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Dalai Lama, India and the neighborhood big bully...



Today, many newspapers carried a front page story that India( read Indian government) has refused the extension of Inner Line Permits(I.L.P.s) of the Indian journalists covering Dalai Lama's Arunachal Pradesh visit. I imagine I.L.P.s are kinds like intra country visas, required for visiting 'sensitive areas'. What I could find from Google  is that I.L.P. is required to visit a lot of places within India...even by Indians...Surprise surprise...we're required to get some visa like document to move within our own nation!! Hail Mogambo! With all the government sites/ links predictably down( I tried Sikkim govt link, Mizoram Govt. link, Arunachal govt. link- No go!), what i could find is that an I.L.P. is issued for at least a group of four people travelling together. On every checkpoint, all four people have to be together, though this rule is open to interpretation and bribes. I could get sued for slander and character assassination for saying/ writing things like these but I'll take my chances!

Anyways, I'm digressing from the topic. The point is, not only have the journalists been disallowed to follow Dalai Lama further on his trip but also Dalai Lama has been asked to convert a public address into a religious discourse. Now, as we all know, foreign press has already been barred from following Dalai Lama on his Arunachal visit. This obviously was to prevent the totally uncontrollable factor( the foreign media) from creating a diplomatic incident.  Now with Indian media being banned from reporting on His Holiness's visit, it just ensures an almost complete blanket ban on any kind of (embarrassing- for the Indian Govt.)news emanating from Arunachal.


The question is, why the devil are our powers that be so scared of China? Even allowing Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal was a step of unimaginable temerity for India! A simile can be drawn with the runt of the class daring to stand up to the bully of the class. The runt, even when looking the bully in the eye, is quivering inside and shaking in his boots, thinking what the hell did i get myself into??!! What started out as a dare, or perhaps a feeble attempt at restoring/ creating an image as defiant and independent  starts to turn ugly and the runt wishes he had never started the whole bloody thing! India, with this episode has just proven that it is afraid of China. Not that America isn't, but hey, America owes them a lot of moolah! Anyone would cringe in front of the evil money lender(whom you owe money to), America being no exception. Which brings us back to the question, why are we so terrified of China that we dare not function as a sovereign state and do what we wanna do? Is it that the wounds of the military humiliation of 62 still fresh on our psyche, or is it that we are trying to appease a powerful neighbor, being sandwiched between a perpetually inimical Pakistan and him?  Would China really dare attack us if we cocked a snoot at him and allowed Tibetans and Dalai Lama to go full steam ahead with their Free Tibet endeavor? And, if things did come to a head between India and China over Tibet or Dalai Lama or the validity of the Macmohan line, and a full scale war did erupt, would America or Russia pitch in with us? Russia might, not for the sake of Sino-Indian friendship, but for controlling the power balance of the region. A strong China is as much a threat to Russia as it is to India. As for America, with their balance of payments deficit, it is unlikely they would even raise a finger, much less play the knight in the shining armour.

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