China has always been noted for its paranoia over the Dalai Lama’s exile in India but this paranoid stance came into prominent focus recently last month over two issues. The first was over the Global Buddhist Congregation organized by India in New Delhi and the second event unusual in terms of diplomatic protocol of the Chinese Consul General in Kolkatta writing a letter to the West Bengal Government demanded that West Bengal Governor and Chief Minister should not attend an event in which the Dalai Lama would be participating. China’s paranoia impels it to adopt imperialist postures against India as if India was a vassal state of China.

Fortunately for India this time around the Indian Government seems to have felt that enough was enough and that it has to stand firm against China’s preposterous demands. India refused to cancel the Global Buddhist Congregation and so piqued, China called off the scheduled 15th Round of Special Envoys Dialogue on Border Dispute.  

On the second issue, the Governor of West Bengal, Shri M.K. Narayanan who had earlier been the National Security Adviser in New Delhi contemptuously ignored China’s demand and went ahead to attend the event which was graced by the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama’s presence in exile in India is a living reminder to the global community that China continues in illegal and forcible occupation of the Hermit Kingdom of Tibet. This is a matter of deep annoyance to China which would like the world to believe that Tibet is fully integrated in China and the residents in Tibet are happy to be part of China. 

The Dalai Lama’s presence in India in exile also facilitates the existence of a number of Tibetan organizations working towards “Free Tibet” and in their worldwide movements able to achieve sustained focus on China’s ethnic and cultural genocide inflicted on the Tibetan Nation. This nails China’s false propaganda on China’s development of Tibet.

The Dalai Lama has been able to make sure that the movements for liberation of Tibet from Chinese enslavement remains peaceful. But for his spiritual and moral guidance the younger elements of the Tibetan Diaspora all over the world would have indulged in an armed struggle for liberation of their beloved Homeland from Chinese colonialism.

The Dalai Lama in a visionary step has handed over political control of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile to a relatively young and intelligent Tibetan who is Harvard educated and articulate and persuasive. China therefore no longer can claim that the Dalai Lama is indulging in political activities.

China’s paranoid postures over the Dalai Lama’s presence in exile in India and over the Tibet issue is unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, China is also paranoid over the likelihood of the next incarnation of the Dalai Lama may be found outside the confines of what I have always ben describing as “China Occupied Tibet”. This carries multiple political implications for China’s continued colonial rule over Tibet.

I sincerely hope that the new trend visible in India’s recent postures of standing upto China on the Dalai Lama and China Occupied Tibet issues is maintained as an irreversible policy.