Top RSS leader slams China for ‘goondagardi’ on Tibet

China's “goondagardi” (hooliganism) will not last and Tibet will be free, a top leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said in a public meeting here — just ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposed second “informal summit” with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Indresh Kumar, a member of the national executive of the RSS, and Lobsang Sangay, the Sikyong (President) of the Tibetan Government in Exile (TGiE) based at Dharamshala in India, shared the podium at a “National Convention on Tibet” held by Bharat Tibbat Sahyog Manch (India-Tibet Cooperation Forum) at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi.

He also said Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans and the icon of the global campaign against the Chinese government's rule in Tibet, would soon be able to go to the Potala Palace in Lhasa.

Beijing will not be amused by the fact that Government of India allowed the “National Convention on Tibet” to take place in New Delhi and a senior leader of the ruling BJP's mentor RSS not only addressed it but also predicted an end to the Chinese government's rule over Tibet.

New Delhi, however, still allowed it to happen, ostensibly to send out a message to Beijing after China joined its “all-weather ally” Pakistan to criticise the August 5 decision of the Modi government to end the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and reorganise the state into two Union Territories.

“The 'goondagardi' (hooliganism) and the dictatorship of China will not last. Tibet will be free and His Holiness the Dalai Lama will return to Tibet at Potala Palace,” Kumar was quoted saying in a report on the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) – as the TGiE, based at Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, is formally known as.

The convention was the first major event held in New Delhi in support of free Tibet campaign after India and China started efforts to mend ties, which had hit a new low in June-August 2017 over the 72-day-long military stand-off at Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan.

New Delhi has been avoiding irking Beijing over the past 16 months, since the “informal summit” between Modi and Jinping at Wuhan in central China in April 2018 brought about a thaw in complex relations between the two neighbours.

Modi is now likely to host Xi for the second “informal summit”, possibly at Mamallapuram in Tamil Nadu on October 11 and 12.

Beijing's repeated critical statements on New Delhi's moves on J&K, however, struck a jarring note to the bonhomie that marked the relations between India and China since April 2018.