After China refused to accept pilgrims until June 21, the Indian Governmen, on Tuesday cancelled the first two expeditions of the Kailash Mansarovar yatra. The yatra which has been cut short will only contain one batch of pilgrims. This batch will leave Delhi on June 13.

 

The reason that China gave for the delay was that it had some domestic problems, but everybody know what the real reason for this decision is. China wants to keep the Tibet region free from any foreigners till the time the Olympic torch has passed. The torch is scheduled to pass through Tibet between June 19 and June 21.

 

China does not want any kind of problems before the torch passes through; it is almost being paranoid about the whole issue. It is to be noted that both Mount Kailash and Mansarovar are located in Tibet Autonomous Region and this is the reason for such a reaction from China.

 

However, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that the Government of People's Republic of China has cited domestic reasons as the cause of this decision. It is also somewhat shocking because this decision came all of a sudden. Just a couple of weeks back, on May 7, India and China were preparing for the yatra which usually starts from June 1.

 

Then, slowly China started to refuse granting visa to the pilgrims which sparked some widespread speculation. This weekend China was clear about its decision, as a result of which India had to cancel the yatra. China has been even asked Nepal to stop its treks to Mount Everest from their territory. The top Indian officials said that a Nepalese pass through which pilgrims can go to Tibet is also out of bounds this year.

 

The spokesperson of MEA said that India is trying to bring in pilgrims in the earlier batches but according to sources this may really not be possible because of the huge demands of this trip. This year alone, 960 pilgrims were supposed to go in total 16 batches on the 26-day Kailash-Mansarovar yatra. The last batch of pilgrims was to return on September 24. China has asked India to cut down the batch of pilgrims to half - 8 from the current 16.

 

The Ministry of External Affairs, every year arranges this yatra. It has been doing so since the year 1981 under a bilateral arrangement between both the countries. China has been comforting and facilitating the pilgrims over all these years with communication, cover, etc.