Amid deteriorating relations with China over the navy standoff alongside the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday mentioned he had spoken to the Dalai Lama and wished him on his 86th birthday.
“Spoke on the phone to wish His Holiness @DalaiLama on his 86th birthday. We wish him a long and healthy life,” Modi mentioned in a Twitter publish.
This is the primary time Modi has publicly introduced that he has spoken to a Tibetan religious chief on his birthday. In September 2015, he thanked the Dalai Lama for his birthday needs.
The cellphone name to the Tibetan religious chief and its public announcement have diplomatic significance as Beijing calls the Dalai Lama a “divisive”.
Others who congratulated the Dalai Lama embody Chief Minister Pema Khandu (Arunachal Pradesh), Prem Singh Tamang (Sikkim) – border states that share borders with China – Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Amarinder Singh (Punjab). ), Pramod Sawant (Goa), Konrad Sangma (Meghalaya).
While Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri retweeted the Prime Minister’s publish, Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari and Dharmendra Pradhan despatched congratulatory messages to the Tibetan religious chief. The new US in-charge Atul Keshap did the identical.
Considering the sensitivity of the Chinese authorities, Indian governments have, over time, been very cautious and calibrated of their affiliation with the Dalai Lama.
transfer in time to the low level within the relationship
The PM’s public expression of his name to the Dalai Lama comes at a time when relations between India and China are at their lowest, with the LAC standoff persevering with. Delhi’s transfer signifies that if his sensibility is just not revered, he is not going to hesitate to cut back his rhetoric.
New Delhi has mentioned each side needs to be aware of “mutual sensitivities, interests and concerns”.
The proven fact that China has not bothered about Indian “sensitivity” on the India-China border, or the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or the state of affairs in Jammu and Kashmir, prompts New Delhi to reassess its place, sources mentioned on Tuesday Inspired to analyze.
Lobsang Sangay, who was Sikyong (Chair) of the Central Tibetan Administration (Tibetan Government in Exile) from September 2012 to May 2021, advised The Indian Express: “Today’s birthday wishes to His Holiness the Dalai Lama clearly show the government of India’s solidarity with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Since His Holiness is everything to all Tibetans, if someone shows high regard for him, it is good for us.”
“India has always been good for us. But to do it publicly like today, where not only the Prime Minister, his cabinet colleagues and several chief ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Delhi and many other places congratulate His Holiness and publicly very sincerely, it is actually is a very positive sign,” he mentioned.
“His Holiness the Dalai Lama has always called himself the son of India. And now to be congratulated by all the top leaders of the Government of India, this is a very positive sign,” he mentioned.
Asked if that is an insult to China, Sangay mentioned, “I don’t want to politicize birthday wishes. But yes, it’s really nice to have so many top leaders wishing His Holiness in public.”
Karma Yeshi, former finance minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, mentioned: “I don’t think the PM ever personally called the Dalai Lama and wished him on his birthday. But this time it’s happening; so, it’s good.” In my private opinion this may very well be a message to China that India is not shying away from it.
In the previous, India has despatched blended indicators. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi got here to energy in 2014, he had invited Sangay to his swearing-in ceremony.
Thereafter, he had a “brief meeting” with the Dalai Lama, sources mentioned, in his first yr in workplace. The assembly was additionally confirmed by the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama was invited to Rashtrapati Bhavan in December 2016, the place then President Pranab Mukherjee met him and different Nobel laureates at an occasion devoted to the welfare of kids.
In April 2017, the federal government allowed him to go to Tawang, the birthplace of the Sixth Dalai Lama.
After the border standoff with Chinese troops in Doklam in 2017, the federal government grew to become very cautious about partaking with the Dalai Lama.
In March 2018, the federal government made an uncommon departure from its stance on Tibetans in exile, underlining that this can be a “very sensitive time” for bilateral relations with China, sending a be aware that included “senior leaders” and “government ” have been requested. He requested office-bearers on the Center and states to avoid occasions organized by the “Tibetan leadership in India” in late March and early April to mark the start of 60 years in exile of the Dalai Lama. Soon after, Modi held the primary casual leaders’ summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan in April 2018.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
