Indian Defence Review

The Dalai Lama arrives in India (West Kameng district of NEFA)

The Dalai Lama took refuge in India on March 31, 1959.

He crossed the Indian border at Khenzimane at the bottom of the famous Thagla ridge in West Kameng Frontier Division of the North-East Frontier Agency (today, Tawang District of Arunachal Pradesh).

It is interesting to note that, at that time (1959), the Chinese never thought to say that the Dalai Lama and his entourage were in Southern Tibet (the term used today by Beijing to define Tawang). They knew perfectly well that the Tibetan leader had taken refuge on Indian territory.

Jawaharlal Nehru sent a senior officer of the Ministry of External Affairs, (PN Menon, father of the former National Security Adviser, Shivshankar Menon) to receive him.

Menon delivered to the Tibetan leader a message from the Prime Minister: “My colleagues and I welcome you and send greetings on your safe arrival in India. We shall be happy to afford the necessary facilities to you, your family and entourage to reside in India. The people of India, who hold you in great veneration, will no doubt accord their traditional respect to your personage. Kind regards to you.”

Since then, the Dalai Lama has been a ‘honoured guest’ in India.

In his autobiography Freedom in Exile, the Dalai Lama remembered:

“…After bidding these people [his Khampa bodyguards] a tearful farewell, I was helped on to the broad back of a dzomo [hybrid of a yak and domestic cattle], for I was still too ill to ride a horse. And it was on this humble form of transport that I left my native land.

…We must have been a pitiful sight to the handful of Indian guards that met us at the border – eighty travellers, physically exhausted and mentally wretched from our ordeal. I was delighted, however, that an official I knew from my visit two years earlier was there to rendezvous with us. He explained that his orders were to escort me to Bomdila, a large town that lay a further week’s travel away, for rest.”

Apart from the fact that historically this does not make sense (and I will come back to this issue in future postings), why did the Chinese not follow the Dalai Lama and his entourage  into this area in 1959, if they really believed that it was a part of  Chinese territory?

It is interesting to note that, at that time (1959), the Chinese never thought to say that the Dalai Lama and his entourage were in ‘Southern Tibet’ (the term used today by Beijing to define Tawang). They knew perfectly well that the Tibetan leader had taken refuge on Indian territory.

Strangely, Beijing is now insisting that Tawang district is part of the People’s Republic of China. It is clearly an after-thought.

Special Representative and State Councillor  Dai Bingguo told his Indian counterpart, Shivshankar Meonon during the 15th Meeting of the Special Representatives that India should first discuss the Eastern Sector of the boundary. Dai further asked Menon how much territory New Delhi would be ready to part with.

Apart from the fact that historically this does not make sense (and I will come back to this issue in future postings), why did the Chinese not follow the Dalai Lama and his entourage  into this area in 1959, if they really believed that it was a part of  Chinese territory?

The answer is clear, it was not Chinese territory and Mao knew it.

So, why claim the area 53 years later?

Further, under the 2005 Guidelines (Agreement between the Government of the Republic of India and the Government of the People’s Republic of China on the Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of the India-China Boundary Question), it was agreed that “In reaching a boundary settlement, the two sides shall safeguard due interests of their settled populations in the border areas.”

The answer is clear, it was not Chinese territory and Mao knew it. So, why claim the area 53 years later?

The demand of Dai Bingguo is all the more ironic as it comes at a time when China is using ferocious repressive policies against the Tibetans on the other side of the McMahon Line.

It was reported that China “has effectively sealed off a vast Tibetan area of Sichuan province, sending in troops and cutting off communications to towns where protesters have been killed by security forces in the past week.”

Presuming that the new Chinese stand on the border had a historical justification (and it does not), would the local Mompa population desire to become Chinese nationals and lose their democratic rights and freedom?

The answer is ‘NEVER!

Courtesy: www.claudearpi.blogspot.com