India-Tibetan Cooperation Forum to observe 'Protest Day' against Beijing

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ITANAGAR: India-Tibetan Cooperation Forum (ITCF), an umbrella body of Indians supporting the Tibetan freedom movement, has decided to observe October 20 as a protest day against Beijing for its attack on Arunachal Pradesh in 1962 and on Ladakh in 2020.

The ITCF along with other India-Tibet support groups would hold demonstrations to send a strong message to Beijing asserting that India would safeguard its territory at any cost.

"The message to New Delhi aims at indicating that Sino-India ties cannot progress unless Tibet issue is amicably resolved and His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama regains his Potala Palace in Lhasa in a dignified manner," Tibetan cause India Core Group national convenor Rinchen Khandu Khrimey said.

Khrimey said during a meeting of ITCF at Guwahati on Friday, it was decided that the ITCF and other India-Tibet support groups' would hold their function at Tawang, which often Beijing claims as to the southern part of Tibet.

Dharamshala-based Central Tibetan Administration newly elected president (Sikyong) Penpa Tsering, recognized as the highest political leader for exiled Tibetans across the world, is likely to attend the function, Khrimey informed.

"He is scheduled to meet representatives of civil society groups and media persons at Guwahati, address a press meet at Tezpur, visit Tibetan settlements in Shillong, Tezu, Miao, Tenzingang, Bomdila, Tuting and also pay obeisance to Goddess Kamakhya and mighty Brahmaputra River, Khrimey, a former minister and former Lok Sabha MP from Arunachal, said.

"His itinerary also includes paying tributes to all Indian soldiers who made supreme sacrifices during 1962 Chinese aggression and Dr Bhupen Hazarika, a Bharat Ratna awardee, for composing unique songs after the 1962 war and daring to call China as an enemy nation. "PLA forces had shown utter disrespects to the rules framed by Panchsheel Treaty, signed by China and India on April 29, 1954. We want to protest against assault over India's trust in the Beijing administration," Khrimey said.

Tibet is an honest neighbour to India, not China, whose independence would immensely benefit the largest democracy on the earth. Tibet a symbol of truth would soon break Chinese clutches to emerge as a sovereign nation, Khrimey claimed.

Khrimey added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent birthday wishes to Dalai Lama gave fresh hope for millions of Tibetans.

He hoped that more energetic saffron leaders would come out with support for all exiled Tibetans to rejoin the Himalayan landscape and lead a peaceful life under a progressive democratic government after it shifts from Dharamshala to Lhasa.

Core group regional convener Soumyadeep Datta, in his address, said that China was waging an ecological war against India as it was exploiting huge freshwater resources in Tibetan Plateau besides diverting huge volumes of Yarlung Tsangpo water affecting Brahmaputra Valley civilization.

Dedicated Tibet support group leaders Surendra Kumar, S K Chandravanshi, Ruby Mukherjee, Wangdi Dorjee Khrimey, Urvashi Mahanta, Assam's Free Tibet-A Voice members Rupam Barua, Jagadindra Raichoudhury, Pramod Kalita, Nava Thakuria, Nayan Bhuyan, Novanita Sarma also addressed the meet, conducted by Jigmey Tsultrim of India Tibet coordination office. A brochure in Assamese documenting the Tibetan movement was released to mark the event.

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