-By The Statesman: November 1, 2021 3:17 pm

The elephant in the room, however, is the Dalai Lama and his reincarnation.

Former Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran writing in a contemporary a few weeks ago made the point that to understand the Chinese leadership’s mind on Tibet, one needs to go back to the decisions taken at the Seventh National Forum on Work in Tibet held on 28-29 August 2020. His particular emphasis was on the edict from President Xi Jinping which spelt out key elements of Beijing’s Tibet policy – “stability, development, ecology and border area consolidation.”

The Chinese President was quoted to have said: “We must adhere to the strategic thinking that to govern the nation, we must govern our borders; to govern our borders we must first stabilize Tibet.” Obviously, given the recent border clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in Eastern Ladakh and now in Arunachal Pradesh, the specific and exclusive mention of Tibet in terms of border security has set the alarm bells ringing in South Block given its implications for India. Click here to read more.