INDIA-NEPAL RELATIONS: A PERSPECTIVE FROM NEPAL

Chiran Jung Thapa email: chiranjthap@gmail.com An Indian national with longstanding ties with Nepal recently remarked – “Indian policy in Nepal appears as if oceans separate the two countries. For a country that aspires to be a world power and a Security Council member, its public diplomacy and relationship capabilities remain infantile and its behaviour towards smaller neighbors juvenile.” These sentiments resonate with Nepalese. Nepal and India are supposed to have exemplary bilateral relations for innumerable reasons. Our two countries share an intimate and symbiotic bond unlike any contiguous neighbors. Generally, the religious and cultural affiliations are cited to illustrate that entrenched bond. But, there are other ignored factors. Particularly, there are thousands of Nepali men serving in the Indian Army and other security branches of India. No other country allows its men to protect and die for its neighbours’ frontiers. Nepal does. In fact, Nepalese have continued to play a pivotal role in providing security to India’s frontiers. Then, there is the “Roti Beti” (Bread and daughter) relationship. Daughters from both sides are frequently married off across the borders. These inter-marriages range from commoners to elites. Also, India has been the main employment center for the Nepalese. An estimated 4 million live and work in India. Given these ties, both sides avowedly claim to have amicable relations at the official level. In reality, however, the relationship is strewn with landmines of distrust. Lately, the intensity of distrust and disdain amongst Nepalese has spiked ominously. The culpability greatly rests on India’s botched Nepal Policy. For many Nepalese, India’s nurturing of the Nepali Maoists (the Maoists, however, did a volte face the minute they ascended to power) smacked of outright duplicity and connivance. Before any other country, India had branded the Nepali Maoists as terrorists. However, after the Nepali Maoists affirmed their growth under the Indian tutelage, India’s dubious role is no longer a secret. And, this has unmistakably bred a lot of anti-India sentiment. Also, as Nepal’s peace process teeters on the brink of collapse, many have begun to blame the unholy alliance stitched by India. India was the main architect that orchestrated a shotgun wedding of the Maoists and the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) through the 12-point agreement in Delhi. These two ideologically divergent groups were cobbled up simply to emasculate the unheeding Nepali Monarch. Today, the botched policy is becoming even more apparent. India - that had the leverage to topple regimes in Nepal repeatedly, could not even clinch a contract for the Machine Readable Passports. Instead, its bid stirred a widespread outrage. The case of a Maoist lawmaker being threatened by an Indian Embassy official spoke volumes about India’s waning influence and leverage in Nepal. The largest Nepali media channel– Kantipur, just had a bitter spat with India. Later, the entire Media community in Nepal was up in arms against the Indian Embassy for its press release against the Nepali media. And for the first time in history, shoes and stones were pelted at an Indian Ambassador (by Maoist cadres). Of all the countries in the world, Nepal should have been India’s dearest and vice versa. But, why have the two nations been incapable of translating the entrenched bond at policy level? Why do the Nepalese consistently feel that India harbors devious motives towards Nepal? And what is India doing to allay these fears? While China and other countries continue to send high level delegations to express their interest and concern, why has India not accorded equal if not higher priority to Nepal? Undoubtedly, Nepal’s rotten political leadership is equally if not more culpable for the present rut. Their power lust and their recidivist tendency to unabashedly wrangle for power are blatant. And their rabid tendency to use the Indian leverage for personal gains has adversely hampered the state of affairs and the bilateral relations. Nevertheless, Nepalese are not oblivious to the formidable preponderance of India. For us, India is not merely a country or a subcontinent; it is one of the most ancient and richest of civilizations and is the locus of South Asia. Also, we are fully aware of India’s security interests and that it is not in Nepal’s national interest to allow its territory to be exploited for any untoward activities against India. We genuinely wish to see India take the lead in South Asia and become a beacon of hope for all neighbouring countries. And we aspire to follow India’s lead to propel our nation towards prosperity. However, India must also realize a few things. We acknowledge our pygmy status in the comity of nations. Yet, we are fiercely independent. No foreign flag has ever flown over our land. Like any other independent nation, we hold a perpetual desire to have a dignified sovereign existence. And a slavish puppet state would be intolerable. India coddles Bhutan for a few hundred megawatts of electricity while Nepal feels consistently coerced despite providing India with an unquantifiable value of security. Perhaps it is high-time the Indian juggernauts began to re-evaluate its priorities and neighborhood policy? Views expressed by the author are his own. Follow: http://www.ipcs.org/article/nepal/india-nepal-relations-a-perspective-from-nepal-3260.html