PM Modi, Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal Pradesh soon, could raise China's hackles

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will soon separately visit Arunachal Pradesh, India’s frontier state which China claims to be a part of its own territory.

Modi will visit Arunachal Pradesh this week to inaugurate the first airport in the easternmost state of India. He will also inaugurate the 600 MW Kameng Hydroelectric Project in the West Kameng district of the state.

Arunachal Pradesh was one of the scenes of 1962 India-China war, and China still claims the state to be its own territory.

The 14th Dalai Lama is also expected to go on a tour of the state soon, although the dates of his visit are yet to be announced.

The visits by the two leaders may raise hackles in Beijing, which in the past lodged protests whenever the Prime Ministers or Presidents of India or the Dalai Lama went on tours to Arunachal Pradesh.

Modi is likely to highlight his government’s endeavours to build infrastructure in Arunachal Pradesh and other states of India bordering China.

The Dalai Lama is expected to visit Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and stay in Gaden Namgyal Lhatse - a 17th century monastery - for a few days, a source told DH on Sunday.

The 87-year-old Buddhist monk visited Leh in July-August this year amid the continuing military stand-off between India and China along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. He had last month expressed his keenness to visit Tawang soon.

He had last visited Tawang, close to the disputed boundary between India and China, in April 2017. Beijing had strongly protested against his tour to Arunachal Pradesh, accusing India of underlining China’s territorial sovereignty and hurting China-India relations by allowing the visit. A few weeks later, the stand-off between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army had started in Doklam in western Bhutan and continued for 72 days.

New Delhi had dismissed the protests from Beijing, stating that Arunachal Pradesh was an integral part of India and the Dalai Lama, being an honoured guest, could visit anywhere in the country.

Modi did not have any public contact or engagement with the Dalai Lama years after he took over as the Prime Minister in 2014, ostensibly to avoid hurting the sensitivity of China. New Delhi, however, changed its approach in view of China’s belligerence along its disputed boundary with India over the past few years, particularly after April-May 2020. Modi not only called up the Dalai Lama to wish him on his birthdays on July 6 in 2021 and 2022, but also made public the phone calls, triggering protests from China.

The Dalai Lama has been living in India ever since he fled the Potala Palace in Lhasa in March, 1959, to escape the Chinese PLA, which had by then occupied Tibet. He has been a staunch advocate for non-violence and freedom, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. He has been demanding “genuine autonomy” – not independence from Chinese rule – for Tibet. Beijing, however, still calls him a “separatist” and accuses him of running a campaign to split China. The Chinese Government has also repeatedly asked India to shut down the Tibetan Government in Exile.