Date:05/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/05/stories/2008120560390400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘No giving in to Tibetans’ demand’

Special Correspondent

Talks on over giving them certain rights: Chinese leader

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Special guest: Young Yakshagana artistes welcoming president of the China-India Friendship Association Jiang Zhenghua at a function in Bangalore on Thursday. Legislative Council Chairman Veeranna Mathikatti and president of the India-China Friendship Association, Karnataka, Kagodu Thimmappa, are seen.

Bangalore: Jiang Zhenghua, former vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China, and president, China-India Friendship Association, on Thursday said that China would not allow Tibet to separate from the mainland.

He was replying to the felicitation by the India-China Friendship Association (ICFA), Karnataka, to the Chinese delegation led by him.

Referring to the strong demand made by ICFA president V.T. Rajashekar and its general secretary V. Bhaskaran not to succumb to the pressures of the Dalai Lama, Tibetan leader, for giving autonomy, Mr. Zhenghua said there was no question of accepting the demands of the Tibetans.

However, Mr. Zhenghua said the Chinese Government was engaged in negotiations with the representatives of the people in Tibet for giving them rights to practise their religion.

Mr. Zhenghua graduated from the Bombay International Institute of Demography.

The function was attended by Chairman of the Legislative Council Veeranna Mathikatti and ICFA, Karnataka, president Kagodu Thimmappa. Mr. Mathikatti expressed happiness over the growing ties between the peoples of the two countries and said that recently a delegation of legislators from the State, visited China to study the development in agriculture.

The Chairman said the State Government was sending 1,000 farmers to China to study the agricultural practices there.