Economic Times, 17 December 2016
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in-exile Lobsang Sangay today criticised China for objecting to Dalai Lama’s meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee asserting India did the “right thing” which Beijing “should not” oppose.
Sangay made the remarks on the sidelines of an event where a report on the ‘Middle Way Approach’ to the Tibet issue was released by the ‘Central Tibetan Administration’ (CTA) here.
“His Holiness the Dalai Lama attending Nobel laureate event at Rashtrapati Bhavan and him meeting the President is India’s business and I think the Indian government did the right thing. He is India’s honourable guest and the Chinese should not comment on or criticise what he or India does,” Sangay told PTI.
India has dismissed Chinese objection to the Dalai Lama’s meeting with Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan during a children’s summit few days back.
Sangay, who was re-elected in July, said that China looks “anxious and sometimes paranoid” reacting to the CTA’s activities, adding that China’s “hardline policies” towards Tibet have failed.
China considers the Dharamsala-based Tibetan government-in exile illegal.
“I hope the Chinese leadership realise that their policy on Taiwan failed. They did the waiting game and it failed. And I hope they see the Dalai Lama as the solution and not the problem.
“I hope in Xi Jinping’s second term (as President) he will relook and review the Tibet policy and realise that the hardline policies have failed,” he said.
The middle way approach, conceived by the Dalai Lama and described by him as a “win-win solution”, is a moderate policy propounded by the CTA that seeks “genuine autonomy” for the Tibetan People without challenging the “unity and stability” of China.