By Mayank Aggarwal,IANS,
Dharamshala : Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India, the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile said Tuesday, adding that Chinese military incursions into India were a serious affair.
“Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and India is a sovereign country. People living in India on a permanent basis have every right to go anywhere in India. Then why China objects?” Samdhong Rinpoche asked at a news conference here.
“The media in India gives undue importance to whatever China says. But they don’t give much importance to increasing Chinese incursions. It is very funny for me. The Chinese incursions are more serious,” he added.
Rinpoche’s comments came in the wake of the Dalai Lama’s planned trip to Arunachal Pradesh, a region whose ownership is claimed by Beijing.
“His holiness’ visit to Arunachal is only for religious purposes. He has gone there several times in the past also,” Rinpoche said.
The Tibetan prime minister accused the West, including the US, of pursuing a policy of appeasement towards China.
“Today economic interests are more important than other interests. Therefore a lot of countries have adopted a policy of appeasement towards China. China bullies them and they do not react,” he said.
“Today the West is afraid of Beijing. The entire world today is going by the principal of might is right and survival of the fittest.”
He went on: “The so-called UN declaration of human rights is considered a cardinal document to protect human rights. But monks in Tibet were imprisoned just for having a copy of that declaration. No one in the world has the courage to condemn to condemn that.
“China’s totalitarian dictatorship survived for 60 years only because of the support of the Western world,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Arunachal Pradesh government Tuesday urged Tuesday New Delhi to act tough vis-a-vis Chinese claims over the state and ignore the Chinese opposition to the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit to the region.
“Chinese claims over Arunachal Pradesh are simply baseless and not correct. Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India and would continue to do so,” Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu told IANS.
Beijing in 2003 gave up its territorial claim over the Indian state of Sikkim but holds on to its stand that nearly all of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to it.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed revolt against Communist rule, lives in Dharamsala, heading a government-in-exile that is not recognised by any country.
India is also home to some 100,000 Tibetans.