India Says He Is A Spiritual Leader & Thus Free To Talk Here
New Delhi: China demanded that India cancel a Buddhist conference in Delhi which the Dalai Lama was expected to address. The conference coincided with the boundary talks between Dai Bingguo and Shivshankar Menon also to be held here. India refused. China cancelled the talks.
Last week, China sent a message to India asking that the government prevent the Dalai Lama from speaking at the Buddhist conference in the national capital. A surprised government said the Dalai Lama was a spiritual leader and free to speak on spiritual matters, refusing to agree to China’s request.
The Chinese side upped the ante, demanding the Indian government cancel the conference. India refused to comply, saying this was a spiritual conference and the freedom was an essential part of New Delhi. The Indian side even promised full security to the Chinese delegates. Beijing refused and called off the talks. Although later Chinese officials said they wanted to hold the talks ‘very soon’, India has reacted coolly. The ball, said sources, is in Beijing’s court. For a Chinese communist leadership in the throes of a leadership transition, the optics of Dai Bingguo breathing the same air as Dalai Lama may be difficult to sell at home.
Sources said, this could have been the reason behind China calling off the talks. The Chinese approach appeared to have hardened after the recent East Asia summit in Bali, where they showed their disapproval of India’s presence in the South China Sea. In recent months, China has successfully prevented the Dalai Lama from being present for an event in South Africa, by pressuring the government.
The Buddhist conference, being organised by the Ashoka Mission, will be held from Sunday till Wednesday to celebrate 2, 600 years of Buddha’s enlightenment and will host scholars and thinkers from 32 countries. The conference plans all-faith meetings, a d h a m m a y a t r aetc.
Buddhism is also a new element of India’s Look East policy, with Nalanda University and a Buddhist outreach, New Delhi has successfully integrated its soft power with the religion to engage countries in southeast Asia as well as China, Japan, Mongolia and Korea. If India acted against the conference at the last moment, it would be counterproductive, apart from inviting collective wrath that it could not withstand Chinese pressure.
While China has promised $1million for the Nalanda University, it also proposed a ‘Lumbini project’ at Lumbini in Nepal, the birthplace of Buddha. Earlier this year, a Chinese organisation had promised a $3 billion investment in Lumbini with an airport, hotels and a university. While seemingly innocuous, India suspected that this could be used to promote China-friendly Buddhist leaders in all the three main schools of Buddhism
Under Indian pressure, Nepal agreed to cut the Chinese links to the project.
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