-Yuba Raj Koirala

Kathmandu: Fear and speculations are on high on the Nepali agenda following the series of visits being paid by high-placed officials of the Indian establishment.

People suspect that an ugly sort of design is being charted some where outside the Nepali territory to make Nepal to yield to some one’s dictates.

The manner Indian authorities are interested in visiting Nepal time and again does indicate that sooner or later this Himalayan Kingdom will have to pay a very heavy price.

Our roads are being constructed by neighboring India. But at what price, we don’t know. India is harnessing our rivers for mutual benefits. However, such mutual benefits have remained only in paper works. Nepali people don’t know which of the river-systems we have already agreed to handover to India at what price and for what benefits?

We have allowed them to unilaterally construct dams on the border-points that have submerged several of our villages and yet we greet them smilingly as and when they come to see us.

An hurriedly sell out of our national interests by a sort of “non-representative” government at a time when the parliament is absent will only result in inviting many ills that the nation will later find it very difficult to accommodate with our national goals and aspirations that are yet to be defined by Nepalese people. The proposed bus links to India will not necessarily facilitate the cross border travelling activities as we are being made to believe but instead, it will open the Pandora’s box which will contaminate our already fragile society. The unrestricted flow of unwanted elements will no doubt contribute towards creating confusion in our society thus making it more complicated to comprehend. It will in time also erode much of our communal ties and harmony.

The hypocrisy shown by the visiting foreign secretary of India Shashank on the Bhutanese refugees issue that it was a “bilateral matter” between Bhutan and Nepal which required no other third party meditation is nothing more than they are now throwing yet another card to press Nepal hard on the issue thereby compelling us open up other opportunities which could be of interest to them.

Million dollar question thus being asked is why at this particular juncture, when Nepal is suffering from chronic domestic problems that the Indian establishment comes here with all smiling and signing faces and offer to help Nepal in her development work as if she genuinely wishes to see Nepal prosper.

Who else better knows other than India on how to twist Nepali arms at times of her deep crisis? She knows on how to fish in Nepal’s troubled waters.

To recall, the early 1990s saw Indian establishment squeezing Nepali arms and when Nepal rejected to be under Indian umbrella scheme, the other side supported the champions of the then movement which cut the size of the monarch. This time again, the country is in crisis; the political parties have come to the streets against the King and here is India again to extract benefits. Thanks the kind courtesy of Prime Minister Thapa that Nepal is all prepared to yield to the terms of the Indian establishment.

The fact is that India knows the iron is hot enough now to strike a blow so they can shape this nation in whatever way they wish. Yes, we too know and we always knew for good reasons that India will always come to rescue us at times like this, provided that we are ready to submit to their demands until one day when we get up to realize that our clocks have already moved 15 minutes behind.