Dalai Lama deserves Bharat Ratna: Tibetan group

A group of Tibetan support have requested the Indian government to confer its highest civilian award - Bharat Ratna on Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in recognition of his services to humanity.

The more than 150 delegates participating in the 4th All-India Tibet Support Groups Conference held in Dharamshala unanimously expressed their hope that the Indian government will pay heed to their call.

"The Indian support groups will campaign with the government of India to confer the Bharat Ratna on His Holiness the Dalai Lama in recognition of his great services to India and the humanity," said an action plan passed by the fourth All-Tibetan Support Groups Conference.

It has also decided to campaign with the members of parliament (MPs) and political parties to invite the Nobel peace laureate to address the Indian parliament.

The elderly monk, who considers himself a son of India, has spent more than half a century in India after he was forced along with some 80,000 Tibetans to flee his homeland Tibet March 17, 1959.