With Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New Delhi for an official visit, exiled Tibetans have called upon India to press Beijing to resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
Tibetan Parliamentarians-in-exile also demanded that China should stop repressive policies in Tibet while expressing mixed reactions to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi's India visit and the talks between the two countries.
"I would like to request the Government of India to raise Tibetan issues during the meeting with the Chinese foreign minister and also press for resumption of dialogue with his Holiness, the Dalai Lama. I would also like to ask the Chinese government to stop eradicating Tibetan identity and stop the repressive policies inside Tibet," said Thubten Gyatso, a Tibetan member of Parliament.
Namgyal Dolkar, another member of the Tibetan Parliament in Dharamshala, said that Wang Yi is not welcome in a free and democratic country like India.
"I would say that Wang Yi is not welcome in a free and democratic country. His country is responsible for unabated repression of rights of the people in Tibet for a long time, besides China is also responsible for the deaths of so many Indian soldiers on the border..." he said.
However, Chodak Gyamtso, another Tibetan Parliamentarian, underlined the importance of the visit of the Chinese foreign minister, saying "it's very important to have good and positive relations between two giant countries of Asia, and it's also important to raise Tibet issue with both the sides."
The Chinese Foreign Minister arrived in New Delhi on Thursday evening and is scheduled to hold talks today with the National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar before leaving for Nepal for a three-day visit.
Wang's Nepal visit will be his last stopover during the Chinese foreign minister's travel to the South Asian countries, beginning with Pakistan on March 21 to attend the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) summit as a "special guest". Wang held talks with Taliban representatives in Afghanistan on Thursday, followed by his arrival in New Delhi the same evening.
China in recent times has introduced a number of new measures to further curtail the rights of Tibetans, who have been living under the Chinese occupation for decades.
Recently, the Chinese authorities introduced a new code of conduct for members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Tibet that explicitly forbids party members from all forms of religiosity in public and private life.
Another new regulation called 'Measures on the Administration of Internet Religious Informative Services' which came into effect on March 1 bans all foreign organizations and individuals from spreading religious content online in China and Tibet except those who have acquired government licenses.
At the same time, China has also begun demolishing structures symbolizing Tibetan Buddhism including old statues and monasteries with at least three such demolitions taking place since December last year as per reports.
( With inputs from ANI )
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