Annoyed Delhi’s fresh Nepal ploy!

Kathmandu: A sort of political blizzard is likely to overwhelm Nepal soon.

Destructive politics appear to have already taken a shape which awaits only its formalization in a week or so.

The frenzied play that is being played in the dim corners of Kathmandu backed by some alien forces in the South will, if it does happen, apparently be very hard to be tackled by the ruling Maoists-the party in government.

Exactly after a lapse of three years four months (minus 12 days to be more precise), such a destructive political play is being staged by forces that are visibly inimical to the Maoists and its new found ally-China in the North.

Recall, the fateful date of November 22, 2005, when the New Delhi establishment had brought all of its Nepali stooges cum servants to Delhi and forced them all to sign the most infamous 12 point agreement that summarily was aimed at dethroning the erstwhile monarch from the Nepali throne.

The tacit understanding that New Delhi administration under Indian Goliath Shyam Saran managed in between the then seven agitating political parties and the Maoists then residing in New Delhi remained instrumental in dismantling the Nepali Royalty. India must have been happy for having uprooted the 240 year long Royal institution of Nepal.

But what political gains she pocketed after the Royalty was marginalized?

Definitely, when India was all set and prepared to extract bigger political gains, the Chinese regime entered into Nepal in a very big way.

It were the Indian continued follies of the Himalayan order that facilitated and encouraged even the Chinese regime to make its “grand way” in Nepalese political affairs to the extent that India by now must have been suffering from China phobia.

A country which remained under the mercy of the Indian establishment for decades and decades willingly dared to free itself from the Indian pocket and went in search of yet another equally powerful pouch.

The Chinese bag suited the Maoists most, let’s presume.

The Indians have reasons to become highly sensitive and thus uneasy too.

The background:

On December 3, 2008, the visiting Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi sent a loud and clear message here and there by stating that “China will remain ever at the back of Nepal in order to safeguard the territorial integrity and national independence of Nepal”.

Definitely this message was aimed at India wherein China wanted to signal India that “enough would be enough” if the former further squeezed Nepal under one pretext or the other.

The Chinese foreign minister said this right here in Kathmandu. When he was saying so, he faced South at the Chinese embassy reception hall where this pen pusher was also invited as a guest.

Stunned by this Chinese tentative admonition, the Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood then met the former King on December 9, 2008, and apparently appealed the former monarch to devise schemes to dilute this dangerous Chinese warning. This secret meet took place in Soaltee Hotel and consumed more than two hours from 6.30 till 8.30 PM.

The King reportedly said the Indian Ambassador, “Now face the music…I can be of no use to you in this regard…I have already been sidelined…..Don’t drag me into politics”.

A panicked India got yet another political blow and that once again from the Chinese side.

December 12, 2008, the Chinese Ambassador, Qui Guohong, bluntly declared that “China will protect Nepal’s sovereignty and national independence come what may”.

Some thing was more in store for the Indian establishment.

The Chinese Ambassador once again recapped on December 28, 2009, wherein he stated that “Nepal-China relations were taller than Mount Everest”.

The fresh Chinese “vinegary pill” must have been very hard to be gulped by the Indian establishment.

Come 2009-the New Year:

The Chinese excessive socialization with the new Nepal regime did not stop but instead increased to the utter dismay of the country across the border in the South.

While greeting a Nepal Foreign Ministry delegation led by Foreign Secretary Gyan Chandra Acharya on February 21, 2009, the Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi once again assured Nepal of the Chinese support and that too unconditionally.

Look what he says, “Nepal-China relationship now be based on strategic partnership”.

The use of the word “strategic” must have pained the Indian regime to the hilt for obvious political reasons.

The wide and broad political overtone that the word strategic carries with it was perhaps sufficient for the Indian regime to smell rat against the incumbent Maoist regime in Nepal.

Some thing more to taunt the Indian regime still remained in Chinese store.

By the end of February, last month, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister, Hu Zengyue, came to Kathmandu and exploded a political bombshell whose tremors were largely felt in New Delhi.

The Assistant Minister from China pushed a new draft-proposal of Peace and Friendship Treaty to the perusal of the Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal in order to replace a former one that was signed as back as in 1960.

(Unsubstantiated reports claim that Prime Minister Dahal had himself approached the Chinese side when he was in Beijing last year to come up with such a new treaty).

The Chinese side forwarded the fresh treaty proposal at a time when the Indian regime would want a new extradition treaty to be signed by the Nepali side at the earliest.

The Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shanker Menon came here a fortnight ago and pressed Nepali side very hard for signing the extradition treaty.

The Indian draft of the extradition treaty is such that India could ask the deportation of any third country nationals whom it concluded to have engaged in anti-India activities from Nepali soil.

