Former Minister calls on PM Modi to honour Dalai Lama with Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize
DHARAMSALA, 16 Oct: A former Himachal Pradesh Minister has urged the Indian Prime Minister to confer this year’s Mahatma Gandhi International Peace Prize to the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, former Tourism Minister of Himachal Pradesh said that he has written a letter in this regard to Prime Minister Modi and to union home Minister Amit Shah at a press conference held here on Tuesday.
The sitting president of the Indian ex-serviceman has said in the letter that it is befitting to confer the award to the Dalai Lama 2019 marks the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Mankotia hopes that Prime Minister Modi will announce the Tibetan Nobel Laureate as the recipient of the peace prize ahead of his scheduled visit to Dharamsalaon on 7 Nov to inaugurate a global investors meet.
The International Gandhi Peace Prize, named after Mahatma Gandhi, is awarded annually by the Government of India as a tribute to the ideals espoused by India’s father of the nation.
The Government of India launched the International Gandhi Peace Prize in 1995 on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
The International Gandhi Peace Prize carries an award of INR one crore, a citation a plaque and a handicraft item. It is given to individuals and institutions for their contribution to social, economic and political transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian methods.
The recipients of the award over the last 24 years include Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu among others.
