The Chinese president Xi Jinping had actually agreed to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama back in 2014 but the cautious Indian government had stopped it from happening. His Holiness is reported to have revealed the case according to a book written by Sonia Singh called ‘Defining India: Through their eyes”.
According to the book, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama had requested for a meeting when Xi Jinping was visiting India for talks in 2014. Surprisingly the Chinese president had agreed to the meeting then! However, the meeting could not happened as Indian government was cautious.
And it is then as we talk of the prime minister that the Dalai Lama drops his political bombshell. ‘In 2014, when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Modi, I requested a meeting with him. President Xi Jinping agreed, but the Indian government was cautious about the meeting, so it didn’t happen.’ according to the report published by NDTV on Wednesday.
The report further explained how the worst situations could have been; a meeting between the Dalai Lama and President Xi could have also been used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese to outwit both India and the Dalai Lama, who is seen by some foreign policy strategists as India’s trump card against the Chinese. It’s not surprising then that the request for the meeting must have sent the ministry of external affairs into a spin leading to a denial of the request.