Next door to China, CM Dorjee wants Dalai Lama to open Tawang hospital

“The Dalai Lama is our spiritual leader as well,” said Khandu, who celebrated his first year in office as Chief Minister. Khandu said the invitation to the Dalai Lama was sent much before the latest turmoil in Tibet. “The Dalai Lama had himself donated Rs 20 lakh for the hospital when he came in 2003. The hospital is likely to be completed in two months and we want him to inaugurate it,” he added.

At the same time, Khandu said he would not allow any demonstrations against China to be staged in Tawang. “The lamas and monks of Tawang and the adjoining areas wanted to stage a demonstration against what is going on in Tibet. We have stopped that, as it’s a sensitive issue,” he said. Khandu is a Buddhist from Tawang and belongs to the same sect as the Dalai Lama.

He said the Rs 10,000 crore package that the PM announced here on January 30 was primarily intended at accelerating the development process along the border. “The PM assured us that there will be no dearth of funds for development-related projects,” he said. China, it may be recalled, had expressed its displeasure when Manmohan Singh visited Arunachal two months ago.

Arunachal Pradesh, Khandu pointed out, shares over 1,180 km of international boundary with China, 440 km with Myanmar and 160 km with Bhutan. “The Defence Minister recently visited Tawang and he, too, assured us that there would be no dearth of support from his ministry in carrying out developmental and infrastructure-related projects close to the border,” he said.