HC order may benefit over 35,000 Tibetans

CHANDIGARH: More than 35,000 Tibetans, born between 1956 and 1987, could benefit from a Delhi high court verdict granting citizenship to a 25-year-old Tibetan, the first one to get an Indian passport. The Central Tibetan Administration says there are 35,000 aspirants but isn't sure how many of them were born in India in this period.

India has 94,203 exiled Tibetans.

Those living in Himachal Pradesh feel that Namgyal Dolkar's case could open a floodgate of passport applications. Tenzin Tsundue, a writer and Tibetan freedom activist based at Mcleodganj, says the issue of Indian citizenship is slowly opening up a whole new debate on the status of Tibetans living in India.