Thursday, April 6, 2017

China must be rebuffed

The famous Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama has been a thorn in the flesh of China since he fled to India and former Prime Minister late Jawaharlal Nehru granted political asylum to him. Since then, Dalai Lama has been living in India and spreading the civilization, cultural and traditional values of India. He propagates India's message of non-violence, peace and amity. It is China's way of imposing its dominance on other countries in the neighbourhood that it has called India’s ambassador to China to lodge its protest against the visit of Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh. His visit is strictly religious and no political angle should be attached to it. Arunachal Pradesh is one among seven the north-eastern states of India. It shares no border with China. Arunachal Pradesh shares borders with Tibet. It means China is not India's next door neighbour. Tawang is the border district of Arunachal Pradesh and it has been a famous for the Buddhist centre. Dalai Lama intends to visit Tawang. Dalai Lama is a valued guest of India. That is why India has arranged his week-long visit to the north-eastern state. China is unnecessarily creating controversy over his visit by laying its claim on some portions of territory in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. China has described Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh as obstinately arranged by India. But the fact of the matter is that because of which China is upset is that it feels that the visit of Dalai Lama to the Buddhist majority district of Tawang is against its interest. Dalai Lama has openly said that India has never used against China. He has also not been demanding the secession of Tibet from China. He is demanding only autonomy of Tibet. It is the highhandedness of China that it wants to crush the Tibetan voice of dissent mercilessly. Why China is so much perturbed over the visit of Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh that it has launched diplomatic offensive against India and warned that the obstinately arranged visit of Dalai Lama will strain the relation between the two countries. As far as the relation between the two countries is concerned, India is not to budge from its stated stand on the issue of autonomy to Tibet and it must also provide all sorts of help to Dalai Lama. Has China ever thought the interest of India while opposing its proposal at UN to get Pak-based Jaish-e-Mohammad Chief Masood Azhar declared a terrorist? It also opposed India’s entry in NSG while most of the leading world powers supported. Then why India would take care of China’s sentiment or anything else. India must give clear message to China that it is not 1962. It is 2017. The time has changed and India is no longer in any way behind any of its neighbour, though it also supports the principle of co-operation and good neighbourly relation. It is well known that Pakistan has always been hostile to India. Despite that, China increased its activities in PoK and started building Economic Corridoor. What is this? This is nothing but the deliberate move to upset India. While Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal Pradesh is not for hurting the interest of China, its knee-jerk reaction reflects its narrow mindedness. Though it was a foregone conclusion that Dalai Lama's visit to NE would upset China, its claim on some parts of territory in Arunachal Pradesh is completely unfounded. China being one of the two Asian giants must not go overboard. Otherwise the other giant will also react in the same coin.

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