Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: October 28, 2009
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/211724/India's-honoured-guest.html
Arunachal awaits Dalai Lama's visit
In clearing the Dalai Lama's visit to Arunachal
Pradesh on November 8, the Government of India has acted correctly and wisely.
The spiritual leader is scheduled to travel to the Tawang Monastery - one
of the most revered seats of Tibetan Buddhism - and also inaugurate a super-speciality
hospital that will serve the people of India's easternmost State. In recent
weeks the Dalai Lama's visit had become the subject of great controversy,
with the Chinese authorities resorting to wild and objectionable rhetoric,
making menacing noises and insisting that almost all of Arunachal Pradesh
was actually China's territory by virtue of being part of the so-called 'Southern
Tibet'. Having first annexed Tibet and offered only oppression and dubious
historical evidence as clinching arguments, the Communist autocracy in China
now says it also wants Arunachal Pradesh as a culturally contiguous region
of a sacred habitat it is in occupation of. This is no ordinary millenarian
fantasy and sits uneasily with the idea of a rational and coldly calculating
regime in Beijing. It is obvious that China sees Arunachal Pradesh as an issue
it can use to put India in its place. By claiming Tawang, allegedly on behalf
of the people of Tibet, it is actually engaged in a game of one-upmanship
with the Dalai Lama. The respected religious leader is absolutely comfortable
with Tawang being a repository of Buddhist faith, the birthplace of a previous
Dalai Lama, and yet part of a State that is integral to the Union of India.
He has refused to entertain the idea that Arunachal Pradesh is somehow disputed
territory. His very presence in the State will make Chinese claims on Tawang
appear hollow, just as his credibility and Gandhian stature render Beijing's
half-century occupation of Lhasa almost immoral. Obviously, despite China's
prodigious economic achievements and statistical tabulation of its "composite
national power", the fact is Beijing is deeply insecure and has monumental
chips on its shoulder.
Dealing with such a neighbour calls for not
just diplomatic skills but profound mastery of a number of other fields, from
chess to clinical psychology. It is doubtful whether India has time for all
of this. It can't spend its hours attempting to psychoanalyse the rulers of
China, What it can and must do, however, is to put its foot down when Indian
identity itself is questioned and even threatened. The Dalai Lama has his
individual plans for the resolution of the Chinese-Tibetan question. India
has its own perceptions as well, and these may or may not match those of the
world's best known Buddhist monk. However, two things are clear. First, the
Dalai Lama is an honoured guest of India and completely free to go to any
part of the country that he feels like. Second, India cannot be bullied into
taking a position on the Dalai Lama or the Tibetan political struggle merely
because a spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry gets carried away with
obnoxious verbosity.
That is why the Union Government's decision
to clarify matters and give permission to the Dalai Lama - being a foreign
citizen and a diplomatic personage he needs official clearance - to visit
a cherished and crucial border State is just so welcome. The Chinese are free
to launch into another war or words, try and smuggle in more border patrols,
buy paint for inscribing more boulders. India shall not be moved.
