Oli-led Government-19

Prime Minister’s Visit To India

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Prime Minister KP Oli was taking a four-day visit to India starting on February 19, 2016. This visit was quite different from any visit of any previous prime minister of Nepal to India. Previously, Nepalese prime ministers visited India to earn the support of India in other words seeking blessings of the Indian establishment but this time Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seeking the support of the Nepalese prime minister for regularizing the age-old relations between Nepal and India.

Nepalese political leaders had proved that unlike in the past they could withstand the Indian pressure not only of the political but also of the economical after Prime Minister KP Oli with the support of other political leaders except for the NC and Madheshi political leaders, and of course with the support of the Nepalese in general refused to bend to the pressure of Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi, and ultimately, Modi came to the understanding that the amendment to the constitution registered by the then government of Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and endorsed by the Oli Government would meet the demands of the Madheshi leaders even though they had been saying that it did only partially meet their demands, and for Modi, it was sufficient for regularizing the relations between the two countries, and lift the unofficial sanctions on Nepal.

This victory of the Nepalese political leaders over the Indian mindset of superiority had been the good lesson not only for the Nepalese leaders but also for the Indian leaders, too. Both the Nepalese and Indian leaders had learned that when the political leaders had the popular support no power on earth could bend any government.

Political leaders had learned that Nepalese people could survive the hardship when any external force endangered the sovereignty. They had tolerated the hardship of short supply of fuels, foods, and even medicines for about five months but the Nepalese lived as regular as possible accommodating with the short supply of everything for the time until Indian leaders opened the border entry points to Nepal.

Indian leaders had taken keen interest rather initiative in opening the border entry points to pave the way for the visit of the Nepalese prime minister to India, as Prime minister KP Oli took the stand on not visiting India at any cost without having the border entry points opened and regular supplies trucks could move back and forth between India and Nepal. Every entry point including the main entry point Birgunj had been opened well over a week before the day of the prime minister visiting India.

Indians had not only stopped feeding a cadre of the Madheshi front but also even dismantled and removed the makeshift shelters made at the no-man’s land for a cadre of the Madheshi front for working on blocking the supplies trucks entering Nepal and empty gasoline tankers entering India. Even Indians posing as the traders chased a cadre of the Madheshi front from the border areas to ensure the opening of the border points thanks to the understanding of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the need for regularizing the relations with the neighbor.

Other highly vocal leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP): the party of Narendra Modi had shut up their mouths. They did not speak a single word when Nepalese leaders refused to bow down to the heavy pressure put up by the Indian establishment. BJP leaders were very vocal when Nepal was about to adopt a new constitution demanding Nepal be made a Hindu state. Nepalese had made it clear to them that it was not their business what State Nepal would be made.

Nepalese also refused the last minute arrogantly made advice of the envoy sent by Indian Prime Minister Modi to postpone the adoption of a new constitution for a few days for accommodating the demands of the Madheshi people in September 2015. In retaliation, Prime Minister Modi followed the policy on the go slow of the Nepalese supplies trucks from India. Ultimately, Nepalese proved that the not-so-visionary strategy of stopping supplies trucks to Nepal was a failure.

The last thing Modi attempted was to install former Prime Minister also NC President Sushil Koirala as the prime minister for the second term. Breaching the agreement reached with the coalition partner CPN-UML on turning over the office of prime minister to the chairman of CPN-UML, Sushil Koirala became the pawn of Modi contesting for the second term of the office of prime minister. Modi in turn shepherded all the Madheshi leaders from the Madheshi movement to Kathmandu to vote for Koirala. Modi must have courted other political parties to make Koirala victorious but poor Koirala lost the election bringing an untold shame on his party and on him, too. Nepalese political leaders except for Sushil Koirala and his colleagues proved that the foreign interferences in the national affairs would not be acceptable any more. That was a great victory of good over evil.

Modi did not want KP Oli to be the prime minister. So, Modi desperately tried to stop the communist leader KP Oli from coming to power in Nepal. Even after Oli in power, Modi tried to tear him down imposing an undeclared blockade on Nepal. It alone had been enough for Oli to firmly stand against the Indian interference. Oli disregarded the final attempt of the Indian establishments on forcing him to come to the term of Modi by imposing the blockade on Nepal causing the untold misery to the common Nepalese folks. Modi was a devout Hindu but he disregarded the Hindu teaching of not making troubles to others, as it was the grievous crime against humanity.

