N. P. Upadhyaya, Kathmandu: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Nepal has drawn the world’s attention in that Xi left China upon meeting the Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and then landed in India and met with his permanent rival PM Modi and finally the China’s top man made his first ever trip to Nepal on October 12.

Chinese footsteps in Nepal have come in a quiet but formal manner which subtly hints that India has been distanced.

The US too appears to have concerned with the “increasing Chinese influence in Nepal”.

The US has reasons to express concern as it wants Nepal to ease the restrictions that Nepal government has imposed on the Tibetan-Buddhists residing in Nepal.

While Nepal may have its own “neighborly” compulsions in containing the likely threats to China from the Nepali soil, however, China too must think that the Tibetans living in Nepal must have some freedom of expression and that they too should be allowed to do what they consider as a part of their “religious” duty.

China’s rigidity is more than necessary, a section feels so.

China, being a powerful country, must not get terrified by these small acts in Nepal, in comparison of how things prevail in Hong Kong.

Moreover, China would do well if it reads the susceptibility of Nepal. For Nepal, the friendship with the devilish neighbor-India and the lone super power US are also very important and that any excessive pressure from China will perhaps prompt the US and the Indian establishment to further increase anti-China activities from the Nepali soil.

China should know that at the moment the Indian regime and the US administration were having the same wavelength in politics. Thanks the US designed Indo-Pacific Strategy in which the US wants Nepal to play a central role?

But Nepal has to satisfy all: the US, India and China as well.

A US top diplomat in Washington has claimed that China’s increased influence in Nepal has led to the ban on Dalai Lama’s birthday celebrations in the Himalayan nation. The US apparently is referring this increment after President Xi’s visit to Nepal.

Ms. Alice G Wells, Acting Assistant Secretary of State of USA, Bureau of South and Central Asia in a briefing to the House of Foreign Affairs sub Committee on Asia and Pacific had made this statement, October 23, 2019.

While this reveals the US’s interest distinctly clear in Nepal then why China prefers greater restrictions on the Tibetan Buddhist community in Nepal too is concurrently logical?

Whatever may be the case, the friendly nations must understand the Nepali government’s compulsions.

But the associated fact too need to be told to these competing countries, the US, China and India, that the sitting corrupt and dangerous communist government a la North Korean regime can’t do justice in satisfying these three mega-Nations in assuring them at a time that Nepal will treat these friends in an equal manner.

Nepal not even remains a non-aligned country though PM Oli is attending the NAM Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan.

In Baku PM Oli spoke of the significance of the NAM but is Indo-pendent Nepal a nonaligned nation? Nepal previously was but is not now.

In fact Nepal lacks a strong and neutral/dynamic political personality who could understand as to how to address the ensuing problems so that all the three together with the developed Western nations countries’ feel that their concerns have been well taken care of without prejudice.

Reiteration of friendship with all but enmity with none can’t hide the Indian tilt.

The US President Trump must understand that India is an all-time cheat and also a highly intimidating regional bully which wants to keep the smaller South Asian nations in its grip called the Nehruvian doctrine. Nehru though is being demonized these days by the BJP regime controlled by PM Modi.

System(s) of governance in Nepal depend on the mercy of the Indian Republic. And the change of 2005-6 ushered in through the kind courtesy of Madame Sonia’s proxy Prime Minister Dr. MM Singh and his bulging-goiter Father Shyam Saran.

Since then Nepal is in a disarray and the continued blockade ( as of now four blockades have been recorded) from the Indian side has in effect made Nepal to inch closer to the Chinese regime or else most of the Nepali leaders tentatively were the yes men of the Indian regime.

Nepal’s compulsion. Does the US know? The US must acknowledge this fact.

Notably, India’s Nepal policy after 12 point India designed change has been of a brutal in nature and it is this brutality and devilish attitude towards Nepal that the latter have had to inch closer to China.

Though China too is not that a good and reliable neighbor by Nepali standards but yet this is also Nepal’s necessary-compulsion.

Yet to lessen the Indian meanness associated with higher dependence, Nepal was bound to warm up its age-old ties with China in the North.

An important point for the US: If the superficial smile like Wuhan spirit is taken out from the existing India-China relations then surely that equals to a real and a full scale war of the sort of 1962 which broke the vertebral column of India.

