Arvind nath Rimal

Senior political anaalyst, Nepal

Mr. Arvind Nath Rimal is a known senior political analyst. Some even claim that he is more or less a reservoir of knowledge albeit political ones. He has seen through his own eyes several Nepal political changes and thus his observations carry meaning to the new generation leaders. Mr. Rimal is currently the Chair person of Tanka Prasad Memorial Foundation. He has several books to his credit. He is also a prolific writer. At eighty plus Mr. Rimal is full of energy and talks ever about keeping Nepali sovereignty intact. Our salute to this vibrant old young ma and hope more to read other patriotic articles. Let’s share his experiences of his past: Chief Ed.

TGQ1: In your article in the Annapurna Post (November 16, 2015) in connection with the continuing blockade by the Government of India you demanded for declaring the present ambassador of India to Nepal as undesirable person. Are there other reasons for augmenting your demands? And few days later, the same Ambassador inviting some Nepalese industrialists and media persons asked them what Nepal wants from India? Can you comment on this matter?

Rimal: I would like to touch upon your second question, first of all. Yes, Nepal wants many things from India. First of all, Nepal wants resumption of age old multifarious and beneficial ties with the government and people of India which have been damaged by diplomatic intolerance and proxy war against our country. Nepal wants to utilize all facilities accorded to landlocked countries by regional and international covenants. Nepal wants to live in peace and independency as a sovereign nation. A weaker Nepal is detrimental to the Indian establishment in their fight against International terrorism if it is seriously interested to do so.  Needless to say, this is tantamount to a sort of state terrorism against the fundamental interests of thee overwhelming majority of our country. Secondly, Nepal wants five principles of peaceful  co-existence enunciated in Bandung as well as the SAARC Charter to be implemented in letter and spirit. Thirdly, Nepal wants immediate and total halt to the interference  in our internal affairs. Fourthly, Nepal wants that Government of India come out with a policy and program which serve the larger interests of our countrymen contrary to upholding communal and sectarian selfish interests of a small percentage of our population. And this list can be enumerated further.

Now about the first part of the question. The reasons given in the said article themselves are sufficient for that demand to be met immediately as they violate the norms and behaviors of diplomatic ethics. Nevertheless, as an envoy accredited with plenipotentiary powers with the aim of developing and strengthening age-old Nepal-India ties in multiple spheres he has derelicted in his noble duties and  has indulged and is yet indulging in such activities which are inimical to the interests of Nepal and therefore, counterproductive as well as harmful for the Indian cause. Although coming from the cultured, generous and friendly land of India, a land lived by such imminent spiritual masters as Ramakrishna Paramhamsha and Swami Vivekananda and also giant literary personalities as Rabindra Nath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, the Indian ambassador has left no stone unturned to vitiate and undermine the relationships that bind our two peoples and nations. By threatening the people of the host country whose salt he eats and whose air he breathes “ with the worse yet to come” he is bent upon to bring humanitarian disaster to Nepal the consequences of which would not and could not have negative effect on Indians as well.. A planned policy of strangulation of the Nepalese people, especially the old-aged, women and children through the scarcity of basic food products and hunger immediately after the great earthquakes and the oncoming severe winter, of territorial aggrandizement and then occupation of the inviolable Nepalese land, our southern belt through proxy war is being waged with unparallel ferocity which puts even the former colonial masters into shame. And the present Indian ambassador is the main hatchet man of these evil actions?

TGQ2: These are grave charges. Are not they?

Rimal: Yes, they are ! The so-called representatives of the “reputable” international community are the living witnesses to this diplomatic intolerance, to put it in a mild way, or to put it in a harsh term, the undeclared war of attrition against the Nepalese people. And yet they are mum and silent. The UNHRC does not see any violation of human rights here. The regional headquarters of the UNICEF with deaf ears does not hear the cries of the Nepalese mothers and children, the white elephants in the shape of SAARC are lazily munching the trees and their branches warming up in the winter sun of the Kantipath area. Are there any need for such agencies in Nepal? Furthermore, as if bringing insults to the injuries of Nepal the ruling class of the United Kingdom backed up the near hegemonistic designs of the Indian ruling establishment, through a  joint statement of the Indian and British prime ministers. The pretext for the support of Balkanization  of Nepal being the so-called inadequacies in the Nepal’s Constitution of 2015 for which the UK government itself had admired previously. A hangover of Tony Blair’s misdeed s for disintegration of Yogoslavia. Should one stoop so low as to avenge PN Shah the Great? It were the sons of Nepal serving in the British army who fought and won the Falkland war against Argentina for the British rulers. And now the grim irony is this that the rulers are supporting the policy of strangulation and blockade of their erstwhile subjects against the soldiers’ family and friends. Surely, money does not smell ! Should we not take it as an added bonus to the efforts made by the Indian Establishment for the “secularization” of the Nepalese state! Incidentally, the Tanka Prashad Acharya Memorial Foundation has planned to stage a protest demonstration in front of the Indian and British embassies  on December 3, 2015 condemning this reference to Nepal as an attack against the sovereignty of our country.

