OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, March 26: The BJP’s top leadership today lashed out at the Manmohan Singh government for its cautious handling of the Tibet turmoil.

The party said Delhi had not fulfilled its duty and had demonstrated its readiness to compromise with independent foreign policy.

The BJP has been critical of the UPA government’s “inadequate response” ever since China used force to suppress the Tibetan uprising.

In a joint statement issued by leader of Opposition L.K. Advani, BJP president Rajnath Singh and former foreign minister Jaswant Singh, the party said: “India must give voice to its concerns — correctly, unequivocally and unambiguously. This is not any interference. It is standing up, by India, for preserving that which is our own, and that which is India’s contribution to all humanity — Tibet’s Buddhist culture and civilisation. This is our bounden duty and our very dharma.”

The BJP leaders pointed out that the Ashok Chakra on the Tricolour is a Buddhist symbol — the Dharma Chakra. “How can we adopt the symbol but ignore the reality?”