Delving into the nuances of the legal perspectives of the allegation

Over the past weeks, China’s audacious global propaganda campaign’s influence reached its zenith, as we witnessed a ruthless and senseless character assaults on His Holiness the Dalai Lama by the major mainstream media of the world, hoodwinked by the Chinese Propaganda; Beijing’s weapon of mass deception.

Today, following the release of the complete video footage of the public event depicting the true story behind the allegations, many prominent individuals have tendered apologies for hurting the personality of the Dalai Lama. However, there are still few who remain obsessed with the Chinese propaganda and refuse to acknowledge the truth.

As of writing this, the worst aftermath of the unwarranted mayhem has been the media’s total silence in reporting the true story regarding the allegation against the Dalai Lama and their sheer indifference to owning accountability for their crime of defaming one of the greatest souls alive.

Interestingly, the current allegation of ‘misconduct’ against the Great personality of His Holiness the Dalai Lama stands out as one of the most unique of its kind. Let us delve into the nuances of the legal perspectives of the allegation:

Foremost of all, let us realize the fact that the so-called ‘victim’ the boy and the mother of the ‘victim’ do not recognize the act as anything improper to register or file any legal complaints.

The so-called ‘victim’ the boy and the mother, claim that they feel totally blessed and happy after the interaction and offered gifts and expressed words of gratitude to the Dalai Lama at the event. Even after the ‘act’, the child approached the Dalai Lama again to seek His blessings and did a ‘charan sparsh’ — the Indian tradition of respectfully touching the feet of an elder. He continued to interact with the Dalai Lama in total excitement and joy without exhibiting a slightest hint of discomfort.

The so-called ‘misconduct’ happened right in front of the mother sitting at arm’s length from the Dalai Lama, and the mother did not find the act as anything objectionable that require an intervention.

According to a reliable source, the parents of the boy reportedly told the officials of the Dalai Lama Office that their faith and respect for Him remains intact even as the Media continue to highlight the allegations against the Dalai Lama last week.

All the witnesses (nearly 150 people including the press and the officials) present during the event were only amused with the interaction between the Dalai Lama and the boy, cherishing the endearing moments with laughter and giggles rather than demonstrating discomfort and concern.

The so-called ‘misconduct’ happened in a broad daylight in full public glare, and was telecast on the official Facebook pages of Dalai Lama office and the Tibetan Exile Government channel.

Not a single person present during the event or those who watched it online raised or filed any complaint for nearly 2 months before the unwarranted media onslaught began against the Dalai Lama. Certainly, the witnesses would not want to be penalized for not reporting a ‘crime’ happening right under their nose. Section 21 of POCSO Act, makes the failure to report an offence under POCSO Act punishable with imprisonment up to six months.

The so-called ‘misconduct’ lacked sexual intention as the most vital pre-requisite to be considered as sexual crime in the POCSO Act guidelines. On 18th November 2021, the Supreme Court of India, while quashing a controversial judgement of the Bombay High Court on a sexual crime case, affirmed that “The most important Ingredient of Sexual Assault is Sexual Intent”, in accordance to the Section 7 of the POCSO Act.

The interactions having occurred in broad daylight in a public space, the so-called ‘misconduct’ lacked any ‘intention to hide the crime’ which could be deemed culpable under the law.

There is an absence of ‘post assault’ trauma being experienced by the ‘victim’. Victims of abuse normally experience post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression and would require therapeutic interventions. There is no knowledge of any such intervention for the boy. Judging from his statement to the press after the event, the boy sounds smart and mature enough to differentiate between affection and abuse.

The innocence and the purity of the act could be concluded from the fact that it was a spontaneous action initiated at the boy’s behest with him requesting a hug from the Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama responded with his usual innocent and playful grandfatherly loving gestures in tune with Tibetan and Asian traditions. In fact, the interaction was utterly emotional, heart-warming and divine if one had watched the complete footage of the video. What has really transpired is Dalai Lama giving an affectionate peck and a show of tongue, in a playful gesture. Nothing else had transpired that our detractors wish us to imagine.

The innocence of the act could also be vouched from the numerous precedence of the Dalai Lama displaying friendly humane gestures with the visitors.

It is also important to know that POCSO Act specifies penalties for misuse of information and false complaints. It states: “To prevent information from being misused, the law also specifies penalties for false complaints or information given with hostile intent”. So the detractors must be aware of the legal ramifications regarding these unfounded allegations, besides preparing to face a massive defamation and Blasphemy lawsuit for hurting the religious sentiments of millions of Buddhists and peace lovers around the world.

Let us reckon the fact that after the conclusion of the event at the Dalai Lama’s Residence in Dharamshala, Dr Payal Kanodia, mother of the boy, expressed joy and satisfaction over the interaction and told a news reporter that: “We’re totally blessed to have got these blessings from His Holiness. He came, addressed us in person, taught about peace that the world needs and how everyone needs to feel together, like brothers and sisters. And I absolutely cannot express how I feel getting blessed by him.”

