India weighs its relationship with the Dalai Lama. China grows impatient.
A slew of anti-China protests in India since last month’s unrest in Tibet has embarrassed New Delhi, which recognises Tibet as an integral part of China but which offered the Dalai Lama a refuge after he fled Lhasa in 1959. Dharamsala in the north Indian hills now houses the Tibetan government-in-exile and was at the centre of the recent protests. The survey showed 47 percent of respondents endorsed India’s diplomatic position of not angering China with open support for the Dalai Lama, yet 64 percent said they didn’t want the government to stop Tibetans from protesting against Beijing. “People have a soft corner for the Dalai Lama but they don’t want India to take an extreme stand, like say, sending him back or stopping Tibetans from demanding back their country,” Prem Chand Palety, CEO of Cfore, the pollsters, told Reuters.
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