Online campaign started to rename South Delhi’s Panchsheel Marg as Dalai Lama Road

Nearly 350 persons, including government officials and bureaucrats, have started an online campaign demanding the renaming of South Delhi’s Panchsheel Marg as Dalai Lama Road.
Tibetans-in-exile protest against the China outside the country’s ambassy in New Delhi on Saturday | Shekhar Yadav
Tibetans-in-exile protest against the China outside the country’s ambassy in New Delhi on Saturday | Shekhar Yadav

NEW DELHI:  Nearly 350 persons, including government officials and bureaucrats, have started an online campaign demanding the renaming of South Delhi’s Panchsheel Marg as Dalai Lama Road. The campaign is an act to protest the military stand-off between the Indian and Chinese soldiers at the Galwan Valley and other areas along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh during which 20 soldiers were martyred
The online campaign, started as an independent protest by Delhi’s former special secretary in the home department, Om Prakash Mishra, on social media, has garnered support from bureaucrats, businessmen and students, among others. Over 350 people have signed the petition so far.

The then prime minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had signed the Panchsheel Treaty with China in 1954, following which, one of the most important roads in Chanakya Puri Diplomatic Enclave was named as Panchsheel Marg. “Panchsheel means five principals which formed the very basis of India-China relationship i.e. mutual respect’s territorial integrity and sovereignty, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful co-existence.

Sadly this treaty has survived only on paper,” said Mishra, currently posted as the Secretary in Lakshadweep.“China never respected the treaty. China has violated the territorial integrity of India and waged wars... It is about time we rename this as Dalai Lama Road as a sign of honour to the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) who was conferred with the Noble Peace Prize in 1989,” added Mishra.

“I believe that the street should be renamed because the Dalai Lama represents our historic commitment to the spirit of non-alignment,” said Jalaj Shrivastava, IAS, Chairman cum Managing Director, Delhi Financial Corporation (DFC), Delhi government, when asked to why the road should be renamed.
“Renaming the street will send a strong message to China that the India of today is different. It will be a delight to see the Chinese Ambassador pass through Dalai Lama Road every day on his way to work,” said another senior government official.

Protest against China
A small group of Tibetans held a protest against China here on Saturday, police said. The protest was held around 11 am, they said. “Three protestors came here to protest. They were detained from near the Chinese embassy at central Delhi when they were trying to move ahead,” a senior police officer said. They were taken to Chanakyapuri police station and will be released soon, he added.

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