US recognises elections for leader of India-based Tibetan government in exile

The United States on Saturday for the first time recognised the election to the top office of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile based in India, a move which could rile up China.

The US State Department congratulated Penpa Tsering a day after he was officially declared winner in the recent election to the office of the Sikyong or the President of the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGiE).

Tsering, who was born and grew up at Bylakuppe in Karnataka, will soon succeed incumbent Lobsang Sangay to take over the top office of the TGiE – formally known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and based at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh of India.

Read | Penpa Tsering elected president of Central Tibetan Administration

India, however, maintained silence, as it so far did not officially acknowledge the existence of the TGiE or the CTA, despite allowing it to run from its territory for decades.

“The United States congratulates Penpa Tsering on his election as the Central Tibetan Administration's (CTA) next Sikyong. We look forward to working with him and the CTA to support the global Tibetan diaspora,” Ned Price, the spokesperson of the US State Department, posted on Twitter.

Tsering beat his rival Aukatsang Kelsang Dorjee in the final round of the elections to the office of the Sikyong of the TGiE or the CTA. The Tibetans living in exile in India and the other countries around the world took part in the global elections, which had two rounds and the polling for the final round had taken place last month.

The 14th Dalai Lama set up the TGiE or the CTA on April 29, 1959, just a few weeks after he arrived in India following his escape from Tibet, which had been occupied by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in 1950-51. The CTA calls itself the “continuation of the government of independent Tibet”

What has added to the significance of the election of the Sikyong this year is that the democratic exercise by the exiled Tibetans got endorsement from the US last year. The US Congress late last year passed the Tibetan Policy and Support Act (TPSA) of 2020, acknowledging the legitimacy of both the Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TpiE) and the TGiE or the CTA. The TPSA 2020, which the then-US President Donald Trump signed into law, acknowledged the Central Tibetan Administration as the “legitimate institution reflecting the aspirations” of the Tibetan Diaspora around the world with Sikyong as its President.

Beijing does not recognise the elections to the Sikyong and the TPiE and repeatedly asked India to shut down the TGiE. It has been accusing Dalai Lama as well as the TGiE of running a secessionist campaign against China.

New Delhi officially never acknowledged the existence of the TGiE or the CTA. But it did tacitly encourage the Dalai Lama to lead the exiled community to embrace democracy gradually – starting with electing the Parliament-in-Exile and then moving on to directly elect the leader of the TGiE.

It was during the 2011 elections that Dalai Lama officially announced that he would be delegating his political powers to whoever would be elected democratically to the top office of the TGiE – a move, which was apparently aimed at avoiding a leadership vacuum and keeping the struggle against China’s rule in Tibet alive beyond the lifetime of the octogenarian monk.