Why India needs to restore relations with Nepal: The Tribune India

Maj Jan Ashok Mehta (retired)

Ranjit Rai’s book is the product of an extended engagement with Nepal, first as Joint Secretary (North) from 2002-2006 during the Maoist insurgency and peace process, and later as ambassador (2013-16), when the constitution was drafted and promulgated. It skips the first Constituent Assembly and skips the periods before the palace massacre. However, Rai covers such controversial issues as Nepalese nationalism and anti-India, the new constitution and its aftermath, border dispute, civilizational outreach and the “Roti-peti Rishta”, economic partnership, India’s stellar aid during the 2015 earthquake and the spread of China. presence and influence.

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The contents of the two treaties – Peace and Friendship, 1950, and the Triple Recruitment – are rather meager. Most valuable are the recommendations throughout the book, which point to a reset of relations, and the adoption of the Bhutanese model of treaty reorganization. Ray phrased his experiences in an easy-to-read style.

Under Ray’s direction, the decline of India’s sovereignty began in Nepal: a clumsy attempt to stop the promulgation of the new constitution, its ramifications (the economic blockade), the rise of nationalism, the harmony of left-wing parties (India’s Achilles heel), and China’s advantage. According to papers published last month by former Prime Minister K.P. Oli, “India threatened leaders of political parties not to promulgate the constitution…because the consequences would be negative.” This note appears to have been delivered by then-Secretary of State S.

The consequences were quite negative for India, although Nepal endured the severe hardships of the blockade. The remarkable work done by the Indian Army during the earthquake and all the huge development aid provided over the years have been forgotten. Moreover, India failed to notice the change in Nepal brought about by the peace process it led, revised India’s policy of democratization in Nepal and incorporation of the Maoists, replacing the concept of the two pillars of constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy. A new Nepal was born – federal, secular, inclusive, democratic and republican – the historical culmination of the country’s major political transformations, propelled by India. But the image of the big brother of India and taking Nepal for granted did not go away. Ray has been outspoken on some of these issues.

His depiction of the boundary question – the Kalabani dispute – presents the Indian perspective brilliantly, but New Delhi’s evasiveness over the talks gave Kathmandu and Oli a chance for cartographic aggression. Ray writes that “India declined the offer of talks”, but it was too late anyway, just as meddling with the Constitution hours before it was adopted. Ray says the constitutional amendment (January 2016) has partially addressed Madhesi’s grievances about inclusive social justice and the new delimitation process, which has yet to be fully implemented. Ironically, India never embraced Madhesi’s political demands until 2007, Rai says, and then abandoned them after it backed its crusade for equality.

The most enlightening chapter concerns the economic partnership. It contains facts that explain why Nepal has not invested in its liquid oil, which others have called liquid gold: hydropower. Rai shows how hydropower and other contracts are awarded to India and China depending on the government in power. Historically, India has had difficulties when left-wing governments were in power – starting in 1996, especially in hydropower projects, hiring gurkhas and signing treaties on national assets. The Treaty of Mahakali was signed when the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) was in power by a two-thirds majority. But the party split. Comparing the origins of Nepal’s water with those of Bhutan, the former Bhutanese Minister of Natural Resources told his Nepalese counterpart: “Mixing politics with water does not work.” Ray has included everything big and small regarding Nepal’s development in both the public and private sectors.

Gurkhas connection in the Indian Army and ex-soldiers is the most enduring Indian asset in Nepal. While our diplomats acknowledge its importance, they have not attempted any value additions. No one should doubt the loyalty of the Nepalese Gorkhas. There is no divided loyalty in their case, as there might be in the case of ex-soldiers, as Ray fears. Even that is dwarfed by the impressive welfare benefits and pension increases.

The Eminent Persons Group (EPG) is not the body or form that arbitrates strategic issues such as the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship. These need to be addressed at the highest political level. The Treaty of Bhutan was redrafted after great care in a closed-door meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, King Jigme Singh Wangchuck and his son. There were no assistants. India was not eager to review the treaty, but the king was.

Ray’s enumeration of China’s rise in Nepal is comprehensive, and Indian follies are partly responsible for it. This has been covered in two recent books by Amish Molmi and Sanjay Upadia. The management of its rise and fall began in the red with India’s strategic repositioning after the Oli-Prachanda power struggle. India’s fortunes may change thanks to Nepal’s Supreme Court, with a new five-party coalition government led by the Nepali Congress. But elections at the end of 2022 will indicate which direction Nepal is heading. Ray’s conclusion is a witty conclusion containing recommendations. Once some of them are implemented, relations between India and Nepal can be reset.

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