China unhappy over India’s increasing indulgence with His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet at the public forums formally. It has exhorted India to not use His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a “bargaining chip”. Chinese experts have said that this would spoil India’s image amongst the Chinese and will not help in solving the bilateral issues.
Wang Dehua, an eminent expert of internal studies told the Global Times, English daily with links to the People’s Daily and widely considered to be the mouthpiece of Chinese Communist Party. He warned India against using Tibet for any concession and leverage from China and cautioned India to refrain from doing so.
“India is asking for trouble, worsening the bilateral relations and impeding normal bilateral discussion,” Wang further said.
His holiness the Dalai Lama has been invited to an international seminar on Buddhism in Bihar. The event took place at Nalanda which was an important seat of learning in the ancient times.
What warrants attention here is the fact that the India’s minister of cultural and tourism affairs Mahesh Sharma also attended the event and shared the stage with the Dalai Lama. This is a significant development as this gives the whole development a political stamp, something that would not have gone down well with the Chinese.
It is certain now that India will continue giving public platforms to the widely respected Honorable the Dalai Lama. It will continue to ignore Chinese sensitivities on the issue as China has acted very aggressively in the past couple of years. China has thwarted India attempts to designate Masood Ajhar as an international at the United Nations. It has also single handedly blocked India entry in to NSG.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama inaugurated the three-day international Buddhist event which had “The Relevance of Buddhism in the 21st Century” as the theme. The event was attended by Buddhist monks and spiritual leaders from more than 30 countries.
The ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) of China has expressed displeasure at India for inviting the Dalai Lama to Nalanda. Over the past few months India has been increasingly giving public platforms to the Dalai Lama and this has understandably irked China. The President of India has also received the Dalai Lama at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi in December last year. This meeting was too ‘strongly opposed’ by the Chinese officials and warned of serious ‘negative impacts’ on their relations.
However, India seems to have learnt to ignore the lame and habitual warnings from China and stick to its fundamental constitutional values and promote the Dalai Lama’s teachings. The Dalai Lama will be making his visit to the highly disputed border areas of India; Assam and Arunachal Pradesh despite unending oppositions from China next month.
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