Dalai Lama visits Arunachal Pradesh, strains Indo-China relation

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh has made China, India’s neighbor very jittery. The Dalai Lama (81), who is on a visit to the easternmost state of India, has been seen by China as a deliberate diplomatic move to reiterate the Indo-China border conflict.  Since the time of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Indo-China relation have been strained, with both the countries claiming that Arunachal Pradesh is theirs. While China sees large parts of the state as the extended part of South Tibet, India wouldn’t let go of this part of the country.

Right after the Tibetan head monk visited Arunachal, threats from China started coming in. China’s foreign ministry summoned Indian ambassador Vijay Gokhale in New Delhi on Wednesday to express dissent and raise protest against the Dalai Lama’s ongoing tour in Arunachal Pradesh. For the second time, China called in an Indian ambassador to lodge a protest. The first had occurred in April 2008, when envoy Nirupama Rao was called in the wee hours when Tibetans scaled the wall of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi to protest against the Beijing Olympic torch.

China is worried that the Tibetan leader’s preaching across nine days in the Himalayan state might trouble the waters across the border in Tibet. The state-run Chinese Global Times has talked threateningly that India might not be able to withstand a “geopolitical” onslaught from an economically, militarily and diplomatically stronger China. Also, The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor that passes through PoK, has been a sore point of India.

“The Dalai’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh this time is seen as New Delhi using the monk as a diplomatic tool to put pressure on China,” the Global Times said.