– By P Pradhan
The hullabaloo created by the local media affiliated with different political parties on the visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran ultimately turned against themselves. Some newspapers argued that Saran, a former envoy to Nepal was here in Kathmandu to give vocal support to the 12 point understanding between the Maoist terrorists and the seven agitating political parties while others had fancied that Saran would publicly back the agitation being organized from the last seven months. This agitation has not attracted public support nor been able to enthuse the people. The people of Nepal exasperated with the ceaseless bandhs, agitations and demonstrations by these same political parties for the last 14 years of our tryst with multi-party democracy know very well that it was doing the period when Nepali Congress was in power in 1990s, either alone or in coalition with parties like the CPN (UML) that the Maoist menace rapidly grew to its present proportions.
This has been correctly mentioned on an editorial comment on Saran’s Kathmandu visit in The Pioneer daily published from New Delhi on December 14th. Likewise, on its November 25th edition the same newspaper with the headline “Alienating the King to Little End” had said that “India has suffered at the hands of political parties; all parties nurtured anti-Indianism exemplified by Mahakali, Tanakpur and Hritik Roshan episodes. The very political parties of Nepal that are being feted by Indian political parties have been almost instinctively anti-Indian during their days in power.” The Economic Times of December 1st edition published from New Delhi also elaborates how Nepal has been stable and peaceful in the last couple of months and says, “For a country that the newspapers are full of doom stories, Kathmandu is handsomely abuzz.”
In this background of the political parties contributing precious little to Indo-Nepal relations during their hay-days in power; wasn’t it immature on the part of political leaders of the 7 parties to try to fool a man of knowledge and experience on Nepal such as Former Ambassador Shyam Saran? Doesn’t Saran know very well that these same leaders who are desperately trying to woo Delhi to shoulder them once again to come to power did not implement a single economically viable project with India from the period 1990 to 2002? Doesn’t Saran remember that India was a hotly contested election issue in each general and municipal elections held in this country after 1990? And moreover, isn’t he aware that the seven political parties are left with nothing else other than Delhi’s support to come back to power? Their rallies are nothing but a travesty of pomp and money garnered through corruption and commission dealings. Even with that, the people support to these rallies is dismal. By entwining itself helplessly along with the 7 parties what Delhi was doing in the last 10 months was rapidly diminishing its clout inside Kathmandu. While losing its relations with the palace, the government, the security forces and the common people of Nepal, India’s foreign policy was centering itself with a handful of hoodlums in Ratna Park. But the disaster has been thankfully averted by the visit of Saran to Kathmandu.
The statement issued at the end of his visit does not even mention the names of the political leaders that he interacted with signaling that the meetings were not worth even to be remembered. He distanced himself with the 12 point agreement supposedly reached at Delhi’s behest. Furthermore, he disclosed that an understanding had been reached in Dhaka at the sidelines of the 13th SAARC Summit between His Majesty and Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh on the imperative to maintain contacts between the two countries at all levels. This visit was essentially the outcome of the ice-breaking King-Manmohan meeting.
Nepalese are known for their gratefulness and reciprocity for any good gesture shown. His Majesty the King gave a royal audience to the visiting Indian Foreign Secretary whilst the Royal Nepal Army top brass also had a teté a tete with him. The Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey hosted a lunch in his honor at his residence and both the vice-chairmen along with the Home Minister and the Acting Foreign Secretary interacted with him in a very cordial atmosphere. Foreign Minister Pandey disclosed that the meeting was fruitful and that there was better atmospherics now between India and Nepal.
The slightly chilled environment was visible between India and Nepal basically generated by 3 things: The adverse Indian reaction to February 1st royal move when Delhi very well knew that it was the democratically elected Prime Minister that dissolved the house and all the local bodies and did not conduct fresh elections. Just like Bihar opted for a Presidential rule for the conducting of state elections, there was a need of a King’s rule to conduct elections here. There was a CBI enquiry on a fodder scam by the former chief minister of Bihar at the same time there was a corruption case registered against a former Prime Minister of Nepal. By trying to view these things with a different outlook and with disregard to the need of maintaining law and order together with restoring democracy, Delhi was clearly taking sides.
It was imperative for the King as the guardian of the constitution to do something to save this nation from abyss and chaos generated by the Maoist terrorists. In order to re-energize democracy, His Majesty had to act. Delhi therefore knows the background that led to February 1st. Now, as per the wish of friendly countries, municipal elections have been announced for February 8th and general elections too will be held very soon.
The stoppage of arms to the RNA at a time when we are fighting terrorism was totally unnecessary and still is viewed by the common people of Nepal as Indian high-handedness. The Maoists of Nepal are declared terrorists by India. They have a dream to carve out a compact revolutionary zone from Nepal all the way across Andra Pradesh. The Naxalite menace in Bihar and Chattisgarh has suddenly rose to alarming scale right after the ceasefire here in Nepal indicating that the Nepali Maoists and their Indian counterparts are of the same variety. Stopping arms to the RNA has meant giving a moral boost to the Maoists and thereby to the Indian Naxalites. This is detrimental to India’s national security.
The Delhi agreement comprising of Maoist terrorists and the 7 parties was a disaster for Delhi. Maoists have a red corner notice and therefore should have been arrested in the Indian capital. Instead they were allowed to ink a deal with the parties but nowhere in the agreement do they promise to give up arms. This agreement nearly placed Delhi as a terrorism sponsoring nation. Thankfully, the bits and pieces of the agreement have already started falling apart. The Nepali public has already started discerning the facts and realizing the hollowness in the supercilious words in this agreement.
Therefore, if South Block has begun a re-think in its policy vis-a-vis Nepal, Nepalese authorities must not shy away in responding with equal warmth and friendliness. Shital Niwas must try to give a new, speedy economic thrust to the relationship. India and Nepal are after all close neighbors bound by shared culture and common religion.