by KANAK MANI DIXIT
A month ago, accessing old South Asian catalogues at the British Library in London, I called up a copy of the 1923 treaty between the governments of Great Britain and Nepal. At a time when Nepal has been made geopolitically the weakest in its entire modern era, perhaps I was looking for reassurance on the nature, depth and resilience of Nepal’s sovereignty, to also try and explain it in the context of evolving South Asian regionalism.
The country finds itself at a moment of de jure sovereignty and de facto subservience. The former was confirmed by Chandra Shumsher in 1923 with a bilateral treaty among equals. As for the latter, Nepali politicians have sublimated themselves before the Indian jagannath (‘juggernaut’) to such a level, exhibiting such extraordinary levels of chakari, that the country has become practically unrecognisable.
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There had long been murmurs about some kind of ‘southern indulgence’ regarding the Nepali Maoists in relation to the 1996-2006 conflict. There was hope and belief that perhaps this was the result of a rogue policy un-supported by the political class in New Delhi. Today, one has to pinch oneself to accept the reality of the micro-management of Nepal affairs by the embassy and its affiliates, from deep involvement in the enthronement of the sitting chief justice as head-of-government to the appointment of the head of the national anti-graft body and the setting of dates for elections. What is going on?
The ‘outing’
The revelations about New Delhi’s engagement with the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) come from retired JNU professor SD Muni, proud mentor of Baburam Bhattarai. In an exhaustive chapter on the Maoist evolution in the book Nepal in Transition (University of Cambridge, 2012), Muni writes (p 321-322) that Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his deputy Bhattarai wrote a letter to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee as early as June 2002. In the letter, processed through National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra, evidently with Muni’s facilitation, the Maoist leaders promised “not to do anything to harm (India’s) critical interests.” That was when the ‘people’s war’ was raging, and the duo were inciting their cadre to prepare for an imminent Indian invasion.
EKantipur.com for more
(Thanks to Harsh Kapoor of SACW)