Strategic shift, PM Modi greets Dalai Lama on 86th birthday

Dharamsala, July 6 Amid relations between India and China worsening in the recent months and in a strategic shift, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday made a clear-cut departure from the policies of the successive governments of 'making distance' of sorts from the Tibetan spiritual leader by extending greetings to him on his 86th birthday.

"Spoke on phone to His Holiness the @DalaiLama to convey greetings on his 86th birthday. We wish him a long and healthy life," Modi informed in a tweet.

Beijing regards the Dalai Lama, who is based in the northern Indian hill town Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh, as a "separatist". It is sensitive to him meeting international leaders, attending official functions or visiting places at the invitation of the Indian government.

Responding to this development, geostrategist Brahma Chellaney said in a tweet: "I posted my earlier tweet a bit early!

"Modi has done well to greet the Dalai Lama on his birthday. The Dalai Lama is the world's most-revered living Buddha. China is waiting for him to die so that it can install a puppet, a plan the free world must foil."

Political observers told making a public announcement by the Prime Minister regarding extending greetings to the Dalai Lama was an important strategic shift from New Delhi as on earlier occasions the government used to avoid such gestures to avoid upsetting China.

According to the Central Tibetan Administration

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