TGQ3: This effort was made by the previous government of the non-Hindu Sikh prime minister belonging to a political party headed by a Christian chairperson.; whereas the present government of India is described as a Hindu one. Isn’t your charge an anomalous?

Rimal: Not at all. The policy has remained the same regardless the change of the government. And the policy is carried out by the same bureaucratic machinery despite the occasional myths of the political ascendancy over the former. These myths prevailed for some time during the visit of the prime minister Narendra Modi and afterwards. And as a matter of fact Prime minister Modi’s “successful” foreign policy began from his Nepal visit. But that was a brief euphoria and eventually he was over powered by the same External Affairs Ministry, RAW and IB etc., bureaucratic machinery—-the machinery which has remained anti-Nepal since long. Let us take the example of the GOI prodding the so-called Madhesi front which does not represent the Madheshi common folks at all and whose leadership is composed of persons who actually belong to the upper classes that dominate and exploit the downtrodden ones. And these so-called Hinduite persons had totally  supported the ‘ secular” interim constitution as they were lavishly funded by the Western Christian agencies  And now they are at the beck and call of their Indian masters even though their hands still stink of their previous anti-Hindu stances  And again, money does not smell.

I would like to mention here this fact that Nepal even during its Hindu nation status had always been respectful to other religions and creeds and now even within its so-called secular status essentially remains a Hindu nation. And such a nation now has to bear the brunt of blockade and strangulation on the part of the government claiming to be of a Hindu religion, culture and creed.

TGQ4:  Now a very personal question. Why such a wrath against an ambassador who cannot but obey the commands of his masters?

Rimal: Because an ambassador has always a pivotal role to play in carrying out the policies of his government as well as working for the betterment of relations between the two governments and people. And in this regard the present ambassador has blatantly failed. In addition to this he has become a destroyer of Nepal- Indian multifarious ties.

I would like to tell you an interesting story of and about an ambassador of India. In early fifties of the last century the  Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru sent Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan as his ambassador to the then Soviet Union recalling the former ambassador, his own sister Mrs. Vijayalaxmi Pundit. There was great tension in the Far East as the Korean War was raging. And Mrs Pundit had not fared well in her duties as ambassador to the Stalin-ruled Soviet Russia. Reports of that time say that Stalin himself was amused by this event. A philosopher professor as an ambassador! Eventually, Dr. Radhakrishnan with his demeanor and due to his philosopher-statesmanship won the hearts and minds of the foreign diplomatic community as well as academic circles of the Soviet capital.

The Indian envoy did not aspire for anything but to find ways and means through which this dreadful Korean war with the American army and Mao-tse-Tung army facing each other could be extinguished. And it was Stalin who himself invited Dr. Radhakrishnan for a meeting which eventually played its part in arranging a truce. It was Pandit Nehru’s perspicacity which did a miracle. And it was the same Indian Prime Minister who inspite of being shown a black flag during his visit to Nepal  did sent an capable ambassador with a humane heart. And he was the one and only Bhagwan Sahay.

He could even argue with his boss Nehru in case Nepal needed generosity on the part of India for its national interest. And instead of touching the heights of his illustrious predecessor the present ambassador has sunken below the level of his ill-reputed predecessors.

TGQ5: You again touched upon this problem in your speech marking the birth anniversary of Late Dr. Yadav Prasad Pant on November 18. Why so?

Rimal:  Because in his multi-dimensional personality Dr. Pant was very capable ambassador to Japan.

During his tenure relationship between Japan and Nepal developed and strengthened especially in economic and cultural fields in both governmental as well as public levels.

Dr Pant was a great admirer of Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala. Had he been alive today he would be really distressed to see the Nepali Congress leadership breaking its fruitful alliance with the leftist forces of Nepal in regard to framing and promulgation of the Nepal Constitution of 2015. This breakaway and its unsuccessful bid to gain primeministership led to the loss of the presidency of the country and played a harmful role in augmenting the Indian blockade and tightening its diplomatic intransigence against the genuine Nepali interest. It has cost the illustrious political party of B.

P. Koirala, Ganeshman Singh  and Krishna Prasad Bhattarai an enormous loss. Some even  remark that the Nepali Congress would eventually turn out to be a farce.

And last but not the least,, none of the Panchayat rulers and no one from the political party leadership and Royalty since 1991 up to the present time can be absolved from the sins that they have committed to bring our Motherland from the catastrophe.

Special for Telegraphnepal.com

Republished