NEW DELHI: Usually at the forefront of action in Parliament, particularly over human rights issues, the Left presented a muted picture on Monday as MPs expressed anguish and concern over the crackdown on protesting monks in Tibet.
As MPs demanded that the government condemn the Chinese action, Left members remained silent spectators. In Lok Sabha, BJP, BJD and SP members criticized the crackdown in Tibet and some like Gorakhpur MP Adityanath took a sharp dig at Left MPs, referring to them as “China’s representatives” in Parliament.
Though a much smaller provocation, particularly from BJP, would normally have had Left benches on their feet, this time around they heard the yogi out without saying a word.
Adityanath said that Chinese brutality in Tibet reflected Beijing’s expansionist mindset and urged the government to intervene. He pointed out that China had expressed disdain for Indian sensibilities on issues like Arunachal Pradesh where even a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was enough cause for a Chinese protest. A similarly intolerant attitude was reflected in the action against Tibetan monks.
The Left’s silence was all the more striking as the “Red” parties have spent most of last year strenuously denying that their opposition to the India-US nuclear deal had anything to do with their “soft” spot for China which has not been too comfortable about India officially becoming a member of the nuclear club.
The refusal to be even mildly critical of China coincided with the “off-the-record” insinuation from UPA partners that CPM and others have been blocking the nuclear deal with the US because of their sympathies with China.
The anger over Chinese “repression”, expressed by others like BJP’s V K Malhotra, SP’s Ramjilal Suman and BJD’s B Mahtab, did put the government in a spot. Though MPs made it a point to note that Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama had spoken of autonomy and not independence, it was not easy for government to concede the opposition’s demands as India walks a tightrope with China on border issues.
The proceedings in Lok Sabha also brought out the dilemma that government faces in formulating its stand on Tibet. While India cannot condone the scale of the Chinese crackdown and the drive to deny Tibetans their culture and religion, any overtly sympathetic stance towards the “independence” demand raised by the protesters will be fraught with implications for Jammu and Kashmir too.
This compulsion was evident when foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee limited himself to reiterating the official response released on Saturday that India was concerned over the unsettled conditions, violence and deaths of innocent people in Tibet. When NDA staged a walkout, expressing its dissatisfaction with the minister’s remarks, Mukherjee said the Opposition alliance had adopted no different policy with regard to China when it had held office.
“There has been no change since 1959,” he said, pointing out that BJP veteran Atal Bihari Vajpayee had been foreign minister in 1977 and visited China as PM later.
In Rajya Sabha, raising the issue during zero hour, former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha (BJP) said what was happening in Tibet was Chinese misrule and a cultural genocide. He said what was worse was that the Chinese government had termed it “people’s war” against people of China.
Sinha also criticized the Indian government for the repression against Tibetans settled here. “Good relation with China does not mean being a mute spectator,” he said, demanding a response from the government.
