CPI(M) goes hammer & sickle on Tibet

Party backs Beijing stand, justifies Chinese snub to Indian envoy

COIMBATORE: Backing Beijing to the hilt against Dalai Lama and the Tibetan protestors, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat on Monday justified the Chinese snub to Indian envoy Nirupama Rao in the middle of the night a week ago.

The Chinese foreign ministry had summoned Rao at 1.30 am to lodge its protest against some Tibetans scaling the wall of its embassy in Delhi, triggering a domestic outcry. The Tibetan demonstrators had gone there to protest against the killings of their compatriots in Lhasa by the Chinese police a fortnight ago.   

Karat said there was “no abstract right for self determination for any minority groups”.

The ongoing CPI(M) congress here, which inter alia discussed the Tibet issue, concluded that “Tibet issue is being used for anti-China propaganda and efforts made to spoil relations between India and China. India has always held Tibet to be part of China as an autonomous region.”

Interestingly, six comrades from China led by Li Jinjun, vice minister (international dept) are among the 52 foreign delegates attending the congress here.

In what is music to Chinese ears, soon after the CPI(M) honcho made a strong defence of Chinese comrades, a reporter asked him if he supported the Chinese action of “summoning the Indian envoy at midnight” as a snub for New Delhi’s inability to stop a bunch of Tibetans from climbing the wall of its embassy, an irked Karat retorted: ‘How diplomatic protests are lodged, I don’t know. You may be an expert. Anyone will protest the invasion of their embassy.”

Karat said the government of India has from the beginning held that Tibet and Taiwan are part of China. “The government of India reiterated that correct position,” he added.

Stung by NDA convenor and former defence minister George Fernandes’ assertion that China is India’s enemy and that New Delhi should back the freedom movement in Tibet and boycott the Olympics, Karat said, “Are they interested in spoiling relations between India and China?” He accused the BJP of trying to create a rift between Indo-China relations by supporting the Tibetans.

The CPI(M) chief said certain western powers believe that national sovereignty can be abridged in the name of ethnic minority and human rights. “Our party’s stand is very clear that any country whether it was China, Russia, or India, should not disintegrate in the name of human rights and rights of ethnic minorities,” he said.

“In our country also we have problems of separatism. Those who want the chorus of independent Tibet will be doing a disservice to India,” the CPI(M) chief said reminding that we also had secessionist demands in Nagaland, Jammu and Kashmir and other places.

k_benedict@dnaindia.net