BY Shishir Gupta / Suresh Khatta
New Delhi, Dharamsala, October 15 – In a departure of sorts, New Delhi and the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala have quietly decided to keep each other in the loop on their ongoing talks with Beijing.
In this context, South Block has upgraded its relationship with the Tibetan government-in-exile and an annual engagement between the Foreign Secretary and the Dalai Lama has been institutionalized so that the two sides share points on their mutually exclusive dialogue with the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
The main reason behind Delhi’s move is to have first-hand knowledge of the back-channel dialogue between Dalai Lama’s emissaries and the Hu Jintao administration.
Old China hand and former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran started this dialogue. It’s learnt he met the Dalai Lama last November and in March this year. His successor Shiv Shankar Menon is expected to keep the process alive.
While New Delhi and the government-in-exile remain tightlipped about the exercise, South Block has upgraded its presence at its Liaison office in McLeodganj. Since last December, a senior Director-level officer of the Ministry of External Affairs has been asked to head the office instead of an under-secretary officer as in the past. Presently, Thanglura Darlong is the MEA’s liaison with the Dalai Lama. This clearly indicates the emphasis New Delhi is giving to Dalai Lama’s establishment.
Although New Delhi recognizes that the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) is part of the PRC, it has opened the channel with the Dalai Lama as dialogue between the government-in-exile and Beijing is poised to make headway. Senior officials of the government-in-exile told The Indian Express: ‘‘We are trying our best to have contact with China. A delegation will only leave after we get an invitation from Beijing.’’
While India does not fund or aid the Tibetan government-in-exile, it contributes a token amount to the Dalai Lama establishment. It is learnt that this token amount has been raised by Rs 2 crore to Rs 7 crore in the past year.
