Chinese embassy's letter to Indian MPs triggers strong reaction

CA letter written by the Chinese embassy to several Indian lawmakers for attending a reception hosted by the Tibetan ParliamentinExile triggered sharp political reactions on Friday with a prominent parliamentarian slamming the mission for commenting on a matter in which it does not have a locus standiAt least six MPs from various political parties attended the dinner reception in Delhi last week The Chinese embassy in a letter to some of the members of the AllParty Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet expressed concern over their attendance at the event and asked them to refrain from providing support to Tibetan forcesSujeet Kumar the convenor of the forum said the Chinese embassy has no locus standi to write to an Indian MP There was no immediate reaction from the government on the issue Generally India does not approve of any foreign embassy commenting on the countrys internal matters The Chinese embassys letter came in the backdrop of strain in ties between the two countries following the eastern Ladakh border rowKumar a BJD MP said he himself has not received the letter but several other members of Parliament have got it I personally treat the letter with the contempt it deserves It is not the first time the embassy has written to me it has written to me several times The embassy does not have any locus standi to write to an Indian parliamentarian If it had any issue it could have written to the Ministry of External Affairs It has violated the protocol he told PTIUnderlining that the meeting of the Indian MPs with the Tibetan governmentinexile was not a political engagement Kumar said it was aimed at promoting cultural and trade ties We have not met the Tibetan governmentinexile on behalf of the Ministry of External Affairs or the Indian government We attended the dinner as members of the AllParty Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet Our meeting was aimed at promoting cultural and trade ties between India and TibetThe forum is advocating for the preservation of Tibetan art culture and philosophy We do not want to engage in political activities but wish to increase peopletopeople interaction he said Kumar added that as an Indian citizen he can express his views and so can other MPs He said the members of the forum do intend to visit Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh and meet the Dalai LamaWhen contacted Manish Tewari of the Congress who is also a member of the forum said My attention has been drawn to a report published in some English newspaper Neither have I received any letter nor will I demean or diminish myself by responding to such imbecile missives Had Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi written perhaps I would have considered respondingAfter a failed antiChinese uprising in 1959 the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet and came to India where he set up a governmentinexile Beijing has in the past accused the Dalai Lama of indulging in separatist activities and trying to split Tibet and considers him as a divisive figure However the Tibetan spiritual leader has insisted that he is not seeking independence but genuine autonomy for all Tibetans living in the three traditional provinces of TibetAlso Read As Nagaland mourns Mon killings aspiration for normalcy stays a distant dreamKumar who was recently appointed as the convenor of the AllParty Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet said the forum was almost defunct for several years but it is being revived now The forum was very active when late George Fernandes was its convenor Later I think it got defunct it was not very active Now it is being revived We have plans to visit Dharamshala and meet his holiness the Dalai Lama We also want to talk about the cultural genocide in Tibet he saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever