Chinese expert warns New Delhi, India says Dalai Lama free to travel (Lead)

India Monday denied that Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama was visiting Tawang under pressure from New Delhi as a Chinese scholar warned that India was on the "wrong track again" vis-a-vis China.

An unnamed Chinese scholar quoted by Beijing-based Global Times Monday said: "India may have forgotten the lesson of 1962, when its repeated provocation resulted in military clashes."

He warned: "India is on this wrong track again."

The comment came a day after Dalai Lama arrived in Tawang in India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh on a week-long visit.

In New Delhi, Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor denied the Chinese newspaper's report that Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama was visiting Tawang under pressure from India.

Global Times had quoted another Chinese analyst as saying that the Dalai Lama's visit to the area, which China calls southern Tibet, was made under pressure from India.

Tharoor told the India Economic Summit: "The Dalai Lama is free to travel anywhere in India... I have not heard the suggestion comes from us as we do not deal with the spiritual travels of spiritual leaders. He has to visit his flock as he sees fit."

He added that he was "sure that the initiative (to visit Tawang) would have come from him".

China has protested against the visit of the Dalai Lama to Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh. But Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called him an "honoured guest" and said he was free to visit any part of India.

The minister said India has been "very generous" by giving over "58,000 business visas" to the Chinese.

"As far as our basic policy is concerned, we would certainly be hesitant to offer employment to a foreigner for a job which could be done by an Indian in India," said Tharoor.

Hu Shisheng, a researcher of Southern Asian studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times Sunday: "The Dalai Lama went to southern Tibet at this critical moment probably because of pressure from India."

"By doing so, he (the Dalai Lama) can please the country that has hosted him for years."

The appearance and activities of the Dalai Lama in southern Tibet may foment anti-China sentiment among people living in the region, Hu said, adding: "When the conflict gets sharper and sharper, the Chinese government will have to face it and solve it in a way India has designed."

India is currently revising its employment and business visa guidelines. It has asked all foreigners working in India on business visa to return to their country by Oct 31.

dm-rd/vt

( 451 Words)

2009-11-09-16:46:32 (IANS)

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