India since then (1962) remains scared of the Chinese military might. Who else knows China better than the humiliatingly defeated India?

A country less complaisant towards China might well have called off the summit three days before it happened, when Beijing, after Xi’s meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, publicly declared that China supported Pakistan’s core concerns, so writes Ajaya Shukla for the rediff.com dated October 22, 2019.

So which factor did not permit PM Modi and his foreign policy advisors, like Doval and Shankar, to abruptly cancel President Xi’s trip to India?

Compulsion or a fear factor? Needless to say, India is a paper tiger for the smaller South Asian nations more so for Nepal and Bhutan.

A scared India beamingly greeted Chinese President perhaps to keep alive the shaky Wuhan spirit.

This amounts to backing Islamabad’s claim, writes Mr. Shukla, over all of Jammu and Kashmir and, in effect, the abandonment of Beijing’s professed neutrality on the Kashmir dispute.

But does it mean that Beijing has abandoned its neutrality on issues pertaining to Jammu and Kashmir? Certainly not. Beijing did justice by supporting Pakistan’s core concerns on Kashmir issue.

China is Pakistan’s “iron brother” and both are happy with this terminology. However, this special relation that binds both Pakistan and China in one component is their respective love and honor for each other and a commitment for working together for shared benefits for example the China Pakistan Economic Corridor-CPEC whose miracles are soon to come to notice to the world public.

Pakistan is likely to emerge as an economic tiger when the CPEC mega projects approaches its final stage.

Pakistan-China ties are not like Nepal-India ties which is not only unequal but insulting as well in that the Indian leadership take Nepal as a protectorate a la Baby Bhutan.

Naughty Indian leaders forget deliberately that Nepal is an ancient nation whereas India was just born in 1947.
Nepal existed even in the Mahabharat era.

The Communist President Xi Jinping promised anybody who tried to “split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones.”

His comments were made towards Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli.

He in essence warned India through PM Oli that not to play the Dalai Lama-Dharamshala card.

President Xi’s threat loaded statement made in Nepal must have approached the Indian leadership the next second in Delhi through the kind courtesy of the RAW posted agents in Nepal. But why he made this statement in Nepal that has alarmed the world is a tricky question indeed?

That New Delhi has become sensitive after Xi’s Nepal visit becomes clear from what C. Raja Mohan, an internationally acknowledged Indian scholar says in his hurriedly penned article wherein he says, “President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Kathmandu has helped focus on the changing dynamic between India, China and Nepal.

He further says that “one of the central themes in the new discourse is the alleged loss of Indian “hegemony” over Nepal”.

C. Raja Mohan uses the word alleged loss which is incorrect. The fact is that Indian hegemony definitely has substantially decreased in Nepal and is sure to decrease even further.

The Indian scholar then suggests Modi’s administration to go by what he suggests and his suggestions run like this: “For India, it is time stop whining about China’s growing presence in Nepal or lamenting the loss of much-vaunted primacy in Nepal. The protectorate relationship that Delhi inherited from the Raj was never sustainable. Nothing infuriates the Kathmandu elite more than Delhi’s claim to know what is good for Nepal. Delhi does not. Instead, Delhi should let Nepalese decide what is good for them and tailor India’s own responses accordingly”.

Let Nepal decide what is appropriate for this country but not Delhi as suggested by C Mohan.

Let’s now talk of Kashmir where Indian establishment has been treating the caged Kashmiris as prisoners since August 5/19.

This Tuesday October 22/19 the US renewed its call on India to ease its clampdown in Kashmir as several lawmakers voiced anger at actions by a country that usually enjoys robust US support.
Alice Wells, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, said while speaking on human rights before the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia, October 22, reports Shaun TANDON for the French news agency-the AFP that the United States “remains concerned” about the impact of India’s actions in the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley.

“We have urged Indian authorities to respect human rights and restore full access to services, including internet and mobile networks,” she told a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee.

Notably, most vocal critic of Indian action of Kashmir was Representative Ilhan Omar, a prominent first-term Democratic lawmaker and one of the few Muslims in Congress, charged that Kashmir is part of a pattern against Islam by Modi’s Hinduism driven Bharatiya Janata Party.

