The visit is being seen as a watershed event as the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, has not visited Arunachal since he entered India via Tawang and Bomdilla in 1959 after escaping with 13 of his guards.
Notwithstanding warnings from China, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama set foot in Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday even as India chose to play down the controversy over his visit to the northeastern state, describing it as “purely religious” and “bereft of any political objectives”.
But, the Dalai Lama’s scheduled visit to Tawang, a region which China claims as its own, got delayed by a couple of days due to inclement weather and heavy snowfall. He is expected to visit Gaden Namgyal Lhatse monastery in Tawang on Thursday.
The visit is being seen as a watershed event as the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, has not visited Arunachal since he entered India via Tawang and Bomdilla in 1959 after escaping with 13 of his guards. Hoping to settle the boundary issue with China, the earlier Congress-led UPA government had steadily put the Tibetan issue in the back-burner.
Unfazed by warnings from China that the Arunachal visit of “the anti-China separatist will severely damage relations”, the Indian government posted Junior Minister for Home Kiren Rijiju, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, to do the talking on its behalf.
Issuing a blunt warning to India, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang had said on March 31: “I urge India again... not to take measures that could further complicate border issues or provide a stage to the 14th Dalai clique for anti-China separatist activities.”
Rebuffing China in a measured tone, Rijiju said, “The Dalai Lama’s Arunachal visit is totally religious, it has no political objective. Being a religious leader, thousands of people wished him to be there. India is a free country, there is no ban on the movement of any religious head... As we do not intervene in Chinese matters, we also want that China should not intervene in our matters.”
Giving sanction to India’s claim on Arunachal, Rijiju further said, “This state is not controversial. All the arrangement for programmes related to the Dalai Lama’s visit are being done by the Arunachal Pradesh government. The Dalai Lama resides in the heart of Arunachal. People have been waiting for him since since 1959. Because the 6th Lama was born in Arunachal, people like the Dalai Lama all the more.”
The Dalai Lama himself also described his visit as being aimed at promoting religious harmony. He said he was happy to be back in a region that revived memories of his escape from Tibet in 1959, fearing for his life after China deployed troops to crush an uprising.
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