Tibet’s government-in-exile, also known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), has once again elected Penpa Tsering as its new president. He took oath as ‘Sikyong’ (President in Tibetan) at the Dalai Lama Temple in McLeodganj, Dharamshala on Wednesday. The 14th Dalai Lama also participated in this swearing-in ceremony. Apart from senior officials from India, official representatives of the United States, United Kingdom (UK) and Latin America were also present at the event. All of them, using the platform of Dharamsala (which is the headquarters of CTA), strongly condemned China’s role in Tibet. All this happened at a time when India and China are once again trying to improve their relations after the 2020 border standoff.

The CTA was founded by the Dalai Lama in 1959 and until 2011 he was the supreme head of the body, which handles the political affairs of Tibetans in exile. In 2011, he handed over his entire political and administrative powers to a democratically elected leader. Penpa Tsering is the third directly elected Tibetan leader after this transfer of powers. This is his second term as President of CTA.

Ups and downs in India-China relations

While on one hand Dalai Lama’s grant of asylum in India has been an old cause of dispute between India and China, on the other hand, Beijing (China) has also been expressing anger at New Delhi (India) regarding the establishment of CTA.

After the border standoff that started in April-May 2020, relations between the two countries remained tense for almost four years. During this standoff, violent clashes also took place in Galwan Valley in June 2020. After this, India and China tried to melt the ice in relations. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024. This meeting signaled the formal resumption of diplomatic relations. Before this meeting, an agreement was reached between the armies of the two countries on border patrolling, which ended the four-year-long standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and restored India’s patrolling rights.

Several high-level visits took place after this meeting, but the biggest success came in August 2025 when PM Modi went to Tianjin, China for the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit. This was Modi’s first official visit to China after 2018. The visit resulted in improved relations, following which visa restrictions were eased, direct flights resumed and investment rules were eased.

Dalai Lama’s successor issue

India is now hoping that President Xi Jinping will come to India to participate in the BRICS summit to be held in September this year. Therefore, as India looks forward to improving its relations with China, it would be wise for New Delhi to clarify its stand on the issue of reincarnation (successor) of the Dalai Lama. This issue has become not only a political but also a geopolitical issue for Beijing.

Just days before Penpa Tsering’s swearing-in ceremony, the Chinese government issued a strong statement on the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama and recognition of the CTA as a legitimate body representing Tibetans. It is also worth noting here that China did not send its Foreign Minister Wang Yi to the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting held on 14-15 May, but instructed the Chinese Ambassador to attend in his place.

Paradox of Indian foreign policy

All the foreign representatives who came to Tsering’s swearing-in ceremony openly criticized China, while New Delhi (Government of India) remained silent on it. The contradiction in India’s foreign policy is reflected in the fact that on one hand it wants to improve its strained relations with China, but on the other hand it allows foreign powers to use Indian soil to criticize the Chinese government.

Interestingly, India itself never raises the issue of Tibet with China in any official meeting because it follows the ‘One China’ principle in its foreign policy. Yet, India allows others to target Beijing from its soil.

In June 2024, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and a group of US lawmakers visited Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama. During her public speech, Pelosi had used very strong words against Chinese President Xi Jinping on the issue of Tibet. It is believed in the corridors of New Delhi that it was because of this strong criticism of Xi Jinping by Pelosi that China had delayed the talks with India to resolve the border dispute.

Indian officials’ statements and future strategy

During the swearing-in of the new Sikyong on Wednesday, foreign representatives once again made sharp attacks on China. But the most important thing here were the statements made by the Indian officials. Rajya Sabha MP Sujit Kumar and co-convenor of ‘All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet’ and Lok Sabha MP Tapir Gao were present at the event.

Talking about Tibetans living inside Tibet, Sujit Kumar said that they are being “deprived of their basic human rights” and their language, culture, religion, identity and their basic way of life are being “systematically destroyed” by China. “This is nothing but a crime against humanity, it is a genocide,” Kumar said in his speech.

After this, Tapir Gao, coming from Arunachal Pradesh, said that the new cabinet (17th Kashag) to be formed under the leadership of President Tsering should not only take care of the welfare and development of Tibetans in exile, but should also take care of “those Tibetans living inside Tibet who are suffering, and living in fear for their education, culture, religion and human rights.” “We need to work together for an independent Tibet,” Gao said.

The question that arises is that if Indian officials feel that this should be the future work of CTA, then why does the Indian government itself shy away from raising the issue of Tibet in the bilateral talks between the leaders of both the sides? Perhaps India fears that if it does this, China will raise the issue of Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

However, amid the changing geopolitical environment, even though India and China are moving towards improving their relations, the reality is that the situation on the border is still tense due to heavy army deployment on both sides of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). If New Delhi wants a stronger leverage against China, it can start playing the ‘Tibet card’ against China.

On the other hand, Beijing is continuously putting pressure on India by saying that the reincarnation of Dalai Lama is its internal matter and India should not recognize the CTA as it should follow the ‘One China’ principle. Instead of turning a blind eye to these threats from Beijing, now is the time for New Delhi to formulate a solid foreign policy on the Tibet issue, as it is now almost seven decades (70 years) since the Dalai Lama took refuge in India.

[नोट: उपरोक्त दिए गए विचार लेखक के व्यक्तिगत विचार हैं. ये जरूरी नहीं कि एबीपी न्यूज ग्रुप इससे सहमत हो. इस लेख से जुड़े सभी दावे या आपत्ति के लिए सिर्फ लेखक ही जिम्मेदार है]