25 March 2008
India Cancels Dalai Lama's Meeting with Vice President
(Phayul) The scheduled meeting between the Dalai Lama and Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari was cancelled at the last minute, a move the exiled Tibetan government suspect was taken under pressure from Beijing, according to an Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) report. "I feel India is buckling under the Chinese pressure", an official from the Office of the Dalai Lama was quoted by IANS as saying. The Dalai Lama was due to call on the Indian Vice President, for a meeting that had been planned at least two months before the unrest in Lhasa. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said that India had clarified that the Vice President had no plans to meet the Dalai Lama, following a 'rumour' about such a meeting, the IANS reported. But India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had earlier announced that Vice President Ansari would meet the Dalai Lama who is the Indian capital for two-week religious program.