So, today, Prime Minister KP Oli could say repeatedly in public that he would not compromise on anything that would adversely affect the country and would not surely compromise on the sovereignty of Nepal. He could walk in the Delhi State Court with the full support of the Nepalese, and proudly talked with the mighty Indian leaders on equal terms. That was a wonderful historical gain Nepalese had made in the foreign policy in the 21^st century.

Previously, Nepalese leaders particularly the NC leaders had the firm belief that they could not run the country without the blessings of the Indian leaders. So, even though the Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda strongly wanted to review the Nepal-Indian Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950 other political leaders did not support it in 2008. At that time, Indian leaders were prepared to review the treaty. Some political leaders continued to think that the treaty was bias in favor of India.

In 2000s one of the Indian ambassadors had complained in public that Nepalese political leaders had the habit of seeking the advice but later on the advice given sincerely was termed the interference in the Nepalese affairs. The ambassador had made it clear that some Nepalese political leaders had the double standard.

The soft victory of the Nepalese government over the undeclared sanction on Nepal imposed by the Indian establishments was a turning point in the history of the Nepalese foreign policy adopted by the former rulers starting from the Jung Bahadur Rana. It knocked down the belief that Nepalese rulers could not stay on in power without the support of the Indian establishments.

Jung Rana thought that he would not be able to keep the power without the support of the then British Raj rulers in India. He was right because he had no popular support of the Nepalese so he needed the support of the British rulers in India to rule the people at the gunpoint. That made the British rulers to think that Nepal was not much different from any Indian State under the British Raj. Jung Rana himself went with a battalion of the Nepal army for repressing the Indian uprising in support of the British Raj in India in 1853.

Then other Rana hereditary rulers had a difficulty in maintaining the status of Nepal as the independent country. The then Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher had to bargain with the British rulers in India to have the separate status of the Nepalese ruler. He secured the separate status for the then little known Nepalese king Tribhuvan at the Delhi Court at the time of the then British emperor’s visit to India, and secured the honor of calling the Nepalese king His Majesty.

Forgetting the Sugauli Treaty Nepal had with the British Raj in India, the worst treaty the Nepalese Rana Prime Minster Mohan Shumsher made was the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950 with the India of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Mohan Shumsher did the treaty with the anticipation of prolonging the autocratic family rule without giving any rights not only to the people but also even to the king Tribhuvan.

At that time Nehru thought that Nepal was a tiny country that was nothing but would be a part of India in the time to come. Nehru even told his parliament that the Indian frontier extended to the Himalayas ignoring Nepal. It had been proved to be true to some extent after Sikkim became a part of India, and Bhutan ceded its sovereignty to India to some extent but Nepal had kept its head even half bending to the Indian rulers, and then completely kept its head straight after Narendra failed to bend the Nepalese leaders completely.

Nehru brokered the transfer of the power from the authoritarian Rana ruler to the king that did not even enjoy the very simple human rights. Nehru ignored the Nepalese political party called Nepali Congress (NC) that led the armed rebel against the Rana rule, and successfully captured many parts of the country. Seeing the opportunity of regaining the power lost to the Ranas, the then so-called King Tribhuvan fled the country, and took shelter in New Delhi. Believing Nepal would be a part of India on one day, Nehru arranged the setting up of a new tripartite government with the then hereditary Prime Minister Mohan Shumsher as the prime minister, and the cabinet of an equal number of members representing the NC, the Ranas, and the king with the power vested in the king in 1951.

Ganeshman Singh from the jail opposed the so-called Delhi agreement reached between the Ranas and the king but the then party president BP Koirala accepted it and then he called off the armed rebel against the Ranas. Ganeshman Singh knew that the agreement ensured the fall of the Rana regime but it gave neither the rise of the political party nor of the democracy but of the king. K.I. Singh: another revolutionary leader continued to fight ignoring the Delhi agreement but the tripartite government managed to capture him and then stopped the fighting.

Even having the popular base, the political leaders accepting the Delhi agreement brokered by Nehru with not so good intention, made a humongous mistake that cost the lifelong trouble to BP Koirala, and other leaders, and that cost hundreds of lives of youths for regaining the basic human rights and ultimately removing the huge obstacle: the monarchy from institutionalizing democracy and the republic.

The first immediate result of the mistake of accepting the tripartite agreement done in Delhi in 1951 was the easy overthrow of the elected government led by BP Koirala in the coup of King Mahendra in 1960. BP Koirala and his government lost the popular support because of the corrupt administration he ran was amply demonstrated by the lack of immediate popular support for the government so overwhelmingly elected just one-and-a-half years ago.

