India and its citizens will stand by Tibet whenever required said the general secretary of Indian ruling party, Bharatya Janta Party (BJP) at Prof. ML Sondhi Memorial Lecture on Thursday in New Delhi. The secretary of the ruling party said that engaging with China is the best available option for Tibet right now.
“Engaging with China is the best available option for Tibet right now. Also, whenever required India and its citizens will stand by Tibet.” BJP general secretary Ram Madhav said at the gathering and appreciated the efforts of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama to engage with China in addressing the Tibet issue.
Mr. Madhav told that India should end its romanticised foreign policies as far as China is concerned as China’s ‘art of deception’ practices demand a pragmatic approach in this regard.
“The history of our previous foreign policies reflects that we have never bothered to understand our neighbours. Our foreign policy has largely been driven by romantic ideas. We need to shed this and adopt a mature and pragmatic approach,” added the BJP secretary.
“China is our important neighbour and we want to strengthen our ties with it. With the strong leadership of both our Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, I am hopeful we will be able to settle our differences,” reinforced Mr. Madhav who is also an expert in Sino-Indian relations saying that India has deployed a mature diplomacy together with strong ground posturing but he also warned that the Doklam dispute with China was not over.
The President of Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamshala also spoke at the third Prof. ML Sondhi Memorial Lecture where he asserted India should put Tibet as a core issue while dealing China just as the other does on its side.
“India should also declare Tibet as one of the core issues like China. It should make it part of the formal dialogue agenda,” said Dr. Lobsang Sangay at the memorial lecture.