Stand By the Tibetans

This time, four years ago, Bhaichung Bhutia had done Sikkim proud and earned some semblance of virtue for the nation at large, when, on 31 March 2008, he wrote to the Indian Olympic Association communicating his refusal to be part of the Beijing Olympics torch relay when it jogged through India. “Given my understanding of Tibet, its people, the situation there and Tibetan aspirations in India, my conscience would not allow me to carry the Beijing Olympic torch,” Bhaichung had shared in explanation, stressing that it was a personal decision in response to the call of his conscience. With his stand, Bhaichung had underlined the role that citizens of a free country need to play – exert moral pressure on the powers-that-be to discover some spine and make the citizens proud. His stand had received wall to wall coverage in the media and the Tibet issue, had, for once, figured in television news studios. Four years to the day, and the situation in Tibet is even worse and now the hysteria and dejection has spread to the community in exile as well. Unfortunately, no celebrity [in the Indian context] has spoken up for Tibet of done something as exceptionally earnest as Bhaichung did in 2008. As a result, the media at large goes about acting as if nothing has happened even as a Tibetan youth has immolated himself to attract attention to the Tibet issue and lakhs of Tibetans have marched across India in the hope that their hosts will listen. No one, unfortunately, appears to be paying heed and one is left with the ignominy of the Chinese patting India for its forceful controlling of Tibetan protests against China. In their earnestness to please China and slap down Tibetan protests, the authorities have targeted everyone in Delhi who looks ‘Tibetian’, and this includes the entire Himalayan span bordering China.
Governing a population which is intuitively suspicious of China and by extension thus, sympathetic towards Tibet, it is expected of Delhi to at least conduct itself with more self respect when dealing with its northern neighbour. Do we need to appear desperate to please China at all costs? Unfortunately, Delhi believes so. They cracked down so hard on the Jantar-Mantar protest rally [in which Jamphel Yeshi immolated himself] that they rounded up more people than the jails could accommodate. They had displayed similarly embarrassing obsequiousness in 2008 when the Beijing Olympic torch ran in Delhi with burly Chinese security and with the people barricaded a safe distance away. The DD cameras beamed only tight shots of the torch relay and a mistaken wide angle shot revealed that the sponsored celebs were waving to people more than 20 feet away from the torch. As an Indian, one would have wanted Delhi to prove that people of this free land, its citizens and guests alike, were free to protest, demonstrate and criticize. But Delhi did not. It granted this right only so long as it was not in the line of sight of its Chinese guests. But Delhi has made it a habit of being disgustingly inconsiderate, and although it does not excuse either the governmental insensitivity or the media thoughtlessness, the Tibetans can draw solace, if at all it is possible, from the fact that Indians too have similarly suffered. The dismissiveness with which arguments against the Armed Forces Special Power Act continue to be handled by the government and the media and the hilarity with which attempts are made to police the internet, suggest that instead of China learning from India, the lessons are travelling the other way round. Instinctive compassion is enough for everyone to sympathise with the Tibetan cause; this is one issue which does not demand expansive arguments to win support. But now, the time has come for more Indians to stand up in support of the Tibetans and their right to continue aspiring for a Free Tibet and express it at every forum, street or meeting. The protest by a group of Indian students in support of Tibet had only a handful of participants in Delhi recently and the Tibet peace rally even in Gangtok was an almost exclusively Tibetan affair. The Americans have a strong people’s lobby for Tibet, as does Europe and hence their governments do from time to time take a stand and comment. In India, the Tibet support groups remain mostly fringe players, meeting and preaching among the already converted. They should spread their activities wider or we stand at risk of becoming the most ungracious hosts to one of the longest-suffering people. What is worse, if governmental intolerance to the Tibetan right to protest and the media’s blindsiding of the Tibet issue continue to be sanctioned [with our silence and non-involvement], we will be subjecting the Tibetans to double subjugation – one inside Tibet and one in Free India. More of us need to stand alongside Tibetans, do a Bhaichung, and get their situation noticed and addressed.