India’s Modi greets Dalai Lama on birthday in rare phone call

Indian leaders have generally been circumspect about public contact with Tibetan leader to avoid upsetting China.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has let the world know that he had rung Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to wish him a happy 86th birthday, disregarding any potential disapproval from China. Beijing regards the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in northern India for more than six decades, as a dangerous “splittist”, or separatist, and frowns on any engagement with him. Indian leaders have generally been circumspect about public contact to avoid upsetting Beijing, but with India’s own relations with China at a low ebb, Modi said in a tweet he had passed on his best wishes personally.