Kathmandu: Common sense demands that Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba should not make a tour to India. However, he will not do so for so many explained and unexplained reasons. He is leaving for New Delhi today with a dozen of his cabinet ministers in order either to avoid party criticisms here or at best to make them all responsible for all what he will accomplish, good or bad, in Delhi.
The nation that was on fire is yet to extinguish. The country that witnessed unprecedented violence, arson and loot and above all, communal frenzy, is yet to come to senses.
A government that remained as a speechless spectator for all along the first seven hours of the devastating scene in Kathmandu and elsewhere in the country on the very first day of the riot, last Wednesday, is by all accessible political theories is a frail government whose remaining in power is being challenged by lay men and the political parties alike should have desisted from making a outing to a country whose skill in twisting the arms and applying coercive diplomacy at the negotiating table with those of the neighboring countries is considered to be superb that has no parallel in the region and elsewhere as well. The wearer knows where the shoe pinches.
A vulnerable prime minister, the leader of a weak and divided cabinet, a government that does not enjoy the popular support is making a trip to a country that has ever tried and succeeded in exploiting from Nepali weaknesses, if one were to recall.
“Recall, the scar of the 1950 treaty of peace and friendship”, said even a NC stalwart who is considered to be close to the Indian leaders more than what he is for his own Nepali colleagues, Chakra Prasad Bastola, commenting on Deuba’s visit to India. In effect, Bastola, by implication, hinted that Nepal as a country should have waited for an opportune moment to have a dialogue with India. Bastola, a former Nepali Ambassador to Delhi, apparently indicated that he knew how India extracts benefits for herself.
K.P.Woli, a UML leader, has advised the Deuba government not to sign any treaty or agreements that makes Nepalese to weep later. Woli’s utterances are important in the sense that he has spoken the Nepali minds this time at least. It is not for nothing that he has dubbed Deuba as the weakest ever Prime Minister the country have had in its history.
A host of other prominent Nepali leaders have raised apprehensions regarding this agenda-less and preparation-less visit. Nevertheless, the leaders opposing the impending Deuba trip to Delhi on one pretext or the other, have had already made secret trips to Delhi much ahead of Deuba’s trip. The reasons of the secret trips to Delhi by Madhav Nepal, Pashupati Rana, Rajendra Mahato and a host of known and unknown leaders have yet to come to the open which hopefully, analysts presume, were made at the Indian insistence in order to make easier the deals at time of Nepal’s Prime Minister’s Delhi sojourn.
Political observers say that the manner Indian Prime Minister has expressed his eagerness to “greet” his Nepali counterpart bodes ill for this nation. This section predicts that a weaker Nepal might lose so many things at a time to receive meager political benefits.
Be that as it may, Nepal has ever been at the bottom in so far as gains are concerned while negotiating with India. Nepal as a nation state has accepted whatever India has provided us on their terms.
Observers opine that Nepal is sure to loose from Deuba’s India’s trip, but what we are loosing and the definite-loss is of what dimension will have to be carefully watched.
A trip made in haste, a trip being materialized at a time when no proper homework has been made, a trip that sans the public support, a trip that is being even criticized by political parties is sure to boomerang on the country. However, if the powers-that-be wishes to plunge the nation to an abyss, little the silent majority can do to avert the self-invited trouble.
Mature observers recall with gloomy face that it was practically this set in the government then which finalized the Mahakali package that is supposed to have gone in India’s favor.
Deuba was the prime minister who was backed by UML strongman, Madhav Nepal, who was pleasingly supported by the RPP chief, P. Rana then at time of the ratification of the Mahakali treaty in the Nepali parliament. Not very surprising then the UML split on account of this treaty hinting that some nationalist elements existed very much in the party. The fact is that the nationalist set was told to quit the party who later formed the ML. This ML later merged with the mother UML party. The nationalists and those who favored the Mahakali treaty reconciled with each other hinting that feeble voice can’t exist in Nepal.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Deuba is head of the government today, the ever-dubious UML is in the cabinet and RPPs gracious presence is very much in the government and it is this set, which is visiting New Delhi beginning today.
Political analysts have grounds to suspect that this (in) famous set could once again allow the other party to extract greater concessions at the cost of Nepali interests, if any.
The Nepali fate!