As the ongoing negotiations bet­ween India and China fail to end the impasse in Ladakh, the de­ma­nd for New Delhi to play the “Tibet card” to force Beijing to disengage is gaining salience. India briefly opened the card by deploying the Special Frontier Force (SFF), consisting of Tibetan refugees, to capture crucial heights along the southern bank of the Pangong Lake. The successful military operation in the Chushul sector, in late August 2020, was followed by the much-publicised funeral of fallen SFF soldier Subedar Nyima Tenzin, which was attended by Ram Madhav, an important node in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) network.

Tibet has been a perennial pet cause for the country’s right-wing conservatives and liberals alike since 1950, when the Chinese Communist Party entered to extend its rule over the Tibetan territory. Both have ensu­red that Tibet’s freedom remains entren­ched in the Indian public mind as a nationalist cause. Tibet is more of a political rather than a security problem for India.