"Indian army has complete impunity to kill, abuse and rape."

"Kashmir under occupation in 107 seconds" by Case for Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/Em4VTleX93

— CJ Werleman (@cjwerleman) October 23, 2019

The Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jaypal’s outburst against India came at a time when the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was rubbing his shoulders with the US veteran diplomat Henry Kissinger and other former world leaders, including Tony Blair in India on Tuesday.

“Kashmiris have been restricted from communicating outside their country for 50+ days. In Assam, almost 2 million people are being asked to prove their citizenship. This is how the Rohingya genocide started. At what point do we question whether PM Modi shares our values? This is what Ilhan Omar questioned while ventilating her inner pains on Kashmir clampdown.

Responding to Ilhan Omar an Indian girl Krittika October 22/19 says this in Twitter: (I) Am an Indian Hindu girl. I know Kashmiris & Indian Muslims are unsafe here. They are sufferings & this affects me a lot. Thanks a lot dear for raising your voice & understanding Indian Muslim problems. God bless you.

In the meanwhile, Rana Ayyub for the Washington Post (Global Opinion) dated October 23, 2019 writes, (sic), “But it’s time to take notice. On Tuesday, participants at a U.S. congressional hearing about human rights in South Asia singled out India’s actions in Kashmir. Francisco Bencosme, Asia Pacific advocacy manager at Amnesty International, said his organization had documented “a clear pattern of authorities using administrative detention on politicians, activists and anyone likely to hold a dissenting opinion before and after Aug. 5” in Jammu and Kashmir.

When Indian journalist Aarti Tikoo Singh accused world media of overlooking Kashmir’s terrorism problem, US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar questioned her journalism credentials. pic.twitter.com/p159ansjsC

— Brut India (@BrutIndia) October 25, 2019

In the meanwhile, Pakistan ISPR DG says Indian troops have committed 2,608 ceasefire violations in 2019, killing 44 civilians.

Pakistan took foreign diplomats posted in the country to the Line of Control (LoC) on Tuesday to witness firsthand whether the Indian Army had “smashed four terror launch pads” in heavy shelling in the sector two days ago?

According to Pak Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson, the diplomats were taken to the Nauseri, Shahkot and Jura sectors as well as the Nausada village, which suffered severe damage due to the attacks by the Indian troops in the recent days.

Pakistan also invited the Indian envoy for the visit, which the latter refused. No official(s) from the Indian High Commission joined the team visiting the LoC, Dr Faisal said October 22.

“The Indian side did not join the visit to the LoC nor have they provided coordinates of the alleged ‘launch pads’,” the FO spokesperson tweeted.

The consistency with which Pakistan took up the issue of Indian annexation of Kashmir since August 5 has yielded positive results in that the issue has been globalized contrary to the denial of the Indian regime. The US media has above all become vocal.

Indian academics too have begun talking against the Indian government on Kashmiri action of August 5/19.

A fresh news received while writing this story reveals that beginning 25th October, 2019, Moscow will host four-party consultations on the issue of Afghan settlement between representatives of Russia and China, the United States and Pakistan.

India is nowhere in the list of countries meeting in Moscow. Is India out from the entire Afghan peace process?

US Special Envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad is already in Moscow to discuss “shared interests in seeing the war in Afghanistan come to an end” with his Russian and Chinese counterparts, according to the US Department of State.

The US though doesn’t like the Russian entrance in the Afghani affairs. But….

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Ambassador told Muhammad Irfan for the Sputnik-a Russian News agency, that the country’s delegation to the Friday meeting would be led by Additional Foreign Secretary Muhemmed Aejaz, who oversees issues related to Afghanistan.

In yet another ear pleasing news, a fresh move to reinvigorate the “dead” peace talks, China announced it would host Taliban and Afghan delegates in a two-day meeting slated to begin on October 28 in Beijing.

Although there was no official announcement from China, but both Taliban and Afghan delegates have confirmed they received invitation from Beijing.

While Moscow has invited these countries for “consultations” then Beijing has termed the meet to what it calls “reinvigorate”. Wording may differ but the objective is securing peace in Afghanistan. The Beijing meet also doesn’t include India. India is permanently out?

That’s all.