–Madhu Raman Acharya
After my promotion to the Joint Secretary level in the Diplomatic Group, as the Foreign Service was then known, I did not expect to be posted in New Delhi.
Rather, I was expecting to wait a bit longer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to become an ambassador, as careerists would be appointed to that post upon achieving some seniority and experience in the service.
Sometime in the month of September 1997 when I was the Joint Secretary of the Administration Division of the Ministry, Dr. Bhekh Bahadir Thapa, who had just been appointed as Nepal’s ambassador to India, came to see me in my office.
He asked me if I would be interested to join his team as the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Nepali embassy in New Delhi. Despite my initial reluctance to go as a deputy, I accepted the offer with the aspiration that I would have much to learn from Dr. Thapa, an acclaimed and seasoned diplomat.
That landed me in New Delhi as the Minister/Deputy Chief of Mission in the “Royal Nepalese Embassy”, as Nepal’s embassy used to be known until then.
I arrived New Delhi to assume the post on 2nd October, coinciding with Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. It so turned out that my first diplomatic posting, though short in stint of a little over one year, would become a rewarding experience and a solid stepping-stone to my further diplomatic career in which I had the opportunity to serve as Nepal’s Ambassador to Bangladesh (1998- 2001), Foreign Secretary (2001-2005) and the Permanent Representative to the UN in New York (2005-09).
For Nepal’s diplomacy, the post in New Delhi is considered really worthwhile and challenging assignment in view of the extensive nature of bilateral relations between Nepal and India and also in view of the number of embassies and the size of the diplomatic corps in the Indian capital.
Apart from covering a wide range of bilateral issues, including political and diplomatic relations, security, trade, water resources, boundary, and economic cooperation, I was also asked to look after some 54 embassies in New Delhi that were accredited to Nepal in absence of their missions in Kathmandu.
High Level Visits:
My first exposure to a big diplomatic event after landing in New Delhi was to prepare for the unofficial visit of King Birendra to India, which was due two weeks after my arrival.
As Ambassador Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa had yet to assume office in view of the process involved in diplomatic clearance and credentials, I was asked to work as Charge d’ Affaires or the Acting Head of the Mission.
In that capacity, I had the opportunity to work with Indian diplomats, including the Chief of Protocol Mr. Pinak Chakraborty and the Joint Secretary of the Northern Division,
Mr. Sudheer Byas at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to make detailed preparation for the royal visit.
The job of preparing for the visit also became easier as I was supported with good staff in the Embassy, including Dr. Ram Bhakta Thakur who was serving as the acting Head of Mission before my arrival.
First Secretary Mr. Shanker Bairagi, who would later become Nepal’s foreign secretary and First Secretary Mr. Yadav Khanal were among the competent staff available in the Embassy to support me in that and other tasks.
Though it was named “unofficial visit”, New Delhi had treated the King’s visit almost on a par with the state visit of the Head of State, except for a few ceremonial things.
My nervousness for the preparation for the visit eased as Dr. Thapa assumed his duty as Ambassador and soon presented his credentials to President Mr. K. R. Narayanan, who he had known since both had served as ambassadors of the respective countries to the United States of America at about the same time.
When I accompanied Dr. Thapa during the presentation of his credentials, I could grasp the width of the personal friendship between the Ambassador and the President.
I later learned that Dr. Rita Thapa, spouse of Dr. Bhekh and then a Director at the WHO’s regional office in New Delhi, had also good friendship with Mrs. Narayanan from their time in Washington DC.
The unofficial visit of King Birendra went off well, thanks to our meticulous preparations.
There were’ informal’ talks between the King and the Indian leaders, some of which I had the opportunity to participate.
Because of the unofficial nature of the visit and because substantive issues were dealt with at the government-to-government level, the discussions were focused on courtesies.
Event though, the warmth of relation between the King and India’s senior government leaders was clearly visible.
Later, King Birendra would be invited as the Chief Guest on the Indian Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi in 1999.
Among Other important events during my tenure in New Delhi was the state visit of President K. R. Naryanan to Nepal on 28-30 May, 1998.
