The Congress on Tuesday criticised Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for what it termed "surrendering Tibet and obtaining a certificate from China on Sikkim" during his visit to China.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama adresses supporters in Choglamsar, some eight kms east of Leh. India opened its frontiers to the Tibetan spiritual leader in 1959 when China crushed a Tibet uprising.
Photo by Tauseef Mustafa
Activists from the 'Council for Tibet Freedom' burn pictures of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and China's President Hu Jintao and a Chinese national flag during a demonstration in the central Indian city of Bhopal June 25, 2003. Tibetan exiles in India believe improved relations between India and China would help negotiations between the Dalia Lama and Beijing over Tibet, a Tibetan spokesman said.
Photo by Raj Patidar
What one must have expected of the Dharamsala administration was an outright condemnation of Indian Prime Minster's remark on Tibet being a part of China. Condemnation did come but not from the Tibetan exile government but from the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest NGO of the Tibetan community with a largely different viewpoint
The first Tibetan reaction to the Sino-Indian summit in Beijing has been a welcoming one. Although India is seen as "shifting" its position while acknowledging the Tibetan Autonomous Region as part of China
Maintaining that it had made no concessions, India today said its recognition of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) as part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was consistent with its stand since 1954.
Samdhong Rimpoche, a close aide of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, has expressed the hope that the historic visit of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to China would pave the way for a meaningful dialogue between the Dalai Lama
