The Dalai Lama greets devotees during a religious teaching session in Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh, on Friday. (AP)

New Delhi, Nov. 13: The Prime Minister invited L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley to lunch on November 7, a day ahead of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh, to try and evolve a political consensus over the Centre’s China policy.

The lunch was the first hosted by Singh for the BJP leaders with whom his relations had been patchy during his first tenure because of Advani’s personal attacks.

Singh, who had met Advani at a function on November 6, told him he wished to discuss “matters of importance” with him, and the lunch was arranged.

In his briefing, sources said, Singh tried to correct the perceptions that China had “expansionist designs” on India, a theory mooted at several forums following sporadic incursions at the China-India border. The government has consistently maintained that the “situation was under control” and that the problem arose largely because of unsettled boundary disputes that were being negotiated.

Sources said Singh stressed that India wanted to have “good” relations with China on the 60th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic ties. He said the economic growth in both countries could benefit them mutually.

Singh wanted to take the main Opposition party on board on the government’s China policy before Parliament reconvened on November 19, the sources said. They added that the government was concerned at the BJP’s reaction to the “largely ramped up” media reports that made it appear as though China was about to launch a major offensive against India.

BJP president Rajnath Singh has accused the Centre of treating the “1,310 incursions lightly” (he did not source his data) and claimed that a “Chinese think tank” had advised Beijing to dismember India into “25 pieces”.

If the Opposition demanded a discussion on China in Parliament, the government wanted the BJP on board.

The Prime Minister also briefed the BJP leaders on the Dalai Lama’s Arunachal visit that was preceded by China’s objections that the state was a “disputed” territory and the Tibetan leader was a “dissident and a renegade”.

Sources said the government’s highest rungs were divided on giving the monk the go-ahead. At a cabinet committee on security (CCS) meeting, a minister and a top official advised against “provoking” China. They mentioned how US President Barack Obama had denied the monk an audience in October.

Another CCS member, however, argued that India could not behave like a “bad host” with a “revered” guest and that the Dalai Lama was travelling as a Buddhist leader and not as a political activist. He convinced most of the other members, including the Prime Minister.

The Congress projected its Arunachal election victory as a “triumph of nationalism” and sources said that any suggestion that the Dalai Lama’s trip might be “hazardous” to India’s global interests may have betrayed the “spirit” of the mandate.