As it was the state visit by an Indian President in more than a decade and it was his first visit abroad, the visit had been given good significance in New Delhi and in Kathmandu.
Though such state visits were mostly ceremonial and no major departures were expected, I prepared briefs and papers for the substantive issues, as there would be contacts including that at the highest political level. Since Ambassador Thapa flew off to Kathmandu in advance of the visit,
I had the opportunity to see off President Narayanan at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.
That was my first opportunity to be lined up with senior Indian political and diplomatic officials while seeing off the President at the airport. I also had the opportunity to have a similar line-up at the airport upon the President’s arrival back from Kathmandu.
It was really courteous of the President to stop by me at the welcoming queue to greet me with a warm handshake, saying “Greetings from Kathmandu!” and thank us for the “excellent visit”.
I gathered that the visit went off well. Later, I had the opportunity to accompany Nepal’s Heads of State and Government on several other occasions during their meetings with President Narayanan, who was himself a seasoned diplomat and soft-spoken person that exuded wisdom and experience in his dealings with his counterparts and other political and diplomatic officials.
Nuclear Tests:
Another interesting event during my stay in New Delhi was India’s nuclear tests in May 1998, breaking their pledge not to make nuclear bombs. Indians greeted their “success” with a great fanfare and the BJP government led by Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee took a great pride in making this bold step of acquiring the “nuclear weapon state” status. Pakistan responded in kind exploding its nuclear devices too.
The international community, mainly the Western countries reacted sharply.
The United States and EU imposed sanctions against both India and Pakistan. Nepal’s government issued a statement expressing concern at the tests.
We had reasons to be concerned, as the tests could start an arms race in the regions also the sanctions could affect Nepal’s economy indirectly, because of its link with India’s. In the Embassy,
I developed briefs and papers on developing scenarios in the post-test period.
It was my view that a conventional war between India and Pakistan had become a lesser possibility after the nuclear tests, which served as a major deterrent.
In the long run, both India and Pakistan graduated from their status of “threshold” nuclear states to become full swing “nuclear powers”, and received support of the other nuclear powers, though they are yet to be accepted to the Nuclear Security Group (NSG), an exclusive club of the big nuclear powers.
Jain Report:
In one embarrassing event, we in the Embassy panicked when we heard that the infamous Jain Report on the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi came out, as it had some damaging remarks about the Nepal’s royal family, especially Queen Aishwarya.
The report cited some intelligence sources quoting a police official in Nepal that Queen Aishwarya was hiring an assassination squad for Rajiv’s murder.
It was not only highly fictitious; it was malicious as well. I remember we had to try hard to obtain a copy of the report. Upon my advice, Mr. Deependra Bista, Counsellor of the Embassy, obtained the report from the library of the parliament.
Ambassador Thapa visited the Ministry of External Affairs to lodge our protest. Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also issued a strongly worded statement in protest of the report’s reference to Nepal’s queen.
Bilateral Meetings:
During my stint in New Delhi, I had the opportunity of participating in quite a few bilateral meetings.
Most conspicuously, I took part in two joint working group meetings on water resources, which were focused on finalizing the DPR of the Pancheswor Project, which had become a hot issue after the ratification of the Mahakali Treaty by Nepal’s parliament.
There was not substantive progress due to differences between the both sides on issues of share of water, issue of the lower consumptive use, cost and benefit sharing formula and other details of the project. That gave us reason to believe that India’s focus was to regularize the controversial Tanakpur Agreement (1991) and they were least interested in other aspects of the “integrated development of the Mahakali River” as the treaty was supposed to do.
Regrettably, the Pancheswor project still remains at limbo.
I also took part in the bilateral official’s meetings on border management, customs officials and the Commerce Secretaries and Home Secretaries of the both countries.
I had to engage in a lot of informal negotiations and preparations ahead of these meetings.
Until that time, our embassy in New Delhi had been relegated to the sideline from our own government and it was hardly involved in the substantive business.
The Nepali officials and ministers in Kathmandu used to contact the Indian Embassy for any bilateral business often ignoring our presence in New Delhi and sometimes bypassing and without informing us altogether.