Even the ‘victim boy’, after the conclusion of the event told the press on video that, “It was amazing meeting His Holiness. And I think it’s a really great experience meeting somebody with such high positive energy. It’s a really nice feeling meeting him and you get a lot of that positive energy. It’s not just like that, but once you get the positive energy, I think you’re happier and it’s a better thing and you smile a lot more. It was a really good experience of all”.

And for those who vehemently continue to advocate on behalf of the boy please note that the boy’s mother, Dr. Payal Kanodia is a highly accomplished and sensitised professional, recognized for her extraordinary leadership roles in the field of Women’s empowerment,Child rights and Education of Underprivileged Children etc.

She has an M.B.B.S from BVP University, Pune, Grand Doctor of Philosophy from St. Petersburg, Russia and a Degree on entrepreneurship from Harvard University, Boston. Dr Kanodia is also the recipient of several prestigious awards and recognitions including ‘Times 40 under 40’ list of 2021, “Mahatma Award” and “CSR Person of the Year Award” for her extraordinary leadership. She is a prestigious member of the International Diplomatic Club and the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, UK.

Moreover, she works closely with Government of Haryana, ISKCON, iCONGO and the United Nations in welfare programmes and her “Saakshar” education programme support more than 8 lakh children, 20,000+ teachers from 5500+ government schools in 22 district of Haryana.

To put it succinctly, Dr Payal Kanodia is a trailblazer and fully capable of fighting for justice not only for her child but for millions of others, if need be.

Let me also mention, with utmost gravity the results of my last week’s investigative finding that clearly established the origin of the misleading and tailored video clip as Chinese orchestrated smear campaign against the Dalai Lama.

Initially a fake twitter account was created in the name of ‘Yin Sun’ in February 2023, just days after the event in Dharamshala. This was followed by a fake Youtube account on the ‘Robert Reed’ name, a fake Facebook account called ‘Deter Influencers from Child Abuse’ and a fake petition titled “Save kids from Dalai Lama — let’s stop child abuse” on change.org, all in the first week of April. The maliciously edited video clip (the same that went ‘viral’ globally) uploaded in the fake ‘Robert Reed’ Youtube channel on 1st April was shared by these fake accounts and uploaded in Yin Sun’s Twitter account on 8th April, his first ever post in the account. Within minutes, the CCP cyber army, netizens and the regular CCP stooges like Sameera Khan joined the twitter post, unleashing a barrage of accusations and vilification of the Dalai Lama for the ‘misconduct’.

The next day (April 9th), the video was furnished to NDTV and Hindustan Times and other Indian media houses. When the video went viral in the mainstream media, massive criticism of the Dalai Lama followed. So much so that, Yin Sun couldn’t resist revealing in his twitter account that “I ruined his reputation forever” and “I am the First one to have Exposed Dalai Lama as Pedophile in English” on 9th and 13th April respectively. Thus, he exposed himself as the mastermind behind the whole scheme. That all these accounts were created within the proximity of the event, and before it went viral in India, only points to its sinister designs.

Furthermore, the realization that the fake Twitter account is affiliated to Beijing is also vindicated by the fact that the entire Chinese Embassies around the world actively participate in promoting Chinese government agendas and propaganda in the platform as its official mouthpiece. It was also learned that before the video clip emerged in India, it was circulated widely in China and Tibet for nearly a month with the vicious objective to tarnish the image of the Dalai Lama among the Tibetans and the Chinese.

Consequently, a thorough analyse of the entire Imbroglio also reveals a blatant truth that a most beautiful display of humane love and warmth has been distorted with vicious intentions to harm the reputation of one of the world’s most beloved and respected icons- His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to hurt the religious sentiments of the Buddhist world.

As the current social media mayhem settles down eventually, we need to determine few things. 1) Were the media giants like NDTV and Hindustan Times indeed duped by the misleading and truncated video clip? Or is it a serious case of practice of unethical journalism?

Incidentally, many patriotic Indians were alarmed by the increasing number of Indian mainstream media brazenly publishing Chinese propaganda articles to promote Chinese agenda in India in the form of Advertorials.

2) Right now, a series of massive demonstrations are being organized all across the world in protest against those responsible for maligning the image of the Dalai Lama. Therefore, it is only prudent and fair for the concerned media houses, news reporters, celebs and influencers to tender an unconditional apology to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and His followers, the earlier, the better.

As we conclude, the evolving uneasy shift in the geo-political priorities inevitably compels us to question; can we afford to lose the Dalai Lama yet? For the Tibetans, a world without the Dalai Lama is an unimaginable prospect!

Mr. Lobsang Yeshi is a Former Parliament member of Tibetan exile Government, a Former Vice President of Tibetan Youth Congress and an Independent Researcher. He could be contacted on-lobsangyeshi2020@gmail.com