New Delhi: The Dalai Lama, who is revered by Buddhists across the world, landed in controversy as a video of the former planting a kiss on the lips of a minor boy went viral on social media. Planting a kiss on the cheeks of babies is not objectionable, but kissing on the lips is a big no in India, as people here are conservative, and kissing in public is taboo. Where in western countries it may be normal, but there, too, it is confined to elders, but not minors.
The Buddhist monk attracted the ire of netizens as he not only planted a kiss on the lips of the boy but also in the video he can be seen asking the minor boy to "suck his tongue". He has been facing a massive backlash following the incident. Twitterati was flooded with comments, which took the Dalai Lama to task, for asking the boy to "suck his tongue"
The video, which went viral on social media, shows the Dalai Lama planting a kiss on the boy's lips when he leaned in to pay respect to the Buddhist monk. The spiritual leader is seen sticking his tongue out as he asked the child to suck it. "Can you suck my tongue," he is heard asking the minor boy in the video.
Sharing the video on Twitter, Joost Broekers tweeted, "So the Dalai Lama is kissing an Indian boy at a Buddhist event and even tries to touch his tongue. He says "suck my tongue". Now why would he do that?" "This is disgusting and no one should justify this ill-conduct of @DalaiLama," tweeted another user Deepika Pushkar Nath. "What am I seeing? Is this Dalai Lama? Needs to be arrested for pedophilia. Disgusting," tweeted Jas Oberoi.