They used to contact us in New Delhi only when they needed some personal errands done or when there were big problems that could not be of interest of the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.
I remember, in one particular episode of getting some concession to the Nepali Haj pilgrims in the Air India flights, Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa himself called me and asked to push for securing such concession from the Indian officials. The Embassy of India in Kathmandu had not shown any interest in handling the matter.
This was a problem that had been accumulated in our diplomatic practice for a long time. Hopefully, this has started to become less common nowadays.
During our time, we sought to correct that malpractice, albeit without much success. Under the guidance, leadership and support of Ambassador Dr. Thapa, I pushed myself in all important delegation-level bilateral meetings held both in New Delhi and in Kathmandu.
Though my contribution to such meetings was marginal, I could hugely benefit from these meetings, which would serve as a good background during my later dealing with India as Nepal’s Foreign Secretary.
Bilateral Mechanisms:
While I was in New Delhi, a significant amount of my energy and time was spent on getting the Treaty of Transit between Nepal and India renewed.
I was pressing the Indian officials to give some indication of automatic renewal of the transit treaty.
We were so frustrated by the slow response of the Indian officials that even a “statement of intent” from India in support of the automatic renewal provision that was there in the treaty would be a big achievement for us at some point.
The treaty was eventually renewed in December 1998, two months after my departure from New Delhi. Nepal had experienced similar difficulties in renewing the bilateral Treaty of Trade (1991) in 1996, when several liberal clauses in favor of Nepal in the 1991 treaty were withdrawn during the renewal.
As Ambassador Thapa focused himself on high-level political and diplomatic dealings, he had delegated me almost entire administrative tasks of the Mission and had asked me to maintain good contacts with my counterparts in the MEA and other relevant ministries of the Government of India.
I had developed good friendship and regular contact with Mr. Sudheer Vyas, Joint Secretary at the Northern Division of the MEA, who was responsible for handling Nepal and Bhutan.
We had agreed for a regular monthly round-up of all bilateral issues in informal meeting at his office.
That would provide a good momentum for clearing the pending things and making progress in bilateral issues agreed at the political and higher diplomatic levels.
That helped me update the substantive issues regularly.
We also kept discussing the issues at hand extensively and agreed to schedule the meetings of various bilateral mechanisms for various issues.
I remember there were more than two-dozen agreed bilateral mechanisms on issues including security, border, trade, water resources and the like.
Such informal monthly meetings with Mr. Vyas also gave me good points to include in the draft of Ambassador’s monthly report to Kathmandu, which Dr. Thapa had regularized since his arrival and had asked me to put together a draft for his perusal before he sent his report to Kathmandu.
I also had good contacts with other officials of the MEA, including Mr. Harsh Vardhan Shringla, a Nepali-speaking person of Darjeeling origin. He would also serve in India’s mission in New York while I was the Permanent Representative to the UN there. Mr. Shringla would later become India’s ambassador to the USA and India’s Foreign Secretary.
I had good access to senior Indian government officials, including the Secretaries at the Ministry of Home, Commerce and Water Resources.
I used to visit them regularly before bilateral consultations or on issues cropping up from time to time.
During my time, the Home Secretary level consultation was just taking shape.
I remember I went around with Home Secretary Padam Prasad Pokharel in his meetings with officials in New Delhi during one such consultation.
At that time, Nepal was seeking India’s help in arresting the suspects of the murder of a Nepali member of parliament, Mr. Mirza Dilsad Beg.
Eventually, a few culprits were arrested and handed over to Nepal informally. I had doubts about the involvement of Nepali police official in such arrest in Mumbai, for that would invite reciprocal request from the Indian police for their involvement in Nepal in the event of a similar situation. Nepal’s home ministry officials were more interested in getting the culprits immediately, not concerned of the longer- term diplomatic consequences. It so happened that Indian police officials were found involved in the arrest of some Nepali suspects in Baneswor, Kathmandu, a few years later, something that would invite a lot of controversy back home.
