The Hindu : An Indian envoy in Tibet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 08, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

An Indian envoy in Tibet

By C. Raja Mohan

NEW DELHI July 7. In what appears to be a diplomatic offensive on the sensitive region of Tibet, the Chinese Government has allowed the older brother of the Dalai Lama to visit his homeland for the first time in 50 years. In an interesting coincidence, Gyalo Thondup arrived in Tibet in early July when the Indian Ambassador to China, Shiv Shankar Menon, was also on a two-week tour of a region that has remained a major irritant in bilateral relations since the very inception of modern states in India and China in the middle of last century.

There was deep discomfiture in India, when the People's Republic of China established political control over Tibet in the early 1950s. The Dalai Lama and his followers fled to India after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959. A "government-in-exile'' of the Dalai Lama has operated from Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh and remains a sore point with Beijing.

Besides Mr. Menon, the envoys of the United States, Malaysia and Singapore were visiting Tibet in recent weeks. So was the Mexican Foreign Minister, Jorge Castaneda, a business delegation from South Korea, and a parliamentary group from New Zealand, and a foreign office team from Germany.

The spurt in the visit of diplomats and foreigners to Tibet seems to be part of Beijing's attempt to showcase the recent economic development in the region as well as its supreme political confidence in handling the dissidence.

Mr. Menon was met in Lhasa by Mr. Raidi, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Regional People's Congress, who briefed him on the great changes in Tibet in recent years.

According to Chinese media, Mr. Raidi said he found many people in India knew very little about Tibet and hoped that the two sides could increase official and non-official exchanges and generate greater mutual understanding. China appears to have concluded that the economic future of its restive regions like Xinjiang and Tibet is linked to globalisation and greater commercial integration with the neighbours. India needs to take full advantage of this by facilitating greater border trade with Tibet. Beijing could help by recognising Sikkim as part of India.

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Do the new signals from China suggest improved prospects for talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama? Gyalo Thondup has often acted as the political emissary of his younger brother the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people. But Beijing has said that Mr. Thondup has been given permission "to visit his relatives in China in a private capacity''.

Of course, there is no such thing as purely "private'' in China. Mr. Thondup has often gone to China, for example in 1979 for talks with the then paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping. More recently he was in Beijing at the end of 2000 to engage the Chinese leadership. But this is the first time he is being allowed to visit Tibet.

The current speculation on a potential change in Beijing's Tibet policy is also linked to the rise of Hu Jintao who is expected to be anointed the leader of the Communist Party of China later this year. Mr. Hu had earlier served as the top Chinese official in Tibet.

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The new Foreign Secretary, Kanwal Sibal, has effected a redistribution of work and redesignation of key officers in the Ministry of External Affairs. Besides overall supervision and coordination of all work in the ministry, Mr. Sibal will handle the key neighbours, great powers, disarmament and important multilateral organisations.

Mr. Shashank, who was looking after economic relations, has moved into the slot that Mr. Sibal was holding until last month as Secretary (West). But the job has been redesignated as Secretary (Europe, Africa and Americas). J.C. Sharma will be Secretary for policy planning, passports, coordination and the Diaspora.

R.M. Abhayankar, Special Secretary, will look after the traditional portfolio of Secretary (East). Redesignated as Special Secretary (Asia, North Africa), Mr. Abhayankar will have in his charge East, South East and Central Asia, Gulf, West Asia and North Africa, and the Haj cell. Rajiv Sikri is Additional Secretary, Economic Relations. Many joint secretaries have also been re-designated.

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All indications are that the spokeswoman of the Foreign Office, Nirupama Rao, might be moving on. As spokeswoman and Joint Secretary (External Publicity), Ms. Rao has been the popular face of the Ministry for over a year. Ms. Rao has shown that devastating verbal responses to Pakistan could be sharpened by an easy smile and a gentle charm. She is due to pick up the rank of an Additional Secretary in the next few weeks. The hunt for a new JS(XP) is on.

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