N.P. Upadhyaya, Kathmandu: India and Pakistan may treat each other as enemies, but students from University of Oxford from South Asia gathered recently to say no to war and conflict.
Well done guys and girls, says senior Indian journalist Rajdeep Sardesai in his tweet posted few days back.
Senior journalist Rajdeep is not that aggressive as compared to his shouting colleagues.
This means that the new generation in India and Pakistan would love to hate even the idea of war and conflict with each other.
This is good news indeed which bodes well for the entire South Asian region.
And this moving news should open eyes of the Indian ruling elites and its ugly media.
India though has kept Nepal in a tormented state beginning 1950 but yet Nepalis take Indian population as friends and brothers.
However, it should not mean that Nepal has special relations with India. Forget it.
Nepali intellectuals love to hate the Indian leaders and the bureaucrats for explainable reasons.
Freshly a political personality from one of India’s opposition party, Ms. Alka Lamba tweeted nonsense, which is why Nepali population prefer to keep the Indians at a comfortable distance.
The former British slaves wish to degrade Nepalis -the people who ever kept their independence and sovereign status intact in the recorded history.
Since Lamba has apologized and thus we wish not to stretch the issue further, but yet she should think twice prior to making any derogatory comments as to what would happen to Indian nation if the Gorkha soldiers from the Gorkha Regiment take her remarks seriously and determine to retaliate?
Ms. Lamba is thus advised to take all the beggars from Nepal back as they have entered into Nepal from India. For the time being, we shall console ourselves and forget the Indian atrocities.
The wearer knows where the shoe pinches. Economic blockades in series forces Nepali people to conclude that India can never be a real and reliable friend of “sovereign” Nepal. And this pushes the nation to inch closer to China more or less willingly.
The Indian bureaucracy has concluded that Nepal could only be tamed by imposing economic blockades.
Nepal has so far braved four economic blockades and the next is eagerly awaited.
And such inhumane repeated blockades have forced Nepal and its population to happily inch closer to the Chinese-Nepal’s northern neighbor.
Bangladesh and Bhutan too in the recent days and months have inched closer to China, news agencies report.
The India tortured Nepali people too would wish that both the government of India and Pakistan to understand the message the students from across the borders wish to send to their respective government from Oxford, United Kingdom.
The Economists dated February 28, 2019, asks Prime Minister Narendra Modi to accept Imran Khan’s offer for peace talk but at the same time it thinks Modi is incapable of talking peace.
Some Congress men in India have begun telling that PM Modi looks like a terrorist.
This perhaps speaks as to how internationally acknowledged media outlets and political organizations take PM Modi and the Oxford graduate Imran Khan.
Modi is taken in Nepal as India’s Feku Prime Minister in addition to his fraudulent image.
While PM Khan is an Oxonian then the other has spent his childhood making tea over and over again and that too at India’s stinking Railway stations.
When pushed to the wall inside his own country by sane and peace loving Indian population, PM Modi-the war monger that he is being taken now after Pulwama incident, made a very dangerous remark in an Ahmedabad election rally a week ago wherein he apparently lost his mental balance and threatened Pakistan, in his own words, “Will enter your territory and strike terror”.
In saying so, PM Modi sent a warning like never before from the Ahmedabad election rally. Election stunt that it was.
It turned out to be a hollow threat.
He continues to make such erratic statements with the objective to win the polls that has already been slated to begin this April, 2019.
The Indian polls shall be held in seven stages.
In response, writes the Swedish Professor of Indian origin Ashok Swain in his fresh tweet dated 4 March 2019 that “But who will tell Modi that Pakistan has more nuclear weapons (140) but India has only (120)? And who will tell Modi that China will surely support while India has no one? So why is Modi pushing India to hell just because he can win election? According to India Today dated September 4, 2018, the number of listed militants in Kashmir has gone up to 300 in the last one decade for the first time, according to figures compiled by the Jammu and Kashmir Police.
The number of militants was usually around 200 in the ten years previously, with the figure coming down to the lowest at 78 in 2013 since insurgency started in 1990.
One of the main reasons for the increase in the number of militants is local youths in south Kashmir picking up arms, writes India Today quoting Police sources. Out of the 300 listed militants, close to 180 are active in south Kashmir districts.
“Loss of life and terrorism justified by any ideology should be strongly condemned no matter who is involved but playing a blame game over sensitive issues is not suitable to a country like India”, writes Jaffar Hasnain for the Daily Sabah dated 11 March, 2019.
The Frontline Kashmir tweets in a very sensible way.
The Frontline has made some sort of appeal to all Kashmiris living in various parts of the world for saving Kashmir from the current crisis that has been lingering since decades and decades.
