The Tibetan government-in-exile on Tuesday celebrated the 77th Indian Independence Day at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh. Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) President Penpa Tsering, speaker and deputy speaker of Tibetan parliament-in-exile, including MPs and ministers-in-exile and CTA officials gathered at Kashag Secretariat in Dharamshala on the occasion.
The Indian National Flag was hoisted by Sikyong Penpa Tsering who expressed Tibetans' heartfelt gratitude to the people and successive governments of India.
He also expressed his hope that one day they will be able to hoist the Tibetan national flag in Tibet. CTA President Tsring was quoted by ANI as saying, "In the last 77 years India has made a lot of progress economically, militarily in terms of security, not in terms of attacking others…I am sure his holiness the Dalai Lama has already greeted the Indian government and the Indian people so I on behalf of Tibetans inside and outside Tibet congratulate every Indian to enjoy this day."
"We are going through a period where we don’t have any freedom in our country and you can very well imagine how those conditions were when India was under British colonial rule so we would again like to congratulate the government and people of India and also ask the people of India to cherish this freedom. We always remain hopeful as I said if there is no hope then the cause would have died much before, so it exists even today because of the hope that we keep having so without hope it does not give a purpose to your cause so the hope is very much there and everybody knows that there is a lot of dynamism in the international politics so you never know when china is going to change and there will be a day when bright sunshine will envelop the land of Tibet," he said hoping that one day they will be able to hoist the Tibetan national flag in Tibet.
"Everybody is born free in this world so you can’t expect the government to control every part of an individual’s life. So there should be respect for people’s aspirations. Unless you respect people's aspirations, whoever is the ruling government will not survive for long…” added Tsering.
