China’s protests and angry words will not change India’s decision to allow Tibet’s spiritual leader from visiting the Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh in November.
China’s protests and angry words will not change India’s decision to allow Tibet’s spiritual leader from visiting the Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh in November. External affairs minister SM Krishna, echoed the government’s decision when he told a news channel that the Dalai Lama is “free to go anywhere in India.”
China’s dislike of the Tibetan leader is well known, Beijing protests whenever the Dalai Lama is welcomed anywhere in the world. But sending him to Arunachal and that too to the Tawang monastery, which China is claiming on behalf of its Tibetan population, is like putting a red rag before a raging bull. Beijing regards Arunachal as “disputed” territory, but it is well known that what it really wants is the Tawang monastery, one of the holiest shrines for Tibetan Buddhists, and the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama.
The November visit to Tawang will not be the first for the spiritual leader. He had passed by it when he fled Tibet in 1959. Delhi allowed him to go there again in 1982 and 2003. This time around he will be there to inaugurate a hospital he funded.
But China’s anger at the Dalai Lama’s widely publicised upcoming visit is mixed with concern that the 74-year old Tibetan leader will name his successor. Beijing is waiting for a time when the Dalai Lama is no more, to appoint a spiritual leader of its choice. But the Dalai Lama wants to ensure he himself chooses his successor.
At a time when incursions by the Peoples Liberation Army into India are mounting, and Beijing tried to veto a multilateral Asian Development Bank loan to India, New Delhi can well go ahead and annoy China by playing its Tibet card. Border talks between India and China are stuck over China’s refusal to let go of Tawang. India has made it clear there will be no exchange of populated territory. Hardliners want India to use Dalai Lama to needle China.
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