Dharamsala, August 20 – The Chinese Embassy in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu has objected to some Constituent Assembly (CA) members of Nepal meeting the Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in June, reported Nepalnews.com.
The embassy has written to Nepal’s Foreign Ministry that the CA members’ meeting with Dalai Lama was against Nepal’s One China Policy.
Madhesi Janadhikar Forum CA member Omprakash Yadav Guljari, and Nepali Congress CA members Harshajit Lama and Lalita Kingring had met the Tibetan leader.
NC Parliamentary Party (PP) has also asked clarification from its CA members on the meeting after being pressurized by the Chinese embassy.
CA member Kingring and Lama said their meeting with the Tibetan leader was religious and not political.
Kingring said she was not wrong in meeting a religious leader of the faith she has been following since birth. It was sad that she had to give clarification even for meeting a religious Guru, she said.
Some journalists also were part of the delegation of CA members that met the Dalai Lama.
China has been pressuring Nepal to adopt stringent measures on Tibetan refugees and raising strong objections against any activity that it thinks support the Free Tibet movement.
The Chinese embassy was infuriated when almost a dozen CA members met the Dalai Lama last year.
Earlier last month, Nepal banned Tibetan refugees from celebrating Dalai Lama’s 75th birthday, and even arrested several Tibetans.
Past estimates suggest between 2,500 and 3,000 Tibetans escape Tibet and enter Nepal each year on their way to Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan Government-in-Exile in north India. The number has slowed down dramatically since 2008 after Nepal beefed up security along its border with Tibet.
Nepal is home to about 20,000 exiled Tibetans who began arriving in large numbers in 1959 after their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed uprising against the Chinese rule.
