Dalai Lama skips event attended by Modi

A statement on the website of the Tibetan spiritual leader on Wednesday had said: 'His Holiness the Dalai Lama left Dharamsala for Delhi this morning to attend the Global Buddhist Summit 2023'

Modi at the inauguration of the Global Buddhist Summit on Thursday.: PTI

Pheroze L. Vincent   |   TT  |   New Delhi   |   21.04.23  : The Dalai Lama did not attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inauguration of the Global Buddhist Summit, organised by a central government-funded NGO, here on Thursday.

A statement on the website of the Tibetan spiritual leader on Wednesday had said: “His Holiness the Dalai Lama left Dharamsala for Delhi this morning to attend the Global Buddhist Summit 2023.”

Modi has not had a publicly acknowledged meeting with the Dalai Lama since assuming office as Prime Minister in 2014. His predecessor Manmohan Singh had in 2013 met the monk, who is anathema to the Chinese.

The Dalai Lama’s website, dalailama.com, mentions a meeting with Prime Minister Modi in Delhi on August 20, 2014, but the PressInformation Bureau — the central government’s publicity arm — makes no mention of it.

Modi has greeted the Dalai Lama over the phone on his birthday for the last two years.

A source involved with the two-day event told The Telegraph that the Dalai Lama was expected to be present on Friday.

The schedule booklet does not mention the name of the chief guest for Friday. Only delegates are allowed during Friday morning’s welcome session. In the afternoon, there is a scheduled discussion by Buddhist monks on “HH The Dalai Lama, His Contribution Towards Global Peace & Continuity”.

The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of the Gelug school, the most dominant among the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He had also been the political leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile after he fled to India in 1959, but he handed over the responsibility in 2011 to an elected leader.