The second mistake Nehru committed concerning his policy on Nepal was accepting the murder of democracy by Mahendra in 1960. According to the news report, Nehru had in the irritating tone said, “I told him to fire the prime minister only not to dissolve the parliament but this man had dissolved even the parliament.” For that mistake Nehru paid a high price, too. He needed to stop the Chinese reaching the border between Nepal and India. Nehru built 400 km of the eastern section of the east-west highway only to stop the Chinese contractor from building the section of the highway in 1960s.

It was popularly known as a China card Mahendra had played against Nehru when India did not stopped a cadre of the NC working on the border for attacking the Nepalese administration. Mahendra got India stopped a cadre of NC working on the border and he also got India made the 400 km of the eat-west highway gratis. That was the big country paying a large sum of money for keeping the small country happy. That was the time when China was at odds with India.

China accepted the murder of democracy in Nepal in 1960, as the communists did not believe in the bourgeoisie rule and the democracy. Anyway China did not like the democratic rule as the democratic rulers were deadly against the communist rule: the so-called dictatorship of the proletariats, and for China tackling the weak monarch was much more easier than the popularly elected democratic rulers. So, China was for supporting the monarchy believing one day the communists would topple the monarchy forever.

Some leftist leaders believed that Mahendra had a soft corner for the communists but he treated a cadre of NC, and their leaders as the enemies. After the killing of democracy in 1960 and landing a cadre of NC and communists in jail, Mahendra treated a cadre of NC harshly while giving some liberty to the communists in jail, some leftist leaders claimed. The leftist leaders also claimed that Mahendra had introduced the panchayat rule, and then the “go to village” campaign on the advice of Chairman Mao Zedong. The panchayat was a no-party system not much different from the traits of the communist rule. It was the dictatorial rule of Mahendra and then of his son Birendra.

In the mid 1950s the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited Nepal. He visited Bhaktapur. My uncle was piggybacking me on the Taumadhi Square. Obviously, my uncle had taken me to watch the visit of Nehru there. I saw Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi climbing the steps of the five-storey temple called ‘Nyata-pole’ on the Taumadhi Square. A number of black flags went up in the air out of the blue. Some opponents struggled to take the black flags off the hands of the demonstrators. I was scared to death. My body was shaking with fear. My uncle took me home. Later on, I learned that some communists opposed the visit of Nehru displaying the black flags. Nehru must have visited Nepal to see how Nepal had been doing politically and economically after the fall of the Rana rule. Nehru thought that Nepal was the backyard of India; he should keep it firmly in his grip.

In the late 1950s Nehru visited Nepal again. At that time I was already in the college. BP Koirala was the overwhelmingly elected Prime Minister of Nepal. Standing on the sidewalk, I saw both of them riding on an open car for the public appearance. They talked to each other and at times they waved to the people watching them.

The so frequent visit of Nehru to Nepal indicated that how much interest Nehru had in Nepal. He was concerned with the Chinese influence on Nepal very much. Later on, I learned from the word on the street that Nehru did not like BP Koirala visited China. Nehru also did not like BP Koirala talked in an equal term with him.

I did not really remember exactly when Chou En Lai: the first Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China visited Nepal but it must be in 1957. I saw him on the Bhaktapur Durbar Square at the public civic reception given to him. I saw him shaking hands with five little girls each presenting him with a bouquet of flowers.

Prime ministers of both the neighboring countries visiting Nepal had been surely courting Nepal at that time. Both the countries possibly did not like to get Nepal out of their hands. Nehru did not want to see growing communist influence on Nepal whereas Mao Zedong did not want the Indian dominance in Nepal. Thus, Nepal became the playground for the neighboring countries.

At that time I could see the red books: works of Mao Zedong, and Stalin’s works displayed at the bookstores in Katmandu. School kids already knew the name of Mao Zedong. I did not know whether they knew Stalin or not but during the general elections held in 1959, NC leaders particularly the Ganeshman Singh had pretty much talked about Russia whenever he needed to criticize the communists in Kathmandu where the influence of communist had been growing in the exponential scale. Ganeshman used to say, “Dal bhat tarkari aru jamai sarkari” means you would have the rice, lentil and vegetable dish but the government would take everything from you if you were to opt for the communists.

