Tibetan exiles have cancelled a rally in New Delhi with the Dalai Lama after India, seeking to improve its fraught relationship with China, instructed ministers and senior officials not to attend.

The Tibetan government-in-exile had planned to start a year of commemorative activities marking the 60th anniversary of a failed anti-Chinese uprising — which forced the Dalai Lama to flee his homeland and seek refuge in India — with a “Thank You India” rally at a New Delhi sports stadium, where the exiled spiritual leader was to address the crowd. 

But prime minister Narendra Modi’s government told officials not to attend either the rally or an interfaith prayer meeting, which the government said came at a “very sensitive time” for India’s relationship with Beijing.