Laxmi Sorte and Kaustav Ghosh, who travelled across 29 Indian states and five Union territories in 101 days, recommend a list of lesser known places in India to add to your travel bucket list.
'China wants to change the status quo of India's Northern Border and proves that it can do whatever it wants in what it perceives as its own territory,' states Claude Arpi.
...with extravagant claims in both the eastern and western sectors, observes Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad, as India is fixated on asserting its border claims based on the McMahon Line.
In democratic India, a citizen can be a patriot and at the same time be critical of the government, unlike China which promulgated a national security law in Hong Kong prescribing patriotism to contest elections, observes Rup Narayan Das.
The first priority for the new Tibetan administration in Dharamsala should be to look at Tibetan recruitment in the PLA, suggests Claude Arpi.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was taking action against an unspecified number of Chinese officials, including from the ruling Communist Party, under a US law that calls on China to let Americans visit Tibet.
'The muscularity of the last three years didn't bring any dividends and if anything, Chinese attitudes only hardened,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Important for Chinese President Xi Jinping will be Zhao's discussions on the issues of Tibet and the Dalai Lama and his assessment of the likely results of India's coming national elections, notes former senior RA&W officer and China expert Jayadeva Ranade.
The world must hang its head in shame for being a mute spectator to the 'cultural holocaust' in Tibet, says Major General Mrinal Suman (retd).
Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu has described Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama as the "most peace loving person on the earth," who is not a "separatist," and asked China to grant Tibet autonomy.
'Our strategy should be to 'hold the line' in the north on the Sino-Indian land frontier, but maintain and, if possible, enlarge India's current edge in the maritime south.'
During her visit to India, Nancy Pelosi, the first ever woman speaker at the US house of representatives, is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with whom she is expected to discuss the Indo-US nuclear deal, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. She is also expected to visit Dharamsala with actor Richard Gere, where she will meet the Dalai Lama.
'The Mahabodhi temple is the only example in the world where a religion's most sacred place is controlled by people belonging to another religion.'
Choosing the next Dalai Lama is too profound a tradition to be controlled by the Communists in Beijing.
In the long-running rivalry between the 'Delhi Karmapa' and the 'Chinese Karmapa', the latter seems to have won.
Communist China has recently developed a great expertise in 'soul reincarnation', feels Claude Arpi
'Tibet remains a prickly issue between the giant Asian nations. China still claims more than 80,000 sq kilometres of Indian territory in the Northeast. Why? Just because Beijing refuses to acknowledge the McMahon line which separates India and Tibet, and this, simply because the 1914 Agreement delineating the border was signed by the then government of independent Tibet with India's then foreign secretary (Sir Henry McMahon),' says Claude Arpi.
Wang Junzheng, Tibet's new Communist party boss, is on a number of sanctions lists by the US, Britain, the EU and Canada, for his tough role in Xinjiang, aimed at China's Uyghur ethnic minority, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the retired senior RA&W officer and distinguished China expert.
The people who know Tibet will continue to fight the good fight. Long, hard, less than hopeful, but always peaceful.
The 17th Gyalwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje last week visited Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims as a part of southern Tibet.
The Oxford Union Debating Society, citing unforeseen "circumstances", on Wednesday sought to postpone a scheduled virtual address by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the last moment, drawing flak from the ruling Trinamool Congress, which sniffed "political pressure from the highest level" in the matter.
The United States on Thursday asked China to have substantive talks with the representatives of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, without any "pre condition", and called on the Chinese leadership to permit Tibetans to express their grievances freely.
'The need of the hour is to build on the positives and control the negatives,' says Colonel (Dr) Anil A Athale (retd).
'India is a multifaceted place that resides in one country.' 'I always say that there are 1.3 billion Indias and everyone takes their own form and shape of the country.' A fascinating glimpse from Barkat: The Inspiration And Story Behind One Of The World's Largest Food Drives, Feed India.
A visit to Tibet appears to have become the new touchstone for expressing fealty to Xi Jinping, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the retired senior RA&W officer and distinguished China expert.
Seeking a 'meaningful' autonomy for Tibet, the Dalai Lama on Thursday asked China to shed its one-sided approach and adopt a more holistic view on the issue, even as Beijing lashed out at the United States, terming its engagement with him as a gross violation of international norms.
More than 39.8 lakh people in 27 of the 33 districts in the state were affected by the deluge on Thursday.
'Clarifying that modernisation of national defence and armed forces should be completed by 2035, Xi Jinping asserted the goal is to make the People's Liberation Army a "world class force" that "can fight and win" by 2050,' points out former RAW officer Jayadeva Ranade.
'Lhasa is more than the Unesco World Heritage Sites it boasts of. It is more than a gateway to the mighty Himalayas.' 'It is about the warmth of its people: Unsaid, unspoken, but felt everywhere,' discovers Shruti Bajpai.
The Obama administration has made it clear that there has been no change in the United States' policy towards Tibet even as it decides to hold talks with Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama after President Barack Obama's visit to China scheduled in November.
"China is our enemy, not Pakistan. Pakistan can do us no damage," he said.
The rumblings from the Tibetan areas of China continue. The more the Chinese suppress, the more the Tibetans protest. The more the Chinese demonise the Dalai Lama, the more the Tibetans respect him.
Colonel Sonam Wangchuk was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, India's second highest honour for courage, for wresting the first victory of the Kargil War. Leading 40 men, his unit evicted 135 Pakistani troops in a three day battle fought in two feet snow and minus 6 degrees.
China will step up its control on the management of the numerous Buddhist monasteries in Tibet and its prefectures in the wake of recurring self-immolations by monks, which it alleges are instigated by the Dalai Lama. Senior officials of Tibet Autonomous Region have pledged stepped-up efforts to strengthen the management of monasteries in the fight against the Dalai Lama group, official new agency Xinhua reported.
Two special envoys of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, will hold two days of talks with Chinese authorities in Beijing from Tuesday on the vexed Tibet issue.
The seventh Tibet Work Forum was held in Beijing on August 28 and 29. Delhi should be deeply concerned, at a time India faces a precarious situation in Ladakh, because the TWF also defines China's western border policies, observes Claude Arpi.
Harvard scholar Lobsang Sangay was on Monday sworn in as the new prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, succeeding the Dalai Lama as the movement's political leader.
The Chinese side is said to have called off the 15th round of the talks between Special Representatives (SR) of both the sides after India refused to accept their demand that the congregation which was to be addressed by the Tibetan spiritual leader be called off.
The logical next step for a nation promoting democracy in North Africa or the Middle East would have been to invite the 'elected' leader of the Tibetan diaspora along with the Dalai Lama. But no, Washington prefers to receive the Dalai Lama and ignore Dr Lobsang Sangay, the new 'elected' Kalon Tripa. It is more convenient to receive a 'religious' leader, says Claude Arpi
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