By Tenzin Nyidon
DHARAMSHALA, April 24: A group of Tibetan demonstrators gathered in front of NDTV’s headquarters in New Delhi on Sunday and demanded a public apology from the Indian news house for their derogatory reportage of a playful interaction between the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness and a young Indian boy.
A group of demonstrators coordinated a silent and peaceful protest by tying a black cloth around their mouths which symbolised protestors being ‘silenced refugees’. Other strategies adopted in this non-violent resistance involved strategic plans and actions such as jamming phone lines, mass mailing and using the hashtag, #NDTVApologiseToDalaiLama on social media.
One of the demonstrators, Kunsang Tenzing told Phayul that none of the authorities came out from the office however he feels that the message was clearly delivered that the sentiments of the Dalai Lama’s followers have been hurt by their misinterpretation of a playful banter between the octogenarian leader and a young boy, through their non-violent protest. “The core reason for adopting a peaceful protest is because the Dalai Lama being a Nobel Peace Laureate has always preached a message of non-violence and is widely regarded as a symbol of peace,” he further added.
“It is deeply concerning that a video featuring such an esteemed personality has been edited and shared in a way that could cause harm and mislead the viewers. We strongly urge you to issue a public apology for airing this video and to take steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future,” the press release stated.
Tibetans and followers of the Tibetan leader have carried numerous campaigns to condemn social media personalities and media outlets that have wrongfully reported on an incident of playful banter on February 28, that attracted international backlash. Tibetans say that at the core of the incident is a Chinese government smear campaign to malign the image and reputation of the Tibetan spiritual leader who China calls a “separatist” despite his numerous attempts to have dialogue with Beijing to resolve the Sino-Tibet conflict through the Middle Way Approach’.
3 Responses
Be honest and transparently show whole video you and apologize H.H the Dalai Lama
The viral clip originated in American social media, and got traction through American news channels and Indian news channels. Just harping on the China angle, when the facts show otherwise, makes us look like tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists. This is just a symptom of internet cancel culture where people smug in their snap judgments gleefully drag anything holy for someone else down into the mud. NDTV needs to be brought down, but the worst culprit is India Today, who did a whole little news-story calling HH a ‘controversial monk’ and trying to frame him with non-issues like the ‘BBC female Dalai lama question’, and HH’s comments on Trump.
That’s a cool strike. We need truth and justice for his Holiness who is totally innocent with respect to the India boy. It’s only with love and affection.hh loves joking and physically touching other people, basically whoever is nearby, by such as slapping on thighs of Europe prime ministers or other religious people with long beards from Kashmir who Dalai Lama relishes in fondly stroking and pulling down their beards. His Holiness once pulled long beards of two Moslem Islamic gentlemen from Kashmir in a funny way, and both Muslim people loved it very much.
It is extremely true that his holiness, a living Buddha from Nalanda, loves everyone and touches everyone and everything irrespective of gender, sexuality,race, culture,self gender identification, bisexuality, made-up things like political orientation, in addition to true uddbist middle way path religion.