Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor on Monday said the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama was visiting Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh on his own and that India had not suggested him to do so.

"This suggestion has not come from us, because we do not deal with the spiritual travels of a spiritual leader. He has to visit his flock as he deems fit. So I am sure that as far as I am aware the initiative would have come from him and the government would have been informed about it," Tharoor told reporters here.

"No," Tharoor said when asked if India had suggested to the Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal Pradesh.

"Dalai Lama is free to travel anywhere in India and it is a matter of courtesy to inform his coordinates to the government before he goes somewhere," he added. On reports of Maoists getting weapons from China, Tharoor said the matter was being dealt with by the Home Ministry and that it would be first left to that Ministry to look into it.

"Only if there is a need for Ministry of External Affairs to get down into the issue, we will consider appropriate action," he added.

On the issue of business visas to Chinese, the Minister said the Indian policy was to not issue business visas for unskilled or semi-skilled workers and that they should apply for employment visas instead.

"This is our national policy. Every country has a visa policy. If there is a good reason for these people to come and do certain kind of work, then we should cater for employment visas. It is not correct to say that business visas are much faster and we will apply for business visas (instead of employment visas)," Tharoor said.

... contd.