The Frontline Kashmir tweet of dated 2nd March in makes a passionate appeal which says in part, “It is time for the Kashmiri diaspora to come out and make efforts to highlight the atrocities committed by the Indian forces in Kashmir and across the Line of Control (LoC).
Around 2.5 million Kashmiris are settled in the UK, US, European Union, Canada and a few could also be seen inside Thamel area of Kathmandu, Nepal.
If these Kashmiris unite can definitely make an impact.
In the meantime one scholar Aparna Pande from the Washington based Hudson Institute speaks about the volatile situation in South Asia, February 27, 2109 wherein she states “India also needs to focus its attention on the rise of China and the challenge that poses for which India’s attention should be on building its economy and its defense. War does not benefit India and will only hamper India’s desire to build itself economically and militarily. Instead any conflict or war with Pakistan helps Chinese aims”.
For this scholar, China is a threat but not Pakistan and thus suggests her country of origin (?) to take note of her brilliant suggestions. But she is speaking the truth in that China finally gains if India and Pakistan continue to tease each other intermittently over the lingering Kashmir issue. China is benefitting immensely.
Ms. Pandey perhaps understand better that as and when India’s smaller neighbors are being tortured by the regional bully, as India is taken in South Asia, they prefer automatically to inch closer to China, as stated earlier. China over these years has benefitted from the Indian lapses or better say after the adoption of the DADA GIRI in the “neighborhood first” policy. This Dadagiri component has distorted Indian image further.
If Modi is the loser this time then Khan, by default, has already emerged as the most loved leader in South Asia Nepal included essentially. He is taken as Statesman in this part of the world.
Like it or not but this is the fact.
Anil Sigdel, an International relations expert and a Nepali scholar based in Washington D.C writes in his fresh article as to what the regional bully India means to the smaller neighbors and how the smaller neighbors prefer to tilt towards China to inhale fresh oxygen, in his own words, (sic), “India is trying in several ways to avert such a scenario, including by engaging with China in its region. But its neighbors remain reluctant to fully cooperate with India. PM Modi’s current “new India” of intense Hindu nationalism and his tack to label his neighbors as bad guys and take strong actions on the eve of elections is making the neighbors wary. So, the door is wide open for China to pull these countries into its orbit and India cannot stop it as it is in no position to do so. Communist parties in the region are already emboldened by Chinese proximity”.
With respect and honor this scribe wishes to sound scholar Ms. Pandey to benefit immensely from what Dr. Sigdel has hinted through his freshly published article “The U.S. And the Need for a New Block in South Asia”.
Dr. Sigdel is the Director at Nepal Matters for America in Washington D. C.
Nepal PM Oli could be a great friend of India but the population in Nepal prefer China over India. Dr. Sigdel is correct in his observation on how China is being loved by the South Asian nations including Nepal.
China entered into Nepali hearts after the Indian regime under devil Modi imposed inhumane economic blockade on Nepal in the year 2015.
China came to help Nepal and its population at time of Nepal’s need.
The entire Islamic nations perhaps prefer Pakistan over India on Kashmir issue, the distinguished Hudson Institute scholar should appreciate.
The just concluded meet of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) held in Abu Dhabi has stamped this fact already.
Kashmir issue this time has drawn the attention of global leaders who possess a say in shaping world politics.
This Hudson scholar is advised to learn from Dr. Sigdel’s piece as to how India behaves with its smaller neighbors and then prepare her next article for the Institute. She must explore as to why the neighbors love to hate India.
Rest of her contentions made in the article are worth reading.
Ms. Alka Lamba, as a typical Indian national, in a fresh tweet has made derogatory comments on Nepal’s brave people and soldiers who are defending her own country.
Meanwhile, in a fresh article penned by yet another scholar Pankaj Mishra for the Bloomberg-Opinion, dated March 6, 2019 says, in his own words, “and Modi’s militant nationalism, loudly amplified by Indian television anchors, isn’t the only flammable element in a volatile situation.
India’s burgeoning military-intellectual complex also deserves the world’s close and skeptical scrutiny”.
Scholar Mishra further writes that “one wing of this community consists of superannuated and clearly bored generals, titillating hyper-patriotic television anchors and themselves with visions of do-or-die wars and glorious victories. Their jingoism far exceeds the capacity of the Indian military, which, an internal report recently revealed, is encumbered with “vintage” equipment.
Mishra’s article mainly takes that “New Delhi’s burgeoning military-intellectual complex is exacerbating rather than moderating the country’s warlike mood”.
Before we conclude this write up, here is what the great Shayar Bashir Badra said long time back. He says, “One may fight but should not stoop so low that whenever you meet again, you are not ashamed of”.
Its literal Urdu translation is here.
“Dushmani Jam Kar Karo Lekin Ye Gunjais rahey, Jab Kabhi ham Dost Ho Jayen to Sharminda Na Ho”.