Why can't Ogyen Dorje return to India? Is the Indian government scuttling his visa application?
Ogyen, who is one of the two claimants to the title of the 17th Karmapa Lama, is reportedly unable to visit India because he is not getting a visa. In fact, there was much talk that the religious conference on Tibetan Buddhism, which was to be held in Dharamshala earlier this month, was cancelled because Ogyen was unable to come. The Dalai Lama later clarified that the conference was postponed because of the death of one of the senior leaders of the community.
Sources, however, say that Ogyen, who has been living in the US since 2017, has not even once made an application for a visa at any of the Indian missions. He will have to apply for a visa as he is now a citizen of the Commonwealth of Dominica, a Caribbean country. According to rules, the Identity Certificate (IC) of stateless citizens that India issues to Tibetan refugees residing in the country ceases the minute the individual acquires another passport. Sources say that Ogyen acquired the new citizenship but did not bother conveying the development to the Indian authorities. While he is not obliged to do this, it would have been a show of courtesy, given that he has been living in India ever since he escaped from China in 2000 at the age of 14.
It was previously reported that Ogyen had communicated conditions for returning to India, which included freedom to travel within and abroad, just as the Dalai Lama has. India, however, continued to treat him the way it does the other Tibetan refugees in India.
India does not recognise Ogyen as the Karmapa. There are two claimants to this title, the other being Trinley Thaye Dorje. The two recently met in France and are trying to resolve the differences, as it is splintering the community.
Ogyen's stay in India has been riddled with controversies.
In January 2011, the Himachal Pradesh police recovered over 60 million dollars in foreign exchange from his monastery. Ogyen claimed they were donations, but there were rumours that he was planted by China to get control of the Buddhist monasteries in India. The criminal charges were dropped a year later, but a few months later, a Himachal Pradesh court issued an order to open criminal proceedings against him for unaccounted forex at his monastery. The case is still on.
Ogyen has learnt that he cannot eat his cake and have it. Now that he's acquired a passport, he will have to wait for a visa to enter India. Whether India grants the visa, and whether it would be a single or multiple entry one are matters for a later discussion. First, he will have to apply for the visa.