An embarrassing episode on the supply of sugar taught me a lesson while I was in New Delhi.
I was wrongly impressed upon by the local office of the Salt Trading Corporation to write a note to the Indian government asking to convert the sugar quota at a levy price only to discover later that the Council of Ministers back home had not taken a decision on this issue.
I had to write to the Indian officials asking them to cancel the note. A gang of sorts was operational in New Delhi to convert that quota into levy for a heavy price difference across the two sides of the border.
This was also supported by the members of parliament from bordering constituencies of the Indian state of Bihar, who had impressed upon the Indian officials that converting the regular sugar to Nepal to levy price would ease supply in their areas.
Coordination with Concurrently Accredited Missions:
Ambassador Dr. Thapa had also asked me to look after 54 diplomatic missions in New Delhi that were accredited to Nepal from the Indian capital in absence of their missions in Kathmandu.
It was quite good for diplomatic contacts, but a lot of job to coordinate their business and the bilateral relations with each of them. I could establish good contacts with diplomats from many countries, mainly from a group called “small missions” which had just begun.
The active members if the group included diplomats from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Namibia, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Sweden.
I would go out for lunch with some of them and would get invited to their places quite regularly. I had good relations with many diplomats and would remain in touch with some of them thereafter.
I remember Mr. Alimul Huque of Bangladesh would later become High Commissioner of Bangladesh to Pakistan, Mr. Daw Penjo of Bhutan would later become that country’s Permanent Representative in New York. Mr. Prasad Kariyawasam, who was Sri Lanka’s deputy chief of mission at the time, and I became good friends thereafter.
We would also serve together as our respective country’s Permanent Representative in New York simultaneously. Prasad later became Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in New Delhi, Ambassador in the United States and the island country’s Foreign Secretary.
During my stay in New Delhi, I tried to keep in touch regularly with a like-minded group of foreign diplomats on the Bhutanese refugees.
I used to update them quite regularly and had started to get their sympathy on the issue.
This group included the Austrian, Swiss, Dutch and the EU diplomats.
I also had good contacts with some Bhutanese refugee leaders and activists who kept visiting New Delhi. At that time, there was little or no discussion with the Indian counterparts on the issue.
Administrative Works:
While in New Delhi, I tried to change the working culture and management practices of the Embassy, for which I received good support from Ambassador Thapa and other diplomatic staff.
Accordingly, we introduced job descriptions, streamlined the local staff regulations, regularized the calendar of activities, started duty rosters including for airports and other activities and for the embassy staff on weekends and public holidays, reduced misuse or competition for use of long-distance telephone calls and vehicles of the embassy, regularized staff meetings, improved documentation and regularized reporting to the Ministry, and introduced similar reforms that allowed us to work in a less panicky and divisive environment among the staff that used to be there earlier.
There were unachieved things as well. I could not fully relieve the diplomatic staff from routine and non-substantial and trivial matters.
I kept encouraging the diplomatic staff to increase their contacts and network, which only a few did well. I could not complete the renovation of the office and the unused portion of the Ambassador’s residence, for which I had to ask a government engineer from Kathmandu to fly to do the designs for converting the unused lower floor into two quarters for senior officers with backside access.
This plan materialized and two senior embassy staff started to stay there a few years after I left New Delhi.
I could not establish the inventory system for Embassy assets and property, for it was quite chaotic.
My time and energy also used to be dispensed with such trivial things as registering newly bought vehicles, or getting admission for someone in a college or a school and doing other errands, thus diverting my time and energy from substantive issues.
There were issues like getting permits for the aircrafts hired by the Royal Nepal airlines.
It was a shame riding on a JAT aircraft on RA flight. It was quite an embarrassing task to obtain permits for the Yugoslav Airlines to fly to New Delhi under the RA banner.
Things had gone really bad with the national flag carrier at that time.
The Embassy in New Delhi had earned its reputation as an outpost and clearing-house of the school and college admissions, facilitations and hospitality service to the visiting VIPs and others for sundry purposes such as tourism, pilgrimage, transit, medical treatment, and personal visits.
