Why can’t Dragon leave Dalai Lama alone?

By K. Natwar Singh

The People’s Republic of China is a super power. Yet, it follows every move of His Holiness the Dalai Lama with anxiety and suspicion. Why the unease by so surefooted a country? What injury can an 82-year-old, saint-like individual do to harm China? China conquered Tibet in 1951. When life became intolerable, His Holiness made a dramatic escape from Lhasa in March 1959. It is one of the most dramatic events of the 20th century. India gave him asylum. China was outraged. 

The Dalai Lama was then 25 years of age. He has a winsome personality, a charming smile and a delightful sense of humour. Indians revere His Holiness, as do millions all over the globe. It goes against my grain to say that China’s hounding the Dalai Lama does no credit to a super power which was largely Buddhist till 1949. Why can’t China just leave him alone? He may survive a few years more. He is, after all, the last Dalai Lama.

I spent two years in the People’s Republic (1956-1958). There were about 25 embassies in Peking (I am using the old spelling) at that time. Even young diplomats could run into Chairman Mao, President Liu Shiao Chi, Marshal Ch De, Chou En Lai, Ten Hsia Ping at banquets, cultural functions etc. the likes of me were invited to fill the dining hall. Premier Chou would go to every table to toast every guest. I must have met Mao a dozen times, and, Chou En Lai more frequently.

I first met His Holiness in April 1959 at Hyderabad House, where he was staying. I was appointed liaison officer attached to him. He did not speak a word of English. His personality is so benignly incandescent that it is impossible not to like him.

I have written about his meeting with Pandit Gobind Ballabh Pant, the Home Minister. It is worth repeating, his Holiness called on Pandit Pant at his residence. The Dalai Lama was narrating the travails and hardships his people were undergoing. It was a top secret meeting. Half way Pantji asked the Dalai Lama to sop. He pointed his finger towards me. In Hindi, he said not you. He asked the man sitting behind me who he was. Sheepishly he said he was from the PTI. I thought that the Home Minister would ask the man to leave the room. He did not and asked the alarmed Dalai Lama to continue.

At the end of the meeting, Pantji asked the PTI intruder to stay back. What followed was told to me by Raja Pant, who was at the meeting. His father read the riot act to the intruder and warned the man thus, “If a word appears in any paper, you will be dismissed.”Not a word was published the next day. 

Liberalism is out. Nationalism is in. That is now the unstated mantra from the Trump Tower in New York and Europe. The Left is history. The Right has returned. America is a divided nation, Europe a confused continent.

The level of national political dialogue has descended to name-calling at the highest level in India and the USA. The vice-president of the Congress party goes after the Prime Minister each day. He should emulate his great grandfather and grandmother. A member of the BJP called a former lady chief minister a Vaishya. The Chief Minister of Delhi called the Prime Minister a psychopath. 

In the US, the First Lady is subjected to abuse in racist terms. Several insignificant Trump followers want Obama dead. The President-elect and the incumbent are at each other in unseemly ways. I cannot imagine F.D.R or J.F.K behaving in this manner. But times have changed.

The President-elect was a superb businessman. He is a self-made billionaire, with no experience of governance. When he enters the White House in twenty days, he becomes the most powerful and most important man in the world. He is anti-establishment, disdainful of the Ivy-Leaguers and the East Coast elite. He will shake the system or the system will tame him! Wait and see.

Fidel Castro died on November 26 at the age of 90. He became a revolutionary in his early twenties. When he was sentenced to jail for attacking the government of the corrupt Batista, Castro proclaimed: “Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me.”

Fidel Castro inspired hundreds of millions of people round the globe. I am one of them. He outlasted 10 US Presidents and survived dozens of attempts on his life. He held Nehru in high esteem. For Indira Gandhi, he had genuine affection, for Rajiv Gandhi, an avuncular approach. 

I met President Castro several times and consider him one of the great men of the 20th century.

Goodbye 2016 and good riddance. 

Welcome 2017.