Centre working on policy for Chinese Buddhist monks who wish to meet Dalai Lama in India, says report

Centre is working on a policy for Chinese Buddhist monks who wish to meet the Dalai Lama in India, according to a report. A senior government official told The Hindu that a cogent policy had to be put in place as India did not wish to antagonise the Chinese monks nor compromise on “national security”. [caption id=“attachment_4495025” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Dalai Lama. Reuters[/caption] The report further said that the move comes amid security concerns of Chinese monks coming to India through the porous Nepal border without proper documents. Chinese monks have to register with the Tibet reception centres in India if they want to visit the Dalai Lama’s headquarters. “On many occasions, fearing a backlash once they return to China, the Tibetan monks travel first to Nepal and enter India through the porous border. They don’t want to leave any paper trail,” the official told The Hindu. To get to India, Tibetans cross into Nepal at the Tibet-Nepal border, often without passports. The Nepali Police detained 41 Tibetans who were trying to cross the border into India in 2016, according to The New York Times. Rajendra Bista, a police officer in Nepal, told Reuters that the detainees had no travel documents. Reports suggest that China has been cracking down on Tibetans in India and Nepal and asking them to return home. In 2017, according to The Washington Post, authorities from the Tibetan government-in-exile said that the Chinese government barred an estimated 7,000 Tibetan pilgrims from attending a 10-day gathering in India. Most of the 7,000 already had travelled legally to India and were forced to return early. Only 300 remained.