With the growing popularity of the Buddhist spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his followers around the world, especially in China, there are a large number of Chinese Buddhists visit India to meet or receive teachings from His Holiness in Dharamsala. The Central Government is working on a policy to be put into effect for these pilgrims for the Dalai Lama’s safety.
While the peaceful border regions of India along with Nepal continues to remain an easy opportunity for travelers from Tibet or China to cross into India without any proper documents, India is planning on a specific policy for the Chinese Buddhists visiting India to meet the Dalai Lama so as not to comprise on their national security while at the same time does not antagonizes the Chinese pilgrims.
“The Centre is devising a policy for Chinese Buddhist monks who wish to meet the Dalai Lama in India. The move follows several instances when Chinese monks have come to India via the porous Nepal border without proper documents, putting security agencies in a fix.” said the report in the Hindu on Sunday, “A senior government official familiar with the development, said a cogent policy had to be put in place as India did not wish to antagonise the Chinese monks nor compromise on “national security”.”
Such guests beyond the official radar of the national security agencies poses a significant amount of threat to the safety of the Tibetan spiritual leader based in Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh according to the official.
As for the present norm of visitors either Chinese or the Tibetans requires to register with the Tibetan reception centres in Delhi, Dharamsala or Kathmandu, if they wish to visit the Dalai Lama’s headquarters. However, many people tries to avoid this registration so that no paper trail is left behind from the visit as it could lead to a backlash once they return to China.
“On many occasions, fearing a backlash once they return to China, the Tibetan monks travel first to Nepal and enter India through the porous border. They don’t want to leave any paper trail,” the official said. He said India could not shut its doors on such visitors, nor can it allow them without any checks as it could have huge security implications, added the report.
Leave a Reply