Asia-Pacific, Headlines, Human Rights

INDIA: China Keeps Torch, Tibetans Get Media Mileage

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Apr 17 2008 (IPS) - With the Olympic torch passing safely through India, home of the government-in-exile of the Dalai Lama, China got what it wanted. But then so did the large community of Tibetan expatriates in this country: publicity for their cause.

No one made an attempt to snatch the torch as was widely feared. That would have been impossible, given that no less than 17,000 security personnel were deployed on Thursday to guard the 2.3 km route – a stretch of the wide boulevard that bifurcates the symmetrical vista in front of the presidential palace in the national capital.

Hemmed in by Chinese marshals in blue and white tracksuits, it took the relay runners, drawn from among the cream of India's sportspersons and entertainers from 'Bollywood', a little more than 40 minutes to cover the distance.

The Tibetans held a parallel torch relay, from the mausoleum of Mahatma Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence, to the Jantar Mantar, an ancient observatory, the lawns of which are reserved for protests.

A large canvas depicting the Potala Palace in Lhasa served as a backdrop to protesters singing pro-freedom songs and carrying Tibetan flags and ''Free Tibet'' banners. They stayed on for a candlelight vigil while the torch was whisked away to Bangkok, its next destination.

Yudon Aukatsang, an elected deputy in the government-in-exile, told IPS that the main aim of the current round of agitation was to bring the plight of the Tibetans, and especially the post Mar. 10 crackdown in Tibet, to the world's notice, rather than disrupt the Olympics.

''We were also glad that many Indians, school children, university students and politicians turned out to show solidarity," she said.

Among the roughly 2,500 people who participated in the parallel torch relay were many Indians and Westerners.

Some 60 Tibetans, mostly from the radical Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), were detained as they scuffled with police in other parts of Delhi – but these incidents seemed mostly for the benefit of the television cameras. The activists were put into buses and driven away.

On Wednesday, TYC members had tried, for a second time, to storm the Chinese Embassy in the Indian capital's well-guarded diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri. The first attempt in March to protest the crackdown in Lhasa resulted in India's ambassador in Beijing, Nirupama Rao, being summoned to the foreign ministry.

Such activity is frowned upon by the Indian government, although it has readily played host to the Dalai Lama ever since he fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. Accompanying him were some 100,000 of his followers, and today the Tibetan expatriate population in India is estimated to be close to twice that number.

Giving refuge to the Dalai Lama may have been a factor that led to the brief but bloody Sino-Indian border war in 1962. Officially India has been consistent in recognising Tibet as a part of China, though the border dispute between the two countries is yet to be satisfactorily settled.

Despite agreements with India in 2003 and 2005, China has lately revived claims to India's Arunachal Pradesh state and has yet to fully accept Sikkim as a part of India. Beijing also holds on to a large part of Ladakh. All three territories have had close historical connections with Tibet.

India does not allow the Dalai Lama and his followers to pursue overt political activities in India, but the Tibetan cause has many supporters in this country, some of them members of the nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Support for the Tibetan cause was seen when several personalities publicly declined invitations to take a turn at carrying the torch. Prominent among these was India's soccer captain, Baichung Bhutia, who happens to hail from Sikkim state. Cricket star Sachin Tendulkar shied away claiming that he was still recovering from a field injury.

Film star Aamir Khan agreed to run the relay but said he was doing so with a ''prayer in my heart for Tibet''. His blog said: "I have the highest regard for the struggle that the people of Tibet are going through. I completely empathise with them."

Kiran Bedi, a Ramon Masaysay awardee for government service and Delhi's former police commissioner, protested against the tight security arrangements and said she did want to run the relay ''in a cage."

A similar opinion was expressed by one of the celebrities who did participate in the relay, Olympic medal-winning hockey player Zafar Iqbal ,who said he felt strange carrying the torch through a deserted road accompanied only by ''some Chinese people and security men."