Click to play videoNew Delhi: Tibetan youth stormed the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi just hours after top American political leader Nancy Pelosi said the US was behind the Dalai Lama, while in Delhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee was defending his government's tightrope walk.
After days of trying they finally tasted success scaling the boundary wall and gate crashing right into the Chinese Embassy and unlike the last time round the cops didn’t thrash them - all this on a day.
When Tibet and US shared more than these flags, they shared a concern and their call for an independent investigation inside Tibet.
Yes, the storming of the Chinese Embassy came just hours after Nancy Pelosi, the third most powerful politician in the US, put America's weight behind his holiness.
Pelosi said, “I thank the Tibetans for the warm welcome. There is a great relationship that the US shares with the Dalai Lama.”
But in Delhi his flock was less respectful leaving the avowed follower of Ahmisa red faced just ahead of his visit to the Capital.
Tibet Government-in-exile spokesman Thubten Samphel said, “This is an unfortunate incident. We have always maintained that protests should be peaceful.”
The Dalai Lama was not the only one in a tight spot. India too was executing a tough balancing act-letting Americans conduct diplomacy on Indian soil allowing Tibetans to democratically protest and saying just enough to ensure china wasn’t irritated.
Pranab Mukherjee said, “We are doing absolutely the right thing. This is our policy from the times of Pandit Nehru.”
And China agreed on Friday its Ambassador to India declared India's appropriate reaction was in response to Beijing keeping New Delhi in the loop on this crisis.
So for better or for worse, in Myanmar and in Tibet, pragmatism and self-interest have taken over from morality in India's foreign policy.
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