Dalai Lama should stick to religious activities: Swamy

With the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) clarifying their stance on the Dalai Lama's activities in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Friday said that the Tibetan spiritual leader should focus on the religious activities.

Speaking to ANI, Swamy said that as per the treaty signed between India and China, New Delhi has accepted Tibet as a part of Beijing and it should be respected.

"The Dalai Lama can do any event in India provided it's not political and not aimed against China. As two treaties were signed, one by Jawaharlal Nehru and other by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, where we accepted Tibet as a part of China," Swamy said.

"It's a hint to him that he should stick to religious activities," he added.

Earlier in the day, an official government spokesperson clarified that Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has been "accorded all freedom to carry out his religious activities in India."

The clarification came in the wake of reports that appeared in a certain section of the media stating that the Centre had allegedly asked to skip Dalai Lama events, in a bid to mend fences with Beijing.

In this regard, the Ministry of External Affairs reiterated that New Delhi's stance on the spiritual leader was "clear and consistent."

Earlier in February, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had reportedly issued an official statement asking to skip all functions of the Dalai Lama, seeking to be an embodiment of India's commitment to mending ties with China.

The note was reportedly issued a day before the foreign secretary departed for Beijing to hold talks with China's Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, Foreign Minister Wang and State Councillor Yang Jiechi.