Dalai Lama's 90th birthday may cast shadow over Modi-Xi Rio date

New Delhi: A birthday may cast a shadow over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro early next month.

Modi and Xi will attend the 17th BRICS summit, which will be hosted by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil on July 6 and 7. New Delhi and Beijing are exploring the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the summit. But, around the same time, the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile (TGiE) at Dharamshala in India will wear a festive look, celebrating the 90th birth anniversary of the 14th Dalai Lama, the icon of the global resistance against the continued occupation of Tibet by China.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong met in New Delhi on June 12. They discussed efforts to stabilise and rebuild ties, which had hit a new low over the military stand-off in eastern Ladakh since April 2020 till October 2024.

The Modi-Xi meeting on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS summit at Kazan in Russia last year had marked the beginning of a process to normalise the bilateral relations. The annual pilgrimage organised by the Government of India to Kailash Mansarovar in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China resumed this month after a gap of five years. New Delhi and Beijing are also discussing the resumption of direct air services between the two nations.

But what may raise the hackles in Beijing is that Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju is expected to be the chief guest in the celebrations of the birth anniversary of the Dalai Lama at Tsuglagkhang Complex in Dharamshala on July 6, representing the Government of India.

Prem Singh Tamang and Pema Khandu, respectively the chief ministers of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, India’s two frontier states along the country’s largely disputed boundary with China, are also likely to attend the celebrations, a source in New Delhi said.

As he turns 90, the Dalai Lama may on July 6 address the contentious issue of his reincarnation, amid widespread apprehension that Beijing might interfere in the process of selecting his spiritual heir and prop up a claimant, loyal to the Communist Party of China, thus making another attempt to diffuse the struggle for “genuine autonomy” for the Tibetans.

Beijing had in 1995 chosen Gyancain Norbu as the 11th Panchen Lama, rejecting the Dalai Lama’s choice, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, who had not been seen in public in the past 30 years.

Anticipating that the Dalai Lama may make comments on his reincarnation – the 15th Dalai Lama – on his 90th birthday, Li Ganjie, a member of the CPC politburo and the head of the United Front Work Department of the party, recently asked the faith groups to remain alert to the “hidden dangers” in the religious field and called for resolute resistance against “foreign infiltration”. He stressed that religious practices in China must be systemically Sinicised.

The CPC’s United Front Work Department oversees religious affairs in China.

The Dalai Lama has been living in exile in India following his 1959 escape from Tibet, which had been occupied by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 1950-51. The monk, a staunch advocate for non-violence and freedom, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. He has been arguing for “genuine autonomy” – not independence from the Chinese Government’s rule – for Tibet. Beijing, however, still calls him a “separatist” and accuses him of running a campaign to split China.

Modi has been publicly greeting and wishing the Dalai Lama on his birthdays since 2021. Beijing was not amused and asked New Delhi to abide by its commitment to China, speak and act prudently, and stop using Tibet-related issues to interfere in the internal affairs of China.

His meeting with the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in August 2010 or his visit to Rashtrapati Bhavan on an invitation from then President Pranab Mukherjee in December 2016 had also triggered strong protests from China. So had New Delhi’s decisions in 2009 and 2017 to let him visit Arunachal Pradesh, where China claims nearly 90000 sq. km of territory of India to be its own.

The 14th Dalai Lama set up the TGiE, formally known as the Central Tibetan Administration, on April 29, 1959. The CTA, which has its headquarters in Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, calls itself the “continuation of the government of independent Tibet”. Beijing in the past pressed the Government of India hard to shut down the TGiE. New Delhi, however, has been allowing it to function, albeit without officially recognising it.