Leh: The visit to Ladakh by the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has again turned the hot spot issue of his successor to the spotlight, which is annoying China. This weekend, the Dalai Lama will start a one-month stay in Ladakh and is planned to conduct a series of religious discussions and meetings in the Union Territory bordering Tibet. The Indian government had provided Z+ category security to the Dalai Lama in January this year.
On Saturday, the Dalai Lama (90) arrived at Leh airport in an IAF plane after crossing Himachal Pradesh. Saturday evening, he was taken back by the commandos of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on a motorcade after he arrived at the airport. The Indian government will probably grant permission to the Tibetan spiritual leader, who will be 90 years old on July 6 this year, to have mass events after he visits Ladakh. It has been reported, however, that only when there are sufficient security resources will such events be allowed.
Ladakh police have asserted that it has taken all precautionary measures to bring about security for the Dalai Lama during his month-long sojourn in the region. It is important that the Dalai Lama went and visited Ladakh, as the region borders China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Beijing is likely to react negatively to the Dalai Lama’s recent remarks about his successor.
China has repeatedly protested over the actions of the Dalai Lama and his presence in India (particularly because of the historic and present tensions that surround Tibet). Beijing is already getting upset by his recent pronouncement that the Gaden Phodrang Trust has the exclusive right to determine whether he will have a successor or not and to name a new Dalai Lama in accordance with the Buddhist tradition. The thing in Beijing has never been a secret that the Dalai Lama might remain, but the next Dalai Lama must come with the permission of the Chinese government.
On Saturday afternoon, The Dalai Lama was accompanied by a team of commandos of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) as he landed at the Leh airport in Ladakh after travelling in an Indian Air Force (IAF) chopper, a trip that took place in an air ambulance. He himself arrived in Leh after having flown to a private airstrip built by him at Poo near Keylong in the Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh to be airlifted by an IAF military transport aircraft to Leh. The visit of the Tibetan spiritual leader to Ladakh is likely to take place during a period when relations between India and China continue to be acrimonious and remain to be normalised since an ugly fight in 2020 between the armies of the two countries in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh that left Indian and Chinese soldiers dead. But they have toned down since last October after New Delhi and Beijing signed an agreement to disengage.
The Dalai Lama, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday on July 6, arrived in Ladakh on Saturday by riding an Indian Air Force military transport plane. This is the first time the Tibetan spiritual leader has visited Ladakh this year. He was scheduled to go to Ladakh in July 2024, but his trip was cancelled following his knee surgery that he had in the United States in April. It is also believed that an audience with the people, coupled with visiting other places of interest by the people, will be staged by the Dalai Lama besides giving religious discourses, these are the likely events to be held by the Dalai Lama during his month-long stay, sources said.