Tenzin Tsundue in a 2017 file photo. Facebook
Tibet Sun Newsroom
McLEOD GANJ, India, 7 October 2019
Nine Tibetan activists have been arrested in South India ahead of a meeting of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping summit in Tamil Nadu state.
Among the arrested is prominent Tibetan writer and independence activist Tenzin Tsundue, according to media reports. Villupuram police arrested him on Saturday night in Kottakuppam, which is less than hundred kilometres away from the town of Mahabalipuram, where the Modi-Xi summit is to take place.
Tsundue had planned to unfurl pro-Tibet banners during Xi’s visit. He was sent to Chennai Puzhal Central Jail in the wee hours of Sunday, said police officers.
Tsundue shot to prominence in 2005, after he unfurled a Tibetan flag and a “Free Tibet” banner when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited Bangalore. Since then he became a marked man, and as a result, the Indian police ordered a travel ban, restricting him to Dharamshala, when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited India in November 2006.
The other eight arrested are members of the Tibetan Youth Congress and Students for Free Tibet-India, and were arrested on Sunday in Chennai. They had travelled from Delhi to organise protests during the proposed visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to the seaside resort overlooking the Bay of Bengal.
Security has been tightened, with 500 police personnel deployed and CCTV cameras installed across the town for round-the-clock surveillance. Last week, the Chief Minister of the state, Edappadi Palaniswami, visited the area to oversee the arrangements for the summit.
Xi and Modi are scheduled to have a packed three days of engagements beginning from 11 October. The two leaders will officially start the informal summit on Friday at 5 pm with an hour-long tour of three monuments — Arjuna’s Penance, Panch Rathas, and Shore Temple — in Mahabalipuram. This will be followed by a cultural programme that they will attend together at Shore Temple.
Modi and Xi had a similar summit in Wuhan, China, in April 2018, which was seen as a “potential sign of thawing” between the two countries after the relations between the two countries reached a low ebb following the Doklam standoff in 2017.
But nothing of that sort was achieved; instead China has openly sided with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, which is a bone of contention between India and Pakistan.
Since there isn’t any known official agenda of the summit, it is unclear whether the two leaders will dwell on the Tibetan issue, but the succession issue of the Dalai Lama, who has been living in India in exile for the last 60 year, has been on China’s top agenda with regard to Tibet.
Nepalese media are reporting that Xi may visit Kathmandu after his India visit. Tibet Sun has learned that Tibetan groups have been warned by Nepalese police to refrain from organising any protests during the probable visit.
Prominent Tibetan writer and independence activist Tenzin Tsundue? Yeh baat kuch hazam nahi hui. No pun intended, but apart from raising some blank slogans, which did he actually to do to put him among the prominent ones? In all honesty, these days the titles, such has Khewang, Kushab, Prominent Activist, Pawo, etc., have become so cheap and easy that every tom, dick and harry are Pawos. The real Pawos are those who sacrifice their lives for Freedom in Tibet.
Sonam Tamdin, Yes, the one’s in Tibet who self immolated and others who continue to fight Chinese oppression are the Pawos. But that doesn’t take away the fact that Tenzin Tsundue is a prominent Tibetan writer and independence activist. He is one who has been consistent in his stance and his activism all these years. Instead of appreciating and wishing him well you want to undermine him, why? Don’t be such a loser.
Hello Sonam Tamdin, don’t boast too much. Remember how did you get refuge in USA? Answer yourself then you will not shout from now on wards.
It is actually not an opportune time for Xi to visit India. Communist China has been supporting its “iron brother” Pakistan, all the way to the UN concerning India’s abrogation of Article 370 on Kashmir. The whole world accepts that Kashmir is an integral part of India but Pakistan has been training militants and sending them across the LOC for years. Above all it has been spreading a brand of Islamic ideology in the valley that could have dire consequences for India in future. Chinese diplomats in Islamabad have been openly talking about “human rights abuse” in the valley which by any measure cannot be seen as a friendly act towards India. Despite such insensitivity, the Indian authorities took the draconian measure of arresting prominent Tibetan activists Tenzin Tsundue and TYC members. It is a sad commentary on India’s weakness when it comes to confront China. China has the audacity to take the Kashmiri issue to the UN to humiliate and even cast aspersions on India’s sovereignty on Kashmir but from the Indian side, instead of making stern representations and displeasure, Xi will be given a red carpet treatment!!! It goes to show the sheer lack of spine on the Indian side who have a psychological inferiority complex which it can’t shake off despite all the economic and military advancement. It is sincerely hoped that PM Modi doesn’t barter away the issue of the Dalai Lama’s future reincarnation at the behest of communist China. If India in any way bulk under Chinese pressure and compromise the Tibet issue by acting in China’s favour concerning the reincarnation issue, it will have extremely serious consequences for India by alienating the entire Tibetan people and the Buddhists of the entire Himalayan region. Act with wisdom for India’s interest rather than China’s!