Advani hopes Dalai Lama will be able to return to homeland

NEW DELHI - Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani Sunday hoped that Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama will be able to go back to his homeland in an honourable and dignified way.

In the latest post on his blog, Advani also hoped that “China will realise that its expansionist statements in relation to Arunachal Pradesh and tacit support to Pakistans hostile attitude towards India are stumbling blocks” in the way for the two countries that the world perceives as the emerging great powers of Asia in the current century.

“I do hope and pray that a day will come soon when His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Tibetan people living in forced exile are able to go back to their Home Land and Holy Land in an honourable and dignified way, and thereafter be able to build the future destiny of Tibet,” Advani wrote.

The BJP leader, who last week inaugurated the sixth international conference of the Tibet support groups which was also attended by the Tibetan spiritual leader, said Beijing should reach out to the Dalai Lama with the intention of a sincere and genuine dialogue. “There can hardly be a more reasonable and peace-loving interlocutor for the resolution of the Tibetan issue than this living embodiment of the teachings of the Buddha,” he said.

Advani said India had never sent armies to conquer other lands and establish an “Indian Empire”. “I am reminded here of the tribute that Hu Shih (1891-1962), a renowned liberal Chinese scholar and Chinas Ambassador to USA, paid to India: ‘conquered and dominated Tibet culturally for twenty centuries without ever having sent a single soldier across her border’,” he said.

The BJP leader said that in his address to the international gathering of Tibetans, he recalled his meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in New Delhi during his visit to India in November 2006. “At this meeting I had urged the Chinese leader to create conditions in China which could enable the Dalai Lama to visit Tibet before the Beijing Olympics. Unfortunately, China missed the opportunity.”

Noting that the conference was attended by over 260 delegates from 56 countries, Advani said it was the first time there were participants from mainland China and they strongly supported the Tibetan cause.

“Even though a lot of atrocities have been committed and much of the cultural and spiritual heritage of Tibet has been damaged - most of all during China’s shockingly mis-named ‘Cultural Revolution’ (1967-77) - Tibet continues to be the Home Land and Holy Land of the Tibetan people.”

Pointing out that the course of world events during the twentieth century depended very much on the relationship between Washington and Moscow, Advani said relationship between India and China will be one of the key determinants of the course of world history in the 21st century and there was no alternative to peaceful coexistence between the two countries.

“Despite our acute sense of betrayal by China in 1962, [(then prime minister) Pandit (Jawaharlal) Nehru actually could not bear the shock of that let-down], Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, first as E.A.(external affairs) Minister in Morarji Bhais (prime minister Morarji Desai) Government and later as Prime Minister of the NDA Government for six years consciously exerted towards achieving this end,” he said.

Advani also commended “Superpower: The Amazing Race between China’s Hare and India’s Tortoise”, a book by Raghav Bahl, founder and editor of Network 18, focusing on a comparison between India and China.