The highhanded manner in which the Chinese authorities dealt with the anger of the Tibetans in Lhasa has probably made sure that its echoes will be heard right till the Beijing Olympic due in August. That is an embarrassment that the Chinese comrades did not want to face.
But instead of doing something to prevent it they are actually making sure that their mulish attempts to discredit the Dalai Lama, a Nobel peace laureate, will keep the Tibetan issue in focus till the Olympic games, if not much longer. There is no denying that whenever the Tibetan issue becomes hot India finds itself in a predicament. There are some official words of sympathy for the Tibetans, which some say is an exercise in obfuscation.
When the government of the day-irrespective of its political colour-tries to steer clear of the Tibetan controversy by reiterating that India accepts Tibet as part of China, it only ends up attracting taunts about its 'pusillanimity' vis-à-vis the Chinese Dragon. Beijing is never ambiguous in repeating its claims over Indian territories. Admittedly, not only just Delhi but much of the 'freedom loving' world follows a dubious policy towards Tibet and China.
The western world is 'lenient' in viewing the repression of Tibetans than it has been in some other countries, which have been slapped various degrees of sanctions-with or without the United Nations approval. The Manmohan Sarkar's awkwardness has perhaps multiplied when its pronouncement on the latest bout of repression in Tibet won open admiration from Beijing Is there even a remotest chance that the Beijing Olympics would be boycotted by the western world the way it did the Moscow Olympics in 1980 to register protest over Soviet occupation of Afghanistan?
Nobody is even talking about a boycott 'at this late stage' when the big sport extravaganza is due to open in about four months. From the prime minister downwards, Chinese officials have been telling the world that the violence witnessed in Lhasa starting on the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising on March 10 was the handiwork of the 'Dalai Lama clique'. It was this 'clique', which, they alleged, attacked peaceful citizens without any provocation.
The Chinese law enforcing agencies used 'maximum restraint' to disperse the 'mob' which had acted in an 'extremely atrocious and brutal' manner, dowsing people with petrol and setting them on fire and even cutting off pieces of flesh from a policeman's body. The Chinese officials further say that the central government had issued instructions to the police to perform their duties 'in a civilised manner'. Naturally, the officially acknowledged figures of casualty are small, about a dozen while most of the world tends to believe the figures given by the Dalai Lama 'clique', nearly 1000 in a mater of four or five days.
The gloss that the Chinese have tried to put over the brutal manner in which they tried to suppress the Tibetan dissenters may have worked had it not been for the fact that the protests that began in Lhasa spread to some other parts of Tibet and China too, including Beijing where a protest by Tibetan university students amounted to an expression of solidarity with the Dalai Lama 'clique'. These Tibetan students braved the wrath of the Chinese who showed to the world in 1989 how ruthlessly they suppress dissent. Tineman Square memories have not been erased.
The Chinese leaders' vilification campaign against the Dalai Lama is uncalled for if they ultimately want the fires simmering in Tibet for half a century doused. They know perhaps only too well that the Dalai Lama is opposed to any violent protest. His offer to quit as the head of the Tibetan government in exile if violence in Lhasa continues does not look like an empty rhetoric. He advocates the 'middle path', which is one of non-violence and believes in dialogue. The Chinese will be mistaken if they think the Dalai Lama adopted the middle course because he was unable to raise a band of Tibetan youth who would launch an armed resistance movement for the 'liberation' of their motherland.
The Dalai Lama made the choice because of his personal belief and conviction in peace and non-violence. If the Chinese had reciprocated the Dalai Lama's gesture by engaging him in a serious dialogue for giving more religions and political autonomy to Tibet the deep resentment against the Chinese presence in the region would not have taken root. But the comrades went to the other extreme. Even 20 years after he gave up the demand for an 'independent' Tibet, the Chinese continue to dub the Dalai Lama a separatist and worse.
The barrage of unreasonable outbursts against the Dalai Lama has only angered the Tibetans more, especially the youth. Media reports have spoken about a sense of frustration overcoming the Tibetan youths, in Tibet and elsewhere. They think that the non-violence and peaceful methods that their spiritual leader advocates have failed to bring any results. The young Tibetans seem to be of the opinion that only an aggressive approach will register in Beijing, which is bent upon completing its mission of 'cultural genocide' (Dalai Lama's words) of Tibet.
The impatient young Tibetans will, however, not be able to give shape to any plan for an aggressive response to the Chinese oppression in Tibet. They will require active support from some countries, especially India, something akin to the Pakistani support to militancy in Kashmir and elsewhere in India. No mater what the parties in opposition say, any government in power at New Delhi would not be willing to extend that kind of help to Tibetans unless it wants to see insurgency within the country intensified many-fold and risk the country's stability.
Pertinent to recall here that after the Chinese invasion in 1962 the government had raised a secret force that was assigned the task of taking up subversive activities inside Tibet. Most of its recruits were the exiled Tibetans who probably had a more passionate desired to see Tibet freed of the Chinese yoke. This secret enterprise failed to make any mark and was soon disbanded. So much so, now, there are even lesser reasons to expect India to support any move for subversive activities in any part of China. Certainly, when the bilateral ties are on the upswing. Nevertheless, China may be making a big mistake if the Delhi mood encourages it continue the policy of repression and swamps Tibet with Han Chinese in order to reduce the native Buddhists to a minority.
One of the things that have happened after the Lhasa uprising circa 2008 is that protests against Beijing have spilled beyond Tibet, particularly the already restive regions of western China. Beijing cannot be so blind as to imagine that outside 'cliques' were instigating these protests. It is time the rulers read the writing on the wall: abusing 'cliques' will not help. It must address problems and aspirations of minority regions. And also diverse cultures. The Chinese will do well not to draw too much comfort from the half-hearted denunciations of repression in Tibet by some of the leading nations of the world.
Tushar Charan, -Syndicate Features
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