DHARAMSHALA, January 19: A major regional Indian party with more than 20 members in the Indian parliament has assured its support for an all-party parliamentary resolution on the ongoing crisis inside Tibet.

The growing support from Indian political leaders from all corners of India comes at a time when Tibetans in Tibet continue to set themselves on fire in protest against China’s continued occupation of Tibet. Tsering Phuntsok a Tibetan native of Khyungchu in eastern Tibet became the 97th Tibetan in Tibet to burn himself to death yesterday.

Biju Janata Dal, the ruling party in the Indian state of Odhisha, pledged its support for a Tibet resolution to a visiting Tibetan parliamentary delegation.

Prabhat Tripathy, member of the state legislative assembly and chief whip of BJD, while receiving the Tibetan MPs in the state capital Bhubaneswar, affirmed his party’s support for the passing of the resolution on the crisis inside Tibet at the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Tibetan MP Dhardon Sharling, who is part of the delegation, said the party chief of BJD further issued in writing, a directive to its 22 members of parliament (16 at the Lok Sabha and 6 at the Rajya Sabha) to unanimously support the proposed ‘All-Party Parliamentary resolution on the crisis inside Tibet.’

A senior BJD member and Rajya Sabha MP Baishnap Parida, further assured the Tibetan delegation that he will “lobby other leading political parties such as the Samajwadi Party to support such a resolution on Tibet.”

“You cannot subjugate the rights of the people inside Tibet and their sovereignty,” the veteran leader told the delegation.

Currently on their month-long lobbying campaign in north-east India, the Tibetan MPs received further support from state opposition party, Congress party whip and MLA Prasad Harichandaran.

According to Dhardon, Harichandaran pledged the support of his party’s seven members of parliament (6 at the Lok Sabha and 1 at the Rajya Sabha) from the state for the passing of the ‘All-Party Parliamentary resolution on the crisis inside Tibet’ and advised the Tibetan leadership to engage in “strategically viable actions to remedy the inaction at the institutional level.”

“As catalyst for the movement, you should highlight the undemocratic traits of the Chinese government that causes the subversion of the democratic rights of the people inside Tibet and China and get the world leaders to act multilaterally to resolve this travesty of justice and foundations of democracy,” the leader from Odhisha said.

The four-member Tibetan delegation also met with former union minister and current BJP state president Jual Oram, who asserted that his party “will take up the Tibetan cause at all levels—national and international and ensure that there is a swift resolution to the prolonged crisis.”

The Tibetan MPs wrapped up their five-day campaign in Odhisha with a press conference on January 17 after meeting prominent leaders in the state including the honorable Governor Murli Chandrakant Bhandare, Odisha state ministers, members of Parliament, members of state Legislative Assembly, political party heads, intellectuals and bureaucrats.

Three Tibetan parliamentary delegations are currently campaigning in different parts of India lobbying for international intervention in the ongoing crisis in Tibet.