The Dalai Lama, visiting the Jaipur region near New Delhi in India, has asked that mercy be shown in the case of the men accused of last month’s brutal gang rape and murder of a woman on a bus in New Delhi.
The Tibetan leader has been a steadfast opponent of the death penalty, which contradicts the Buddhist philosophy of nonviolence.
In July 2011, the Dalai Lama, then 76 years old, traveled to Chicago, where he praised Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn for abolishing the death penalty in his state.
The Delhi rape case has sparked debate over the Indian legal system, and public anger has been directed at officials in a city informally christened India’s “rape capital,” according to Reuters.
What the Dalai Lama said about the India rape case at the Jaipur Literature Festival
Source: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2013/0125/What-the-Dalai-Lama-said-about-the-India-rape-case-at-the-Jaipur-Literature-Festival
The Tibetan spiritual leader addressed a crowd of about 4,000 in a conversation with his biographer Pico Iyer.
Calling the 20th century a century of bloodshed and violence, the Dalai Lama urged that the “21st century be a century of dialogue.” The title of his talk, “Kinships of Faiths: Finding the Middle Way,” headlined his hopes for comity even in the potential divisive realm of religion.
In his words, secularism is mostly misunderstood as being against religion. He said in India every religion is respected and our fore fathers framed the constitution of India by keeping space for every religion. “There are so many religions in India but the country is stable,” he said.
The Delhi rape case came up, when a reporter asked his view on the Indians demanding capital punishment for the rapists.
“I have been noticing crimes in big cities like Bombay and Delhi… when these kinds of things happen people take it for granted. Now the time has come that we must make efforts for special protection to women, physically and men’s protection is education,” said the Dalai Lama.
The rape case trial opened yesterday. Before the trial opened Indians were debating whether the accused should be chemically castrated or even put to death if found guilty. The Dalai Lama expressed his dislike of capital punishment. “Since many decades Amnesty International started a movement banning death sentence. I signed it. I do not like death penalty but it is up to the country’s law to decide,” he told the reporters after his session.