By Jaideep Sarin
Dharamshala – He has already done it twice – to the embarrassment of the world’s two most populous nations – and the frail Tibetan activist, Tenzin Tsundue, says he will stage a dramatic protest yet again.
The occasion, says the “rebel” Tibetan, will arise when President Hu Jintao visits India later this year.
Speaking to IANS at Mcleodganj, the headquarters of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile, Tsundue said he had no regrets over the earlier protests.
Tsundue, sporting a red headband, carried out two image-catching protests – first in January 2002 and then in April last year – during the visits of Chinese premiers Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao respectively to India, home to some 100,000 Tibetans.
In the first event at Mumbai, Tsundue got on to the 14th floor of the Oberoi Towers Hotel to wave a ‘Free Tibet’ banner on Zhu Rongji’s face. In the second protest, Tsundue hid in a building in Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Science for a good 20 hours before emerging on the roof to hang out a Tibetan flag and ‘Free Tibet’ banners in front of Wen Jiabao.
He was arrested on both occasions. After the Bangalore protest, the police also beat him up.
“I will do it again. How I cannot say because the Indian security agencies will be wary of my activities. They might even arrest me beforehand to avoid any embarrassment but that will not take away my determination to fight for my homeland,” Tsundue told IANS here in the midst of his political calculations during the March 18 Tibetan parliamentary elections.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, who was also here on election day, had talks with the Dalai Lama and exiled Tibetan ‘prime minister’ Samdhong Rinpoche. Hu’s visit was one of the issues discussed, sources in the Tibetan establishment said.
Tsundue said his protests were aimed at getting international attention to the plight of Tibetans wanting to go back to their homeland.
“I don’t believe in violent means for a freedom struggle. No one has a right to kill another human being to gain his own freedom. But protesting peacefully and forcefully is an option available,” he said.
Tsundue is largely a one-man army though now he has his own band of supporters among younger Tibetans. He wants Tibetan independence, in variance with the Dalai Lama’s middle path approach for autonomy under Chinese rule. Asked about his radical thinking on the issue, Tsundue said it was the “Dalai Lama who was thinking radically”.
“Our goal is a free Tibet. He has agreed for autonomy under the Chinese after looking at the situational demand. It is his idea of getting back to Tibet that is radical. Our stand is firm – only independence,” he added.
For his dramatic heroics, he was featured by Elle magazine last year in the top 50 Indians – two places ahead of the Dalai Lama himself.
From running down up and down the rain-soaked streets of Mcleodganj and Dharamshala to travelling all over India to Tibetan refugee settlements, Tsundue packs a lot of energy in his small frame.
The 30-something activist, born to refugee parents who used to work on road-making projects in the Indian hill station of Manali, even crossed into Tibet “to see how things were there”.
He was arrested by the Chinese authorities and deported after spending some time in prison there.
Tsundue has no address in India or a permanent home. That quite sums up his quest for a homeland where he could live freely.
