Kashmir is India’s internal matter: President Sangay
DHARAMSALA, 8 Aug: Scrapping Article 370 is India’s internal matter, the President of the Central Tibetan Administration(CTA) has said.
“We do not comment on the internal matters of India. This is the Indian government’s decision,” CTA President Dr Lobsang Sangay said while responding to a question on China’s opposition to the Centre’s move on Kashmir.
However, President Sangay also said that India’s national security is at stake as he addressed the students, faculty members and guests gathered in the auditorium at the Parul University in Vadodara, Gujarat.
“India’s national security is at stake and Tibet is vital in this context because, since the occupation of Tibet, China and India now share a 2500-3000 km long border. Because of which, the Indian government now has to spend billions of dollars, unlike in the past. This money could have been spent on education,” he added.
The political head of the Tibetan people then recalled a statement made by the Indian statesman and independence activist Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who was the first Home Minister of independent India, who has said in the 1950s that if China occupies Tibet, India will face security threats.
“If you look today, you can clearly see the border incursion that is taking place from Ladakh to Himachal Pradesh and all the way to Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh,” he stated.
“All these happened after the occupation of Tibet. Hence, there is a direct co-relationship between the loss of Tibet to China and India’s security as Tibet acted as the buffer zone between India and China before it’s occupation by the latter,” he said.
President Sangay also declared in his address that the government and people of India have done the most they could for the Tibetan freedom struggle and expressed his gratitude to the government and people of India for the love and kindness over the last six decades on the Tibetan people’s behalf.
Apprising the audience on the situation inside Tibet, President Sangay said that the Freedom House Index report has listed Tibet as the second least free country in the world for three consecutive years after Syria.
At the same time, President Sangay added that religious freedom is denied, while human rights violation and environmental destruction is going on in Tibet.
However, in spite of all these atrocities and hardships endured by the Tibet and Tibetan people, he expressed hope that as India prevailed against the British Raj under Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership through the principles of non-violence and ahimsa, Tibet too will see the light at the end of the tunnel under the leadership of the His Holiness the Dalai Lama under the same principles.
The President of Central Tibetan Administration today returned from an official visit to Delhi and Gujrat that also saw him speak at an interactive session on the situation in Tibet and Tibet issue at large organized by the Indian Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents (IAFAC) on 6 Aug beside addressing the students and faculties of Parul University and the Maharaja Sayajirao University on the importance of Tibet in context to the Indo-China relations in Vadodara.
President Sangay has also met with with the Tibetan students studying in various universities in Vadodara.