Changing that was quite a big task, but we tried, thanks to the guidance and leadership of Ambassador Bhekh B Thapa. The Embassy started to be assertive and visible in the substantive issues, though the spirit could not be retained thereafter.
I can say I tried to somehow contribute to change the image of the New Delhi mission for its non-performance, waste, and focus on trivial matters to substantive aspects.
By the time I was leaving, I had started to see some zeal among some officers to implement reforms and become innovative, some on their own.
I also had to deal with issues related to the problems faced by the Nepali students in India. I managed to convince the Delhi University for admission of the Nepalese students on the basis of our recommendation, in which I found a roundabout wording to say that each of the private applicants to colleges in the university were the nominees of the government.
The Delhi University, in its statute, had provisions that allowed the Nepali students in colleges in the first come first serve basis if they were nominated by the government of Nepal.
Second Secretary Mr. Bhrigu Dhungana helped me in this case quite well. After that, we did not have to go after Delhi University officials to get individual students, often connected to highly placed officials and leaders in Nepal, admitted in the University’s colleges.
We could do that by just sending a formatted letter of recommendation.
We could also organize a few tourism promotional events.
I was actively involved in organizing a Nepal Night Festival at a local hotel in New Delhi quite successfully.
Ambassador Thapa invited senior government officials and politicians, while there were many Indian guests in attendance.
I also had the opportunity of speaking in a few seminars and meetings on bilateral and regional issues.
Though I was not a member of the Board of the Nepal-India B P Koirala Foundation, I kept pushing its activities but could only marginally contribute to make it focus on substantive issues than on the occasional exchange of visits and organization of some seminars.
There were instances in which I had to cater to the visiting royals.
I had good acquaintance with Crown Prince Deependra who used to frequent to New Delhi for transit and other purposes.
Deependra was fond of talking about politics, sports, guns and all sorts of spoiled-brat kind of things with us.
In some incidents, we had to wait for hours at the transit lounge looking after the visiting royals. I was disappointed most of the royals I knew then in New Delhi, including Crown Prince Deependra, were killed during the 19 June 2001 massacre at the royal palace in Kathmandu.
My acquaintance with Chakra Prasad Bastola would intensify while I was in New Delhi. He had served as Nepal’s ambassador to India and had many friends who I could relate to.
Chakra Dai used to keep visiting New Delhi frequently including to see his two daughters studying in different colleges. Through Chakra Dai and Shailaja Acharya, who used to frequent New Delhi, we had developed good relations with Mr. Chandra Shekhar, former Prime Minister of India, and his staff.
Various political leaders used to visit New Delhi on their own and meet many Indian leaders. Some had good connections in the intelligence departments.
Some leaders would directly speak to the officials of the Ministry of External Affairs. Others would come for the medical treatment or admission of their children in schools and colleges in India.
If the connections they had could be utilized for promoting Nepal’s national interests, we could do a lot collectively. Unfortunately, that was not happening.
Two Nepali people with whom I had good contacts during the time were Mr. Niranjan Koirala and Mr. Yubaraj Ghimire.
Koirala, who was living in New Delhi with his wife, daughter of an influential businessman called Dalmia, introduced me to his good connections in New Delhi’s power elite. Journalist Yuba Raj Ghimire was very helpful in guiding me through connections in the journalistic and political world.
During my stay in New Delhi, I made good trips with my family to Haridwar, Rhisikesh, Dehradun, Masssourie, Chandigadh, Simla, Mathura, Vrindaban, Agra, Kurukshetrra, Jaipur and Vaishnodevi, for which we had to enter the troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir.
I drove myself to most of these places. Driving around in a new CD car around India’s crowded highways and busy bazaars was quite an experience.
On the overall, I enjoyed working in the Nepali embassy in New Delhi, which I found very useful in my later years in the diplomatic service.
I strongly recommend that Nepal’s career diplomats must serve at least once in New Delhi in their career. In fact, the Government should adopt a policy that a diplomat must have served in New Delhi before taking up the assignment as Nepal’s Foreign Secretary.