By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, May 12: The Indian Prime Minister has directed his close aide and BJP President Amit Shah to cancel his meeting with the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama during Shah’s visit here to speak at the Himachal BJP’s state executive meeting, reports said.
The President of Bharatiya Janata Party Amit Shah was to call on the Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama on May 2 at latter’s residence in Mcleod Ganj. However, Shah didn’t meet the Tibetan leader who maintains that his meeting with any leader should not cause relationship between two countries to suffer.
Earlier, media reports cited Shah’s busy schedule as the reason for cancellation of the meeting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not want to upset China ahead of his maiden visit to China as a Prime Minister by allowing his close aide and top leader of the ruling BJP political party to meet the Tibetan leader reviled by Beijing as a “splittist.”
Speaking to media on Saturday at a function to launch Hindi news media, the Tibetan leader said, “I am sure as Prime Minister he knows best, but he might mention India and Tibet’s unique more than one thousand year old relationship. All our knowledge came from India, so we have a special relationship of Guru and disciple. Today, I am very concerned about the preservation of Tibetan culture, which is essentially ancient Indian culture. We follow the Buddhadharma and the Buddha taught in India, as the Prime Minister himself was observing the other day at Buddha Purnima celebrations in Delhi. And the traditions we preserved in Tibet belong to the Nalanda tradition that was introduced to us by Shantarakshita.
“He might also talk about the environment, the importance of the Brahmaputra and other rivers that rise in Tibet on which more than a billion people depend.”
His Holiness also added, “basically you see close relation between India and china it is very very important and then once you see they develop I think genuine friendship on the basis of mutual trust that effect I think many areas, many issues including Tibetan problem, there is no doubt.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will begin his three-day visit to China on May 14. He will be hosted by Chinese President Xi at the ancient Chinese city of Xian, the capital of the Chinese leader’s home province.
The two leaders will have an informal dialogue on a host of issues before settling for formal talks on May 15 in Beijing. Besides Xi, Modi will hold talks with Premier Li Keqiang and Chairman of the China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress (NPC).
Among others, Modi and Xi are expected to talk about border issue and bullet train project in India.
Jyotsna Sarah George, an Indian working with Students for a Free Tibet, India, said, “The cancellation of Amit Shah’s meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama prior to Modi’s maiden China visit leaves me skeptical of how far Modi is willing to go to stand up to China’s bullying in the South Asia region.” “As an Indian, I am deeply worried about the future of India’s water and food security, with China’s grand damming and diversion plans on the Brahmaputra. Modi has a unique opportunity to set the example for downstream countries, and call out China’s blatant stealth of Tibet’s river.”
