Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Not to be brow-beaten” (March 6). Despite extreme Chinese sensitivity to the Dalai lama’s public engagements (it has forced many world leaders to call off their engagements with the Tibetan leader), India has enjoyed the better of the exchanges. There is still one month left for the Dalai lama to visit Arunachal Pradesh’s border town of Tawang, and it is unfortunate that the Sino-Indian verbal skirmish has already started.
A visit by Dalai lama, viewed as a ‘separatist’, is thus even more offensive to Beijing. For China claims most of Arunachal as part of what it calls south Tibet, and protests whenever Indian or even foreign officials visit the region. Beijing ought to realise that after its position on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, it is hardly well placed to raise objections on the Dalai lama’s social engagements.