By MAN MOHAN
DHARAMSALA, March 30 – While the Parliament of India is dissolved, another Parliament in the north of the country is busy with its budget session. Located in a one-storey building in McLeodganj, this is the 46-member Tibetan Parliament-in-exile (Assembly of Tibetan People’s Deputies). It has borrowed heavily from the Indian constitution and Parliament. At present, the 13th Parliament is in progress.
It nestles amidst the mountain slopes, thickly forested with oak and deodar, where the Dalai Lama stays since 1959. “Change is coming to the Tibetan political system. It is unfortunate that it happens in exile, but this does not stop us learning the art of democracy,” said the Dalai Lama.
“Our Parliament can even impeach the Dalai Lama with a two-third majority,” says deputy chairperson, Dolma Gyari. She adds, “This provision has been incorporated in our constitution on his advice.”
It is an alert, one-house Parliament, which meets twice a year for about a fortnight. The association of any Tibetan with Chinese interests is a regular subject of questions. Physically, it’s a modest structure at the center of a horseshoe of buildings where the departments of the secretariat are accommodated. There is nothing particularly impressive or strikingly Tibetan about the building. The deputies and Kalons (ministers) sit in two rows. Officials, journalists and visitors squeeze against the walls. A photograph of the Dalai Lama hangs on the wall and a tankha are the only symbols of Tibet. The proceedings are in Tibetan.
The Parliament’s life is five years. Though it functions like other legislatures, the plain, utilitarian structure is a testament to its temporary, exile status. It has borrowed the practice of providing for a zero hour from the Indian Parliament to raise issues of immediate concern. The target is usually the executive.
At Bodh Gaya in January 1960, the Dalai Lama advised his followers to elect their representatives on the basis of three each from those who had come from the three Tibetan regions. The first elected representative body in Tibet’s history, designated the commission of Tibetan Peoples Deputies, met on September 2, 1960. The day is observed by the exile community as the ‘Democracy Day.’
