What is behind Nepal's audacity against India
Prime Minister Oli's chair was shaky, and he played the ultimate anti-India card, winning some time and creating a nationalist legacy for himself.
Nepal's ties with India are all-encompassing and have few parallels in the world. They are also complex and have a propensity to quickly invoke nationalism, which is really a mask for the anti-India sentiment. This sentiment saw Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli ride to an impressive victory in 2017 and Nepali political leaders have been willing to breach traditional red lines with India, including providing entre to the Chinese.
A breach of trust
Nepal has often thumbed its nose at India. Recently, in 2015, they brushed aside India's suggestions to be inclusive given their own diversity while adopting a new constitution. But, even by Nepal's standards of brinkmanship with India, the inclusion in its constitution of a new map of the country, incorporating Indian territory, breaches the darkest of red lines. The territories cartographically included in Nepal are those of Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpyadhura that have been traditionally used for the Kailash Mansarovar yatra by pilgrims from India. The areas are in Uttarakhand near the Chinese border.
It bears noting that even as far back as 1954, Lipulekh pass was agreed by India and China as a crossover point to Tibet for traders and pilgrims. This was restated by the two in 2015. The 1961 Nepal-China Treaty locates their border pillar No 1 at Tinkar Pass that is east of Lipulekh pass. Limpyadhura is far to the west of Lipulekh. The incorporation of these areas by Nepal is being justified by declaring a stream flowing from the east in Limpyadhura as the source of the river Kali, which demarcates the western extremity of Nepal in the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli.
Traditionally the Kalapani stream from the North is the accepted main tributary. This new interpretation flies in the face of maps and other documentation, both Indian and Nepali, in particular from 1879 when the first official survey of the region was carried out. Nepal's coat of arms includes its map in outline. It clearly did not feature the territory to Limpyadhura which juts out as an elongated finger. A constitutional amendment has had to be adopted in order to revise the coat of arms or national emblem.
Interestingly, it was the inauguration of a road along the Kailash Mansarovar track that galvanised Nepal. If this indeed is their territory, surely the Nepalis would have known of the construction that had gone on for years. Obviously, even their border intelligence system was uninterested in a matter deep within India. In fact, when they tried to place a police picket in the area, the force was shooed away by the local population. It should be clear that interest in the matter rests solely in Kathmandu and is purely political.
Oli's big compulsion
So why poke the beast? Prime Minister Oli's chair was shaking, and he played the ultimate anti-India card, winning some time and creating a nationalist legacy for himself. Chinese encouragement or at least backstopping cannot be ruled out. Moreover, he hopes that this display of nationalism will allow him to overcome the growing disenchantment with him and his policies. Indeed, Kathmandu and other urban areas across Nepal are agog with protests by the youth demanding good governance and seeking accountability on Covid spend by the Government. The constitution was amended with the backing of all the political parties in Nepal. While their leaders are and chose to be complicit as they could not afford to be portrayed as pro-India, the buck stops with PM Oli and Leader of the Opposition and former PM from the Nepali Congress, Sher Bahadur Deuba.
While for leaders, gains could be said to be personal or even pecuniary, the matter unleashed is intractable and untenable for the two countries with the closest of ties between people. Indeed, with its new map, enshrined in its emblem and clearly showing its incursion into India, even routine diplomatic notes from Nepal to India on their new letterhead could prove to be an issue.
Those directly responsible and their closest advisors have burnt their boats and, perhaps, don't care with an attitude of 'after me, the deluge'. They must face a targeted freeze. But the way forward has to mean more engagement by India with the political class in Nepal, in particular with those who add up in the numbers game that is so important in a democracy. And, with the youth and business communities of the country. Above all, our efforts with Nepal must add to the well-being of the people. We must work to encourage cross border flows of people, goods and services along with investment and spurring long-standing cultural ties.
People-to-people ties
It was particularly heartening that even during the Covid lockdown, trade flows have been unimpeded. Moreover, in the past few days, India and Nepal signed a Memorandum of Understanding to finance the construction of additional sanitation facilities in the Pashupatinath Temple complex. Furthermore, it would be good to develop facilities such as shopping malls in our border areas with Nepal to attract the growing middle-class of the country. India is often the convenient whipping boy of Nepali politics. And while the politicians must know that their recent act of aggression was a step too far, it is in our and Nepal's interest that the relationship is kept strong and vibrant at the level of the people.
(Courtesy of Mail Today)