- Penpa Tsering sworn in as new Tibetan President.
- International dignitaries condemn China at the ceremony.
- India seeks ties reset with China, faces policy dilemma.
- Officials call for a free Tibet, India’s stance questioned.
The Tibetan Government-in-Exile, also called the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), once again elected a new President in Penpa Tsering, who was sworn-in as the ‘Sikyong’ – Tibetan for President – on Wednesday at the Dalai Lama Temple in Dharamshala, McLeod Ganj. The oath-taking ceremony was also attended by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. Apart from senior Indian officials, the event also witnessed the presence of official dignitaries from the United States, United Kingdom, and Latin America, all of whom lambasted China for its role in Tibet, using the platform of Dharamshala, the headquarters of the CTA. This happened at a time when India and China are once again looking at a rapprochement of sorts after the 2020 border standoff.
The CTA was established by the Dalai Lama in 1959 and till 2011, he was the supreme head of the body that deals with the political matters of the Tibetans living in exile. In 2011, he fully devolved his political and administrative authority to a democratically elected leader. Penpa is the third directly elected Tibetan leader since the devolution. This is his second tenure as the CTA President.
While the Dalai Lama’s refuge in India has been a persistent bone of contention between India and China, Beijing has been lashing out at New Delhi over the establishment of the CTA too.
After nearly four years of tense bilateral ties when the border standoff began in April-May 2020 that also witnessed bloodshed with the Galwan clash in June that year, India and China sought to break the ice with Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan, Russia in October 2024 on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit. The meeting formally signalled a diplomatic reset. This was preceded by a border patrol agreement between the Indian and Chinese forces and it restored India’s patrolling rights in key friction points, essentially ending the four-year standoff that began at the eastern sector of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh.
Several high-level visits took place after this meeting but the major breakthrough came in August 2025, when Modi travelled to Tianjin, China for the 25th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit. The visit, which marked his first official trip to China since 2018, also resulted in a proper thaw of ties with easing of visa restrictions, restoration of direct flights and relaxation of investment norms, among others.
India is now expecting President Xi to come to India to attend the BRICS Summit, which is likely to take place in September this year. Therefore, when India is expecting to reset the ties with China, it will be prudent for New Delhi to take a clear stand on what it intends to do with the issue of the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, which for Beijing has become not only a political but also a geopolitical issue.
Just days before Penpa Tsering’s swearing-in ceremony was to take place, the Chinese government had issued a strong statement on the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama as well as on the CTA’s recognition as a legitimate body representing the Tibetans. It also needs to be noted here that China did not send its Foreign Minister Wang Yi for the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ meeting that was held on 14-15 May but instead directed the Ambassador to represent him.
At the swearing-in ceremony of Tsering, all dignitaries freely lambasted China even as New Delhi remained silent.
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The dichotomy in India’s foreign policy is reflected in the fact that while on one hand it wants to reconfigure the fraught ties with China, on the other hand, it allows foreign powers to criticise the Chinese government using India as the platform.
Interestingly though India itself never raises the issue of Tibet with China at any official meetings due to the ‘One China’ principle that New Delhi has been following in its foreign policy. However, India allows others to lash out at Beijing from its soil.
In June 2024, former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosiand a bipartisan congressional delegation visited Dharamshala to meet the Dalai Lama. During her public address, Pelosi used strong words against Chinese President Xi Jinping for his role in the Tibetan struggle. There is a view within the power corridors of New Delhi that Pelosi’s famous dismissal of Xi made the Chinese delay the border resolution talks with India.
On Wednesday, during the new Sikyong’s swearing-in the visiting delegates once again came down heavily on India. But the more important part here were the statements given by the Indian officials – Sujeet Kumar, Member, Rajya Sabha and Tapir Gao, Co-Convenor of the All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet and Member, Lok Sabha.
Kumar spoke about the Tibetan living inside Tibet and said they are “deprived of their basic human rights” and that their language, culture, religion and identity and their basic way of life is being “systematically destroyed” by China. “This is nothing but crime against humanity, this is nothing but genocide,” Kumar said in his public address.
Thereafter Gao, who hails from Arunachal Pradesh, said, the new cabinet, or the 17th Kashag, that will be set up under President Tsering should look after the welfare and growth of not the Tibetans living in exile but also the Tibetans “inside Tibet who are suffering, living in fear for their education, for their culture, for their religion and for their human rights.” Gao exclaimed, “We need to work together for a free Tibet.”
Question remains, if this is what the Indian officials feel should be the task ahead for the CTA, then why is it that the Indian government itself shies away from raising the Tibet issue when the leaders of two sides hold bilateral talks. Perhaps, India is concerned that China will then raise the issue of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
However, with changing geopolitical headwinds even as India and China head for a reset in their ties, the reality remains that the situation at the border areas remains tense with heavy troop deployment on both sides of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). If New Delhi is serious about a leverage against China, then it might as well start playing the Tibet card with China.
Beijing, on the other hand, had been making all the right noises by telling India that the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama is their internal matter and that India should not recognise the CTA as it must adhere to its ‘One China’ principle. Instead of turning a blind eye to Beijing’s threats, it is time New Delhi also formulates a firm foreign policy on what it plans to do with the Tibet issue now that it is going to be nearly seven decades since the Dalai Lama sought refuge here.
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