The Indian model of the draft treaty if signed by Nepal then the Pakistanis and the Chinese nationals will be the main target. The Europeans and the Americans may be the Indian targets after the Pakistanis and the Chinese nationals.

Nepal PM Dahal has so far not made any commitment from his side to the utter chagrin of the Indian regime.

As if the Indian pain were not enough, the Chinese embassy spokesperson Shan Ido on March 6, 2009, bluntly declared that China has already forwarded the draft of a new Peace and Friendship Treaty with Nepal to Nepal PM Dahal.

Shan Ido revealed this fact only after when the secretly handed over treaty draft got leaked from the Nepal’s Foreign Ministry sources.

The Chinese have done their job well. They did what they had to.

By now what has been abundantly clear is that the Maoists who were attentively nursed and cared by the Indian regime while staging a decade long People’s War have suddenly abandoned the Gandhian camp only to join the land wherefrom the Maoism originated.

A fatal blow to the Indian authorities.

This must have come as a bolt from the blue to the Indian mandarins seated in the South Block.

Thus the South Block and the ruling elites of the Indian establishment have enough logical reasons to “teach a befitting lesson” to the Maoists who in a way or the other betrayed the Indian assistance which they received in their troubled days.

The stage is thus set in Delhi.

The plan?

How to unseat the Maoists from power?

The annoyance in India has suddenly increased considering what if the Chinese treaty is signed much ahead of the Indian extradition treaty by Nepal government?

It is this fear obsession that has alarmed the Indian regime in the recent days.

But the naughty Indian regime knows how to fix the nail on the head of the Maoists as it did with King Gyanendra in 2005.

It is under this design more so to bring this design into rapid action that suddenly Nepal’s major political leaders have pretended that they have fallen sick. Nepal’s medical practitioners have advised Girija Prasad Koirala, K.P. Oli, Jhal Nath Khanal, Bam Dev Gautam, Surya Bahadur Thapa and a host of others to land in Delhi for the overall checkup of their respective illness.

Understandably, the Nepali leaders will be “thoroughly” checked by Dr. Man Mohan Singh, Dr. Sonia Gandhi and Dr. Shiv Shanker Menon.

Analysts claim that these Indian medical practitioners know how to correct the Nepali ailments.

The Nepali case has already been diagnosed by the Indian medical doctors.

The diagnosis is that Nepal is currently suffering from “pro-China syndrome”.

The Indian doctors say that it is a dangerous “viral fever” deliberately embraced by the Nepali Maoists which needed urgent surgical operation or else the entire South Asian region may suffer from the same disease time permitting.

As stated in our last week, the former Nepal King was not in India for a mere pleasure trip has come true.

The King is in India. Koirala together with his daughter Sujata are leaving for New Delhi Wednesday.

K.P. Oli, the defeated UML leader but yet excessively closer to the Indian regime is fortunately in New Delhi already.

Surya Bahadur Thapa and Jhal Nath Khanal are soon to land in New Delhi.

The Indian design is to unseat the Maoists prior to the signing of the Chinese draft treaty freshly pushed by the Chinese regime. The Indian authorities fear that if Nepal PM Dahal remains in power up to April next month, he will surely sign the Chinese drafted Peace Treaty while he will be in Beijing next month.

It is this fear that has pressed the Indian leaders to summarily invite the Nepali leaders to be in Delhi. Some have already approached the destination and the rest will land in Delhi by the end of this week.

The purpose is to collect ideas and views on how to unseat the Maoists from power.

The former King is also the guest of honor.

The Indian side is expected to mediate in between the invited party leaders and the former King.

If need be, the Indian establishment may elevate the ranks of the former King.

But how remains the Himalayan question?

Keep your fingers crossed until New Delhi devises a suitable formula to unseat the Maoists from Nepal’s power corridors.

But will the Maoists easily quit the government? They will surely create havoc in this country which will once again push the country towards a civil war of the Himalayan order.

Let’s see how New Delhi plays its cards against China to dilute the latter’s increased influence in a country wherein the former have had a free travel since the beginning of the 1950s?

If so, will China in the emerging situation in Nepal remain a mere spectator then? Or India will summarily bulldoze the emerging political situation and make its way as it used to do in the past?

King Gyanendra expected that the Chinese would come to his rescue but they didn’t. Will it be the same with the Maoists?

Understandably, New Delhi has become like a cat pushed to the wall which would surely retaliate with full force for its very survival.

Let’s see how the politics takes its course in the days ahead.

(This write-up will appear in the March 11, 2009 edition of the Telegraph Weekly)

Posted on : 2009-03-09 20:34:56

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