IN December 20, as the Buddhist Kalachakra ceremony was being inaugurated by the Dalai Lama at Siliguri, another drama was being played out at the very same venue against the backdrop of recitations from religious texts. About 1,50,000 people had gathered from all over the world. Security arrangements were elaborate and impressive and amidst this sombre gathering, according to eyewitnesses, a 50-year-old woman (later identified as Chiang Hu) was noticed trying to reach the podium where the Dalai Lama was seated.
There was a desperate urgency in her movements. Initially people thought she wanted to seek his blessings. But as she moved too close for comfort, the Dalai Lama's personal Tibetan guards closed in on her and whisked her away for interrogation.
Although Chiang Hu was carrying an invitation card, a search of her hotel room yielded documents indicating her Chinese origin, although she was a resident of Tibet. Officials feel that she could be one of the thousands of Chinese settlers who moved to Tibet in Beijing's bid to dilute the ethnic identity of Tibet.
China's obsession with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists the world over, has acquired a desperate dimension of late. Tibet continues to haunt Chinese sensibilities, lowering the mainland's prestige at international fora. "After all, it is only the Dalai Lama and the activities of the emigre government on Indian territory that, in Chinese perception, has kept the Tibet question on the boil. Naturally the Chinese would like to ensure that the problem is settled once and for all, or its damage potential minimised. This lies at the core of the drama at Siliguri," said an External Affairs Ministry official.
Pleased as they were over the windfall, Subsidiary Intelligence Branch authorities were baffled over Chiang Hu's possible motive. Why was she so desperate to reach the Dalai Lama? Was an assassination bid being contemplated? How did she manage to get an invitation which indicated, if nothing else, her easy access and acceptability among the organisers? Which in turn could mean that the Chinese had penetrated circles very close to the Dalai Lama himself. Last but not least, in case the Kalachakra ceremony was disrupted or the Dalai Lama came to physical harm, it would have been a blow to India's image.
Even as the authorities wrestled with these questions, further questioning and surveillance resulted in the arrest of three more people on December 25—Chiten Tashi, Gyalmo Sherring and Gyatso. While exact details were still being sought, it was learnt that all are residents of Tibet and are of mixed parentage. Chiten was picked up from a tea shop close to the Kalachakra site while the other two were arrested near a Buddhist temple set up within the site. They too obviously were moving about at will. These arrests posed a further question: why had the Chinese accorded such importance to the Kalachakra ceremony and who were, as officials put it, the "case handlers" (controllers) of these agents?
Even as brief newspaper reports appeared, the Chinese embassy spokesmen in New Delhi did not bother to take note or react. Even if the ostensible targets here were emigre Tibetans and the Dalai Lama, official sources were worried by the escalation of what they felt were Chinese covert activities in the region. Of late, the exodus of oppressed Tibetans leaving their homeland has dropped to a trickle, thanks to better border surveillance by the authorities. As an official pointed out: "These days it takes real commitment or determination to escape. " But only last year Sherring and Gyatso crossed over into Sikkim under the guise of 'Tibetan' monks. Although both Sherring and Gyatso reported to the Tibetan Reception Committee in Sikkim, something about the pair raised suspicions. To begin with, both were young and in relatively good health, there being no suggestion of the arduous climbs undertaken. On a hunch, in April last year, the pair was put under surveillance. And the six-month vigil paid off. It was found that often under the pretext of visiting Dharamshala, the headquarters of the Dalai Lama, they went to Nepal instead, where they reported regularly to Chinese embassy officials. Some messages were also seized from them. Later, based on their interrogation, five other people were rounded indicating the depth and extent of Chinese infiltration of the emigre Tibetan network.
China watchers say the high-powered Public Security Bureau in China in its recent operations in Lhasa has recruited about 120 people. The recruits' training included learning of five languages—Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Nepali and the Dzongpa. The physical resemblance between the average Tibetan and the Chinese living in provinces close to Tibet make their proper identification extremely difficult and coups like the arrest of the two monks are very rare.
The question bothering the authorities is, are the agents trained only to focus on Tibet-related issues? Why the accent on learning Indian languages? Posing as Tibetans they can achieve easy access all over India, there being even sympathy for Tibetans in this country despite the present thaw in Indo-China relations. For the present, senior officials in a position to answer these queries are not saying much.바카라 웹사이트
