By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, Sept 16: Rejecting China’s opposition to the exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama visiting northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna today said “Dalai Lama is free to visit anywhere in India”.
In an interview on IBN7, sister channel of India’s CNN-IBN television news channel, Krishna further said China’s objection, voiced last week by its foreign ministry, has no merit.
While the government has not explicitly said the visit will be permitted, Krishna said: “Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India and the Dalai Lama is free to go anywhere in India. The only question is that he is not expected to comment on political developments.”
The Dalai Lama is expected to visit Arunachal sometime in November. The Dalai Lama will also go to Tawang, which China has been claiming as its territory, to inaugurate a hospital for which he had reportedly donated Rs 20 lakh.
Plans for a November trip by the Dalai Lama to Buddhist monasteries in and near the Chinese-claimed town of Tawang “have not been finalized,” and are under discussion with Indian authorities, Tenzin Takhla, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama, told Bloomsberg yesterday.
China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu reportedly said last week the government opposes a Dalai Lama trip to India’s northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh.
Speaking to a group of visiting journalists here, Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche reportedly described Beijing’s objections to the Dalai Lama’s visit as “absurd”.
“Arunachal Pradesh and its Tawang region is an integral part of India. If the Dalai Lama, who is staying for the last 50 years, is visiting any part of the country why does this bother China? If the Dalai Lama goes to Chinese territories it can raise objection but in this case has no business to interfere,” said Samdhong Rinpoche.
The Dalai Lama last visited Tawang in 2003, and canceled a planned visit there last year and also earlier this year.
