Double talk this

Kathmandu: The hide and seek game in between Nepal and India is on since the very first day of the signing of the  most abusive and humiliating 1950 Treaty which has been named as “ Peace and Friendship Treaty”.

Nepal has always been at the losing side since this game began long time back.

The inner reality which has been felt by the majority of the population in this country has been that this Treaty neither brought Peace nor it contributed to the enhancement of Friendship to which it was intended by the said contract between the two neighbors.

But why the treaty failed wretchedly?

The fact is that, as far as analysts here presume, this was not a treaty at all. In effect, it was an “unequal agreement/contract in between the two nations which was “imposed” on Nepal by then Indian Prime Minister Nehru. The Nehruvian doctrine came into action since this treaty, to recall.

Yet another mortifying aspect of this treaty has been that it was signed by the then Nepal Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher and the other side managed to sign the said treaty at a junior clerk level. How India took Nepal then becomes evident from the status of the two signatories.

Poor Mohan Shumsher signed the unequal treaty concluding that Nehru would make his Prime Ministerial tenure back in Nepal to continue for some more years but Nehru was so sharp-witted enough that he took for a ride the Rana Prime Minister. Mohan Shumsher was not provided even a single second later to repent over his follies.

The treaty has not only so many flaws contained therein but some clauses incorporated in the said treaty are so degrading and insulting that no staunch nationalist could digest it for long.

However, the tragedy has been that the national population is enduring this out and out ad nauseating affront since sixty plus years.

This treaty is one sided and benefits or say looks into the prime security interests of the Indian establishment which by extension mean that Nepali interests have been left to the mercy of the other side of the border.

Nepal can’t import arms from any other countries than India and India alone. To add insult to injury, Nepal, as per the treaty, is obliged to seek the Indian sanction as and when this country needed to import weapons from third countries. Failing to do so, as witnessed in 1989, means “economic penal actions” to Nepal.

In all, the treaty need total abrogation or at best a grand reviewal which is based on equal terms and that necessarily look into the country’s prime interests.

News of late suggests that India expressed its willingness for the review of the treaty. Good news.

However, the hard fact is that as per the provisions built-in the old treaty has no instrument for the reviewal as demanded by Nepal and agreed upon by Krishna-the Indian Foreign Minister.

The treaty says that it can be abrogated providing one year notice in advance to the other side. Thus, analysts fear, Krishna has befooled the Nepalese side.

Now let’s talk different.

Basically, India bashing is the main premise of the Nepalese Communists. They create mayhem as and when they are not in power. This has remained in practice and has almost become a sort of convention that the communists have kept it intact since the next minute of the signing the 1950 treaty of peace and friendship with India, July 31, 1950.

But when in power, these very communist parties, fortunately all born in India, neither talk of this treaty nor think it fit or logical to register official protests as against the continued land encroachment made by the Indian side in places like SUSTA, Maheshpur, Kalapani and many more.

Instead what has been clearly observed that these communists rush to New Delhi either to retain their power base in Kathmandu or to bounce back to Singh Durbar power corridors.

Thus India bashing and India appeasing runs concurrently. So unfortunate!

Yet, a terrified Indian Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna landed in Kathmandu to defuse the Nepal Maoist’s freshly initiated tirade and canard against India.

To recall, the Nepalese Maoists have begun their flimsy outburst and canard against India beginning 22 December, 2009, to the extent that Prachanda and Lieutenants went here and there to “create” awareness among the population and told the mass that India was the real villain of Nepal and that this “expansionist” India must be taught a befitting lesson. The slogan was “National Independence”. Sweet slogan indeed.

To some extent, their near to propaganda worked which apparently compelled the Indian regime to send its seasoned diplomat-Krishna to Nepal to sense the pulse beat of the Nepali leaders more so those of the annoyed Maoists.

January 15, 2010 afternoon, it was when Prachanda and the Indian Foreign Minister became face to face at Hotel Dwarikas.

“It was just a propaganda warfare…we mean no harm to the Indian establishment…we want to be good friends of India….however, we have some problems with India that we need to be sorted out”, is what Prachanda told Krishna politely when the two met each other.

Prachanda-the ferocious-spoke modestly as if he wanted to tell the visiting Indian minister that the anti-India rhetoric was just a routine one in order to keep his cadres in good stead and a face saving formulae that generally the Nepalese communists acquire when not in power.

“Nothing to panic”, is apparently the gist of Prachanda’s assurances made to Krishna. A clever Krishna got the point.

But then yet, Prachanda this time around ventilated the feeling of the general population as regards the 1950 treaty and the land encroachment being made by the Indian side in practically all the districts that adjoined the Indian border.

A clever Krishna not only assured Prachanda but also told the Nepalese government that the needed efforts would be initiated to assure and reassure Nepal that henceforth no such land encroachment will be made by the Indian side and that the controversial 1950 treaty will also be reviewed.

With one stone, Krishna killed two birds.

Prachanda and the Nepal government are both happy now concluding that India has changed.

Neither India has changed nor will it change. If India changes then it is not the India which the Nepalese population has experienced in the past. The experience is a bitter one. Yes! The change is that the one who has assured Nepal is a changed man this time.

To recall, India has several times in the past made similar verbal commitments and a task force was every time constituted to look into the Nepali grievances.

Had India been serious enough then Nepali aspirations would not have continued till today. Each time, Nepal has been told that India will become friendlier, however, the talks have just remained talks only and nothing tangible in this regard has been made by the other side.

The problems have remained intact and hopefully will remain so for some more decades.  Indeed such assurances will come Kathmandu at regular intervals.

One very bad news for India again.

Prachanda albeit assured the Indian Foreign Minister Krishna that his party will not create further trouble for India in Nepal, however, just yesterday, January 17, 2010, he once again told a mass meet that the Indian regime was hell bent on killing the prospects of Maoist militia integration into the mainstream Nepal Army.

“It is not a mere coincidence that the Indian Army Chief and the Nepal Government authorities should speak on similar lines as regards the Maoist militia integration into the Nepal Army”, is how Prachanda told his cadres January 17, 2010.

This does mean that Prachanda is still in an India bashing mood and will preferably continue to do so until India offered an olive branch to him or his party. If so then how he convinced the Indian Minister?

For Prachanda to speak double is not uncommon. He can talk different to different people at different times. He speaks as is expected by his listener or the one who visits to see him. And playing one against the other is yet another superb quality in him.

High placed sources claim that Prachanda during his meet with the Indian minister also sent good wishes to PM Dr. Singh which, if correct, would mean that the Nepalese “ferocious leader” of the bygone era remains yet obliged to the Indian hospitality that he so lovingly enjoyed during the people’s war being in NOIDA, New Delhi for all along eight years plus.

By extension this does again mean that Prachanda and his party count more on India than China.

However, the Chinese are not that fools not to understand Prachanda’s double talk.

To sum up, Krishna came, saw and left. He assured so many things to the Nepalese. He has assured of some support to help build infrastructure in Nepal.

Such assurances are not new phenomenon for Nepal. What would be a new start in Nepal-India bilateral relations is the day when the Indian regime begins treating Nepal as an independent, sovereign nation and the friendship is based on equal footing.

Finally, if India wants to continue its real friendship with Nepal then she has to mend her ways in the day to day dealings with this India-locked country. Or else, scores of Prachanda will continue to chase India.

A word to the wise should be enough.

Posted on : 2010-01-20 06:35:34

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