"There is no point in returning to China, I prefer India": Dalai Lama

• Image Credit: Google

• Dec 19, 2022 | Dhupali Das

Then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru granted him political asylum, and he has been living in McLeodganj, Himachal Pradesh, ever since...

Digital Desk: Amid increasing cross-border tensions between India and China, the Dalai Lama stated on Monday that returning to China is pointless and that he prefers to live in India.

Speaking to reporters, the Dalai Lama said, "Kangra, Pandit Nehru’s choice, this place is my permanent residence."

The Dalai Lama, now 86, is a spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists and a Nobel laureate. Two years after his birth, he was identified as the Dalai Lama's 14th incarnation. As Chinese soldiers marched into Tibet and resistance to its rule in the region intensified, the Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959.

Then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru granted him political asylum, and he has been living in McLeodganj, Himachal Pradesh, ever since.

The Dalai Lama's declaration comes just days after Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament that the Indian Army had resisted a Chinese attempt to change the status quo on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, pushing back People's Liberation Army forces involved in the incursion. He claimed that both Indian and Chinese soldiers had suffered some injuries in the clash.