Panaji: Indian politicians lack the spirit of
great freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Tibetan spiritual
leader Dalai Lama said on Monday.
Delivering a lecture in Goa, the Dalai Lama recalled
that he was invited when a huge statue of Mahatma Gandhi was
installed infront of the Parliament.
"I am not a politician but at that time I had told Indian
politicians that they must remember about Gandhiji's
truthfulness," he said.
The Nobel laureate said that Indian freedom fighters had
worked selflessly and fearlessly for the country.
"They did their work honestly," he said, adding that
although India got independence 60 years ago, "the current
politicians lacked spirit of these freedom fighters."
He said that compared to other nations, India was stable
because of democracy and independent judiciary.
"If people involved in justice are even little corrupt
then it would be a disaster for the nation," he added.
During his two hour long lecture, which was part of a
series of addresses in memory of late Buddhist scholar D D
Kosambe organised by the Goa government, Dalai Lama also asked
the media to play a responsible role.
"People in media have a special role to play. They can
stop the wrong doings," he said and added that media should
have a long nose like an elephant and should be able to smell
things which are beyond the superficial reality.
"Investigate what's going on thoroughly and inform people
in unbiased form," the spiritual leader advised.
Was very much attracted to Marxism: Dalai Lama
Panaji, Feb 7 (PTI) The Dalai Lama was once "very
much" attracted to Marxism and even wanted to join the Chinese
Communist Party, which he now feels is bereft of Communist
ideology.
"I was very much attracted to the internationalism of
Marxism. I wanted to join the Chinese Communist party, (but)
today the Chinese Communist Party is without Communist
ideology," he said in an interaction after delivering a
lecture in memory of Buddhist scholar D D Kosambi.
The spiritual and temporal leader of Tibetan
Buddhists, living in exile in India for decades, still does
not find anything wrong about Marxism as an ideology.
"As far as socio-economic theory is concerned, I am a
Marxist," he said terming the present day Communism in China
as "Capitalist Communism".
Maintaining that there was a time when Chinese
Communists really worked for the needy, the Dalai Lama said,
"The spirit of Marxism died in China, after the Chinese
Communist Party started silencing both criticism and critics
of people in power."
He said although former West Bengal chief minister
Jyoti Basu was a Marxist, he enjoyed a "bourgeois" lifestyle.
"Jyoti Basu, I knew him. His own lifestyle was more
bourgeois," he said.
PTI
First Published: Monday, February 07, 2011, 21:27