NEW DELHI: A day-long awareness programme on Tibet was held on the occasion of the 57th death anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar, the architect of Indian constitution, in Mumbai, where hundreds of thousands of Indians from across the country gathered to remember his ideals and achievements.
The event on Tibet on 6 December was jointly organised by Wardha-based National Campaign for Tibet Supports and New Delhi-based India Tibet Coordination Office. A stall, set up at the event, cited Dr Ambedkar’s statement on Tibet: “Instead of according recognition to China in 1949, had India accorded this recognition to Tibet, there would have been no Sino-Indian border conflict.”
Tibet supporters across India, including Mumbai, Nagpur and Wardha participated in the programme to express support and solidarity with the Tibetan people’s non-violent struggle for freedom. They expressed concern over the Chinese government’s egregious human rights violations in Tibet, which has pushed more than 123 Tibetans to set themselves on fire in protest.
“Tibet’s strategic geopolitical role in the territorial and water dispute between the two Asian giants India and China were highlighted during the programme, emphasising the problem of Tibet concerns the interest of India,” an official of the India-Tibet Coordination Office told TibetNet. Major rivers in Asia, including Brahmaputra and Indus in India, originate from the Tibetan plateau.
Before 1949, Tibet acted as a buffer zone facilitating peace along the Sino-Indian border. The Chinese communist invasion of Tibet that year triggered a bloody war between China and India in 1962, and a lingering border conflict. China and India first need to find a solution in the form of genuine autonomy for Tibet to have a lasting peaceful border.
Speaking at the programme, Mr Arvind Nikose, convenor of west central region of Core Group for Tibetan Cause, said he would garner and strengthen grass root support for Tibetan freedom struggle in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, focussing on the region’s large number of Indian Buddhists.
