(TibetanReview.net, Apr29’22) – Sikyong Penpa Tsering, the executive head of the Central Tibetan Administration, believes that India has changed its policy on Tibet as he believes that it no longer refers to Tibet as part of China. India explicitly recognized Tibet as an autonomous region of China for the first time in 1954 when it, under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, concluded the Panchsheel (the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence) trade agreement with Beijing.
Many people believe that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru “made a blunder” when he recognised China’s claim over Tibet, but he did what he thought was best for his country, the PTI news agency Apr 29 cited the Sikyong as saying.
He told reporters in Washington that he thinks India has changed its stance over the Tibet issue after 2014, the report added.
The Sikyong has also said Nehru’s decisions over Tibet were due to his own world vision and he had “too much faith and confidence in China”.
“I don’t blame only Pandit Nehru for doing that. We understand that the national interest comes first for every nation and he did what he thought was best for India at that time,” he has said, adding several other counties had also conceded to China’s claim over the nation of Tibet.
The Sikyong believes that India corrected its course since 2014. “I think India has changed his (Nehru’s) policy by not repeating that Tibet is part of PRC (People’s Republic of China) because India’s position is that if India has to abide by the ‘One China’ policy, then China also has to abide by the ‘One India’ policy regarding Kashmir and Ladakh.”
He has expressed confidence that “Even though Ukraine is the global hotspot now due to the Russian invasion, the Biden Administration has not forgotten Tibet.” And he is urging the White House and the US Congress to help create a global coalition against China and challenge its narrative over Tibet.
“Tibet has never been part of China,” he has said, adding that he sees a fresh impetus from the Biden Administration on Tibet.