'The 'government-in-exile' is not in line with international laws,' says Angpu Gejyuan, vice-director of the Religion and Nationalities Committee.

'No government admits such exiled governments. China and India are two ancient civilisations. We want the Indian government to do that which benefits the relationship and friendship between the two countries.'

The Indian consulate in Lhasa was closed following the tumult in Tibet beginning from the 1950s after China annexed the former Buddhist kingdom and the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India following a failed uprising in 1959.

Three years later, China attacked India and the Indian consulate in Lhasa was closed.

At present, Nepal is the only country to be allowed a consulate in Lhasa, the Forbidden City. Though there have been rapid changes in Nepal's own political scenario, its successive governments, though diverse, have upheld the same foreign policy that considers Tibet, along with Taiwan, to be an integral and inalienable part of China.

As memories of the 1962 war faded, India was allowed to open a consulate in Shanghai last year besides the embassy in Beijing, and then Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated a second consulate at Guangzhou, a diplomatic concession for which India in turn gave China permission to re-open the Chinese Consulate in Kolkata that had been closed after the 1962 war.

Besides India, the US is also seeking to open a consulate in Lhasa. In May, the Foreign Affairs Committee at the US House of Representatives passed a bill authorising the Secretary of State to establish a consulate in Lhasa.

US President Barack Obama will visit China in November when he is expected to push for the new consulate.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)