ground it had lost in February this year when six rebel MLAs cross-voted in favour of the BJP in Rajya Sabha.
The MLAs — Ravi Thakur and Sudhir Sharma among them — were eventually disqualified, necessitating the bypolls. The BJP has fielded all six rebels.
According to a senior Congress leader, the chief minister is especially focused on these elections. “They (six rebels) ditched him (CM) so he is not willing to leave anything to chance,” he said.
Political analyst Ramesh Chand sees parties’ curry favouring the Tibetan leader in this light. “These elections are a prestige battle for both Congress and the BJP. Neither wants to take a chance,” he said.
Meanwhile, according to Tibetan activist Tenzin, the PM’s mention of the Dalai Lama in an election rally shows his knowledge of Tibetan issues. “But we want him (Modi) to reflect the same in the government policies if people re-elect him. As far as Dalai Lama is concerned, he is above politics and anyone can meet him,” he said.
Also Read: Bypolls, tickets for Congress rebels & uneasy cadres — Himachal BJP stares at tricky road ahead