Dharamsala, September 12 – India has played down Chinese opposition to His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s visit in November to Arunachal Pradesh, the north eastern Indian state where Beijing lays claim on about 90,000 square kilometer of it as Chinese territory.
Reacting to Chinese foreign ministry’s “strong concern” that it “further reveals the Dalai clique’s anti-China and separatist essence”, India played it down saying the 74 year old Tibetan leader is free to travel anywhere within India.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu had said, “We firmly oppose Dalai visiting the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’.”
The Tibetan leader’s private secretary has said the visit is purely religious. “He is going there for teaching. This has nothing to do with politics, there is nothing political about it,” Chime R. Chhoekyapa had said. The Tibetan leader had visited the state several times in the past but China had not opposed.
Incursions into Indian territory were reported recently in Ladakh where boulders were found painted red with Chinese scripts.
In the past, China had even objected the Indian prime minister and president visiting Arunachal Pradesh. China also blocked a $60 million loan that India sought from the Asian Development Bank for development projects in Arunachal Pradesh.
Analysts say the Tibetan leader’s visit will prove a reassertion of Arunachal being an Indian territory and will benefit India.
Arunachal has a substantial Buddhist population. Tawang in Arunachal is believed by the Tibetan Buddhists as the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama Tsayang Gyatso.
The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh, Dorjee Khandu, met the Tibetan leader in January this year at a religious congregation in Varanasi.
