Issue 411 = 23-07-2021

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NEWS LITERATURE POLITICS FASHION ART & CULTURE KIDS RELIGION FILMS
23/07/2021
39
Dalai Lama's close aides in Pegasus project data
New Delhi : The phone numbers
of a top ring of advisers
around the Dalai Lama are
believed to have been selected as
those of 'people of interest' by
the government clients of Israeli
surveillance company NSO
Group. An analysis strongly
indicates that the Indian government
was selecting the potential
targets, The Guardian said.
Other phone numbers apparently
selected by Delhi were
those of the former President of
the Tibetan government-in-exile,
Lobsang Sangay, the staff in the
office of another Buddhist spiritual
leader, the Gyalwang
Karmapa, and several other
activists and clerics who are part
of the exiled community in
India, the report said.
NSO's Pegasus spyware
allows clients to infiltrate phones
and extract their calls, messages
and locations. The selected
Tibetans did not make their
phones available to confirm
whether any hacking was
attempted or successful, but
technical analysis of 10 other
phones on the suspected Indian
client list found traces of
Pegasus or signs of targeting
related to the spyware.
Traces of Pegasus were found
on 37 of the 67 phones in the
data that were analysed by
Amnesty International's security
lab. Of the 48 iPhones examined
that had not been reset or
replaced since they appeared in
the records, 33 carried traces of
Pegasus or signs of attempted
infection. iPhones log the information
that can reveal infection
by the spyware, the report said.
The data may provide a
glimpse at the delicate relationship
between Tibetan exiles and
the Indian government, which
has provided refuge for the
movement since its leaders fled a
Chinese crackdown in 1959,
while also viewing it as leverage
-- and sometimes a liability -- in
its own relationship with
Beijing, The Guardian said.
The possible scrutiny of
Tibetan spiritual and government
leaders points to a growing
awareness in Delhi, as well as in
the western capitals, of the
strategic importance of Tibet as
their relationships with China
have grown more tense over the
past five years, the report said.
It also highlights the growing
urgency of the question of who
will follow the current Dalai
Lama, 86, a globally acclaimed
figure whose death is likely to
trigger a succession crisis that is
already drawing in world powers.
Last year the US made it a
policy to impose sanctions
against any government that
interfered with the selection
process, The Guardian said.
The report said the records
suggest that Tibetan leaders were
first selected in late 2017, in the
period before and after former
US President Barack Obama met
the Dalai Lama privately on a
foreign tour that also included
earlier stops in China.
Senior advisers to the Dalai
Lama, whose numbers appear in
the data, include Tempa Tsering,
the spiritual leader's long-time
envoy to Delhi, and the senior
aides Tenzin Taklha and
Chhimey Rigzen, as well as
Samdhong Rinpoche, the head
of the trust that has been tasked
with overseeing the selection of
the Buddhist leader's successor,
The Guardian said.
The Dalai Lama, who has
spent the past 18 months isolating
in his compound in
Dharamsala, is not known to
carry a personal phone, according
to two sources.
Following the launch of the
Pegasus project, India's IT minister,
Ashwini Vaishnaw, said the
project's claims about Indian surveillance
were an "attempt to
malign Indian democracy and its
well-established institutions".
He told parliament: "The
presence of a number on the list
does not amount to snooping ...
there is no factual basis to suggest
that use of the data somehow
amounts to surveillance."
The Guardian said India
could have several motives for
possible spying on Tibetan leaders
but some in Dharamsala have
concluded that the question of
succession may be a driving
force.
Naming successors to the
Dalai Lama has sometimes taken
years after the death of the title
holder, and is usually led by the
monk's senior disciples, who
interpret signs that lead them to
the child next in line, the report
said.
But China views the next
Dalai Lama as a potential separatist
leader who could weaken
its authoritarian grip on Tibet. It
has claimed the sole right to control
the selection process,
and analysts say it is
already pressuring neighbours
such as Nepal and
Mongolia to rule out
recognising any successor
but its own, The Guardian
said.
Beijing is also contacting
influential Buddhist
teachers and clerics
around the world, including
some based in India,
inviting them to China to
try to lay the groundwork
for its choice and muddy
support for any candidate
chosen by the Dalai
Lama's followers.
The report said these
entreaties to Buddhist leaders
and other interference in the succession
process have been
viewed warily by India's security
agencies, who may have sought
to closely monitor an issue with
huge implications for Delhi's
own relationship with China --
but where its direct influence
and control is limited.
"India wants to make sure
that Tibetans don't strike a deal
with the Chinese that involves
the Dalai Lama going back to
Tibet," said a former staffer with
the Tibetan administration, who
asked not to be named, as per the
report.
The report said India may
also be seeking to monitor continuing
informal contact between
Chinese officials and Tibetan
leaders. The Dalai Lama
revealed two years ago that India
had vetoed his plans to try to
meet Xi Jinping when the
Chinese president visited India
in 2014.
"The Dalai Lama himself has
said several times that he maintains
connections to the Chinese
leadership through 'old friends',"
the former Tibetan government
staffer said, adding: "India is
very aware of this and they want
to make sure that no deals are
made without their knowing or
involvement."
The Guardian said Delhi officially
backs the negotiations on
the status of Tibet, but a recent
Indian think-tank report suggested
the country's intelligence
agencies had not always been
supportive of the Dalai Lama's
"middle way", a blueprint to
resolve the dispute by recognising
Chinese sovereignty over
Tibet but granting the province
meaningful autonomy.
Other motives for possible
monitoring of Tibetan leaders
may be more straightforward,
including that the Dalai Lama
and the community around him
are a magnet for sensitive information
about Tibet and regularly
meet dignitaries from around the
world, the report added.
"I would assume that India
would pay close attention to, for
example, western officials coming
to Dharamsala - I think
they'd want to monitor that in
detail," said Robert Barnett, former
director of the Tibet studies
programme at Columbia
University.
"Perhaps, is the Dalai Lama
asking them for asylum? I think
that kind of concern would matter
a lot to them."