Dilip Simeon's blog

NB : Modi breathes fire over Arunachal, omitting to mention that it was none other than AB Vajpayee who made the maximum diplomatic concessions to China over this question, and strengthened its claims over Arunachal, which it describes as 'South Tibet' . Is the BJP's PM-designate ignorant of what his predecessor accomplished? Why is the BJP attempting to deceive the Indian public? Forget about your 'expansion' plans, Modi tells China in a rally in Arunachal Pradesh   Wading into a foreign policy issue for the first time, ( NB : incorrect, he referred to Chinese expansionism on November 9, 2013 ) Narendra Modi today asked China to shed its "expansionist mindset", making it cle ar that no power on earth can snatch Arunachal Pradesh from India. "China should shed its expansionist policy and forge bilateral ties with India for peace, progress and prosperity of both the nations," the BJP's prime ministerial candidate said addressing a meeting ...

Tibet: An Unfinished Story  by  Lezlee and Stefan Halper The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong by   Gyalo Thondup The 80th birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama has occasioned a spate of comment on his life and message. Two recently published books –  Tibet: An Unfinished Story  and  The Noodle Maker of Kalimpong  – have received little attention in India  although they have interesting revelations to make on the recent history of Tibet. The first, by University of Cambridge academics, Lezlee and Stefan Halper, is noteworthy for the access its authors received to the archives of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs as also the insights provided on American assessments of Tibet and India’s Tibet policy during the late 1940s and ’50s. The bypassing of the “golden hour” for Tibet in the late ’40s – between the end of 1948, as the Nationalist regime in China was dying, and the beginning of the Korean War – during which the wor...

The Central Tibetan Administration reiterated its serious concern over the escalating crisis in Tibet, as more Tibetan self-immolated on Saturday taking the total self-immolation to 76, of which 62 died.  Sangdhak Tsering, 24, a father of three-year-old child, died after setting fire to himself in Rebgong on Saturday evening, where a Tibetan woman died of self-immolation some three hours ago. 9 Tibetans have burned themselves to death in Rebgong in this month alone. Local Tibetans say Sangdhak Tsering had repeatedly told his wife that it is not worth living with no freedom in Tibet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama being not allowed to return to Tibet, continued imprisonment of the Panchen Lama, and the unending self-immolations by fellow Tibetans. His wife consoled him not to think about these things, but he kept on and felt deeply anguished.  The Central Tibetan Administration organised a grand prayer service at the main temple in Dharamsala on Sunday to mourn the tragic self-imm...

Too often the Chinese government gets away with flagrant violations of human  rights in Tibet.  On Oct. 22, we have a rare opportunity to make China answer for its atrocities  in Tibet.  Last week's shootings and beatings of Tibetans peacefully demonstrating for  the release of a man who refused to raise the Chinese flag shows how far the  authorities will go to crush any and all resistance in Tibet.  But next week we have a rare opportunity to make the Chinese government answer  for its atrocities. On October 22nd, China's human rights record will be under scrutiny at the  United Nations in Geneva. Once every four years, UN member countries have the  opportunity to grill the Chinese government on its record of adhering to  international human rights conventions through a process called the 'Universal  Periodic Review'. For three hours, senior Chinese government officials will be  in the hot seat and it is up to us to ensu...

November 7, 2011 To, Smt Leela Samson, Central Board of Film Certification, Bharat Bhavan, 91E Walkeshwar Road, Mumbai 400006, Maharashtra, India.   Subject:  Respected Smt Leela Samson, This is with reference to the recent Censor Board directive to the filmmakers of the Hindi movie Rockstar, directed by Imtiaz Ali.  We are surprised and shocked to learn about the Central Board of Film Certification's decision to remove of the Tibetan National Flag and blurring the 'Free Tibet' banners from the movie sequence. We see no logic in preventing the filmmaker either from discussing Tibet or displaying the Tibetan National Flag of an occupied country when the Government of India has officially given asylum to lakhs of Tibetans in this country and has even allowed the Tibetan Government-in-Exile to function from the Indian soil for the last fifty years. We, the concerned citizens of India and the supporters of Tibetan struggle for Independence would like to ...

In 1999, the Tibetan writer Tsering Woeser came across Wang Lixiong’s book “Sky Burial: The Fate of  Tibet .” On finishing it, she sent Mr. Wang photographs taken by her father, who was with the People’s Liberation Army when it entered Tibet in the 1950s and documented the early years of the  Cultural Revolution  in Lhasa in the 1960s. Mr. Wang wrote back, saying, “It’s not for me, as a non-Tibetan, to use these photos to reveal history. That task can only be yours.” On Aug. 24, 1966, in Lhasa, Buddhist scriptures were burned as part of  the campaign against the “Four Olds” — old customs, old culture, old habits,  old ideas. Credit Tsering Dorje Ms. Woeser began tracking down and interviewing people who appeared in the photos. This resulted in two books published by Locus in Taiwan in 2006: “Forbidden Memory: Tibet During the Cultural Revolution,” based on her father’s photographs, and “Tibet Remembered,” an oral history narrated by 23 people ...

NB: What is conveniently forgotten in all the noise China makes over the borders, is that it is their imperialist oppression and national chauvinism that caused the Dalai Lama to flee to India in 1959 in the first place; and that it was the BJP-led government under Vajpayee that made the maximum concession to Chinese claims on Tibet in 2003. The Dalai Lama has always held that it is good for Tibet to remain part of the PRC, and that all the Tibetans want is the genuine adherence to the cultural and religious rights guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution. Furthermore, if the One Country Two Systems doctrine can be applied to Hong Kong, why can it not apply to Tibet as well? DS Here is a report + commentary on Modi's chest-thumping   in 2014: Modi blows hot air at China in Arunachal Pradesh - forgetting Vajpayee's surrender in 2003 We may also note the vacillations of the Modi government on its dealings with China. See this report on their withdrawal of a visa issu...