India's Tibet Travails

A short backgrounder on Tibet:
Tibet, before its occupation by China in 1959, was a theocracy. The occupation saw the killing of thousands of Buddhist monks by communist China’s military. In the years after the escape of the Dalai Lama, the besieged nation’s top spiritual leader, on horseback to India, almost all symbols of the ancient heritage of Tibet have been systematically erased. Jawaharlal Nehru had, even before the ’62 war, recognized Tibet as part of China.

Today there is a Tibetan government-in-exile with its headquarters in McLeodganj in Himachal Pradesh. Thousands of Tibetans—both first generation refugees and their descendants—have made India their home. Over the years, India extended moral and diplomatic support to the Tibetans.

All that is changing and how.

Last year the U.S. Congress conferred the 'Congressional Gold Medal' on the Dalai Lama. China was quick to denounce the U.S. move to honour its bête noire.

For fear of antagonising China and its stooges in India – the Indian commies (like Prakash Karat & A. B. Bardhan), the UPA government asked its ministers (& top bureaucrats) to avoid meeting the Dalai Lama upon his return from the U.S. (In more normal times, such meetings would not even classify as news. But then we live in not-so normal times.)

In March this year, India’s External Affairs Minister (EAM), Pranab Mukherjee, ‘advised’ the Dalai Lama not to conduct any political activities from India. The EAM said that “[We] will continue to extend the Dalai Lama all hospitality, but during his stay in India, he should not do any political activity that could adversely affect relations between India and China”.

I believe that this policy of publicly distancing herself from the Tibetans is a deliberate move by the Government of India. The reasons for this significant shift are not far to seek:

(a) Nuclear Deal. India needs China’s approval in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to get a waiver;
(b) Trade. Burgeoning trade between the two nations – as of now, China is India’s second biggest trade partner;
(c) Reciprocity. Kashmir is India’s bugbear just as Tibet is China’s.
(d) 1962 defeat. Rarely acknowledged but nevertheless our humiliating defeat continues to shape our almost condescending attitude towards China.

However, what worries me more is that if this could happen when the Dalai Lama is around, imagine what would happen after his death. As of now, the Tibetan community (outside Tibet) does not boast of even a single individual with the charisma, and more importantly, spiritual hold, to replace the Dalai Lama. So is the Tibetan movement doomed? Let me not sit in judgement here.

I hate to sound pessimistic, but maybe the Indian government is simply waiting for the Dalai Lama to pass away. At least then, we would not have to put up the charade of standing up for the freedom-loving, oppressed, and repressed.