If there is one man who can spoil the big party New Delhi and Beijing are planning next month—Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will be here mid-April—he is the Dalai Lama, the revered leader of the Tibetan people, long exiled in India.New Delhi and Beijing are attaching great importance to Wen’s visit in terms of transformation in bilateral relations. Instead of wrecking the party, the Dalai Lama has consciously chosen to make it easier for India and China to celebrate next month.On Thursday in Dharamsala, during a speech marking the 45th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama offered a big political gesture to Beijing. He went further than before in affirming that he is not seeking independence from China.He also declared he seeks no political role for himself or for the institution of the Dalai Lama in Tibet after a mutually satisfactory agreement on the future of the region is worked out with Beijing. It is not clear whether his gesture will have an immediate impact on the current dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama. But it has created the right political ambience for Wen’s visit.The turbulent history of Sino-Indian relations since the late 1940s is also the life story of the Dalai Lama. He was present at the creation of the key problems in Sino-Indian relations. He is the only one alive among the cast of characters like Jawaharlal Nehru and Zhou Enlai who struggled in vain to construct a peaceful settlement on Tibet.While neither side might publicly acknowledge it, both New Delhi and Beijing know they cannot make progress in bilateral relations without the Dalai Lama’s political blessings. For the moment, India and China should be relieved that he has signalled greater political flexibility in his engagement with China.A harder line would have soured the current attempt to transform Sino-Indian relations by defining a new set of principles to resolve the long-standing boundary dispute.And this dispute is, in fact, about the boundary between Tibet and the adjacent regions in India. Holding a double-edged sword, the Dalai Lama is the undeclared third party at the Sino-Indian boundary talks. Yet, he has acted with great responsibility. If the Dalai Lama merely whispers that the territorial concessions being discussed are against the interests of Tibet, Beijing and New Delhi will both find it hard to sell a deal on the boundary at home. This is particularly true of Tawang in Arunachal where China wants major territorial adjustments. It is not merely Beijing that has claims on Tawang, Lhasa has always held Tawang belongs to Tibet. Any principle mutually acceptable to New Delhi and Beijing leading to a settlement on Tawang will need to be endorsed by the Dalai Lama in some form. India and China will need all the wisdom of the Dalai Lama in crafting creative solutions to the Tawang question.The Tibetans would certainly want to see the resolution of their own political dispute with China in tandem with the settlement of the Sino-Indian boundary dispute. India, then, has every reason to encourage the current dialogue between Tibet and Beijing, and China an opportunity to build on the Dalai Lama’s latest political concessions.
