The Indian government denied permits for foreign journalists to cover the Dalai Lama’s imminent visit to a northeast Indian state that China claims as its own after weeks of verbal jousting between the two countries.
Four passes to Arunachal Pradesh, previously given to foreign reporters, have been revoked. All other news organizations that applied for permits have been turned down.
“We are incredibly surprised and disappointed to learn that reporters’ visas to Arunachal Pradesh have been canceled ahead of the Dalai Lama’s visit,” said Heather Timmons, president of the Delhi-based Foreign Correspondents’ Club.
Indian journalists will be allowed to travel, but some Tibetans raised concerns that Delhi was kowtowing to China over the Dalai Lama. Tsewang Rigzin, of the Tibetan Youth Congress, said it was “disappointing that in a democracy as big as India’s foreign reporters cannot follow His Holiness on this trip.”
The Himalayan neighbors have a prickly relationship, with both seeking a bigger role on the world stage. Media reports of alleged incursions by Chinese soldiers have caused uproar in recent weeks. The chief of India’s army staff, General Deepak Kapoor, has appealed to the media not to overplay the issue. Last month the government announced it would launch a legal case against two Indian reporters after a report appeared claiming two Indian border police were injured after being fired at from the Tibetan-Chinese side.
Despite the claims of misreporting, there is no doubt India and China have sparred in recent weeks over a number of sensitive issues around Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing calls Southern Tibet or Outer Tibet. Relations reached a new low last month when Beijing described the Indian prime minister’s visit to the state before elections as “provocative and dangerous.”
Arunachal Pradesh has been slowly integrated into the Indian state since Delhi sent troops in 1950 carrying papers signed by the Tibetan government in Lhasa, which transferred 91,000km² of the Himalayas to India. Beijing rejects Delhi’s claim, pointing out that no official from China signed the treaty.
Last week the Dalai Lama said China was “over-politicizing” his travels and said his decisions on where to go were spiritual in nature, not political.
Fu Xiaoqiang (傅小強), an expert on south Asia at the Chinese Institute of Contemporary International Relations, said: “The visit will make Sino-Indian relations more complicated and increase the difficulties of solving the border problem ... [which] must be solved before they can further develop their relationship.”
The neighbors have not agreed on the border. The 4,000km demarcation is known as the Line of Actual Control and is a source of continuing tension.
One remote town in the Himalayan foothills spruced up its monasteries to prepare for the Dalai Lama’s arrival today.
Residents in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang prepared excitedly on Friday for the Dalai Lama’s arrival — his first visit since 2003. Buddhist monks hung flags and banners with the Dalai Lama’s image, and decorative arches were erected across the town. A tent camp was set up for an expected influx of pilgrims to the town.
“This is a religious event for us. It is specially auspicious to have the Dalai Lama in our midst,” said Tulku Rinpoche, the head of the sprawling Tawang monastery.
But the visit to Tawang is especially galling to China.
The town is heavily linked to nearby Tibet and has one of the largest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in the world. China briefly occupied Tawang during the 1962 war before pulling back to the informal border.
The sixth Dalai Lama was born in Tawang in the 17th century and China fears the current Dalai Lama might announce that his successor could come from this town or somewhere else outside Tibet — meaning outside of Chinese control. China expects to exercise a strong hand in choosing the next Dalai Lama and is increasingly sensitive about the region since deadly anti-government riots broke out in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa last year.
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