In 1959 Dalai Lama fled from Lhasa to India after the botched uprising against the Chinese rule. China had introduced its forced rule in Tibet in 1949. A large number of Tibetan refuges flooded in Nepal. I saw Tibetans living in the public hangout spots called ‘fal-cha’ or ‘pati’ at Jawalakhel area in Lalitpur. Then in 1959, Mao Zedong drove out the Nepalese traders doing businesses in Lhasa. Nepalese traders had been doing businesses in Lhasa for centuries.

Twenty thousands Tibetan refugees continued to live in Nepal even today. It was a great concern for the Chinese rulers. Nepal has adopted the one-China policy means Tibet and Taiwan are the integral parts of China. The Nepalese administration had clamped down on the activities of the Tibetans in Nepal. The administration had shut down the office of the representatives of Dalai Lama in Kathmandu, and also the office of taking care of the Tibetan refugees in Nepal at the Chinese behest.

In 1962 China went to a war with India. Prime Minister Nehru never anticipated that China would invade India. He even sent a special message to President John F. Kennedy of America requesting him for the assistance in fighting against China. Kennedy immediately sent the American Seven fleet from the Mediterranean Sea to Indian Ocean. The fleet needed not go into the combat.

Prime Minister Nehru lost his mental balance. He bundled off the Indians of the Chinese origin, and sent them to the dusty Deoli imprisonment camp in the deserts of Rajasthan. Nehru sent off some 3,000 Chinese residents of India to the desert camp where he himself had served the jail term under the British, according to the BBC NEWS of February 18, 2016.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35593141”

India put the Gurkha battalion on the front for fighting against the advancing Chinese army. India always did so whenever it needed to fight against Pakistan. So, Nepalese had shed a lot of blood for the defense of India. China had a soft corner for the Nepalese soldiers. They played Nepalese songs whenever they faced the Gurkha battalion in the war with India in 1962.

After the Sugali Treaty reached between Nepal and the British Raj in India in the mid nineteenth century, the British Government recruited the Nepalese Gurkha in the British India Army. British commanders had appreciated how bravely Nepalese soldiers had fought against the British Indian Army in the war between Nepal and the British India. After India became independent in 1947, the British Gurkha Battalion was divided into the British Gurkha Battalion and the Indian Gurkha Battalion.

Indira Gandhi: the then Indian prime minister heavily used the Gurkha Battalion to fight against the Pakistani army on the eastern front in the war with Pakistan in December 1971. Gurkha soldiers went waving their knives called ‘khukuri’ against the Pakistani army. The war ended with the creation of Bangladesh: previously known as the East Pakistan. Thus, the original India broke up into three pieces called India of today, Pakistan, and finally Bangladesh.

After the successful war, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi visited Nepal to appreciate the families of the Gurkha soldiers in 1973. She also visited Pokhara, and she addressed a mass rally in which the widows, orphans, and bereaved parents of Gurkha soldiers killed in the war attended en mass. The family members losing their loved ones in the war cried en mass in the rally. Indira Gandhi herself could not stopped from being emotional and cried, too.

In Kathmandu, Indira Gandhi forced the then Prime Minister Kirti Nidhi Bista tell what Bista had talked to the Chinese officials while he visited China. Gandhi had done so following the Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950. Bista went to King Birendra for seeking the advice or the approval. Birendra bowed to the demand of Indira Gandhi. So, it indicated what the treaty was for.

Britain had stationed the Gurkha Battalion in Hong Kong. The then British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sent the Gurkha Battalion to the Falkland Islands to free it from the capture of the Argentine army in 1982. The British Gurkha Army successfully drove out the Argentine army from the Falklands, and brought back the Falkland Islands to the British sovereignty.

One of the irritating things had been for India that Nepal had been the main conduit for smuggling. Pakistanis and even Tamils when Tamils fought for an independent state in Sri Lanka used Nepal for entering India. At times, we had had the news that one Pakistani or another was arrested with the briefcase full of the counterfeit Indian currency. Once any Tamil or Pakistani landed in Kathmandu, they could have an easy access to India, as the border between Nepal and India was open, and nobody at the border even asked anybody any identity. Visually, nobody could detect whether s/he was a Pakistani or a Sri Lankan.

After about 65 years from the time of Nehru brokering the transfer of the power from the Ranas to Tribhuvan, the Delhi rulers brokered another understanding reached between the CPN-Maoist and the Seven-party Alliance (SPA) in November 2005 for jointly fighting against the dictatorial rule of the then king. This time, the understanding reached was to abolish the monarchy in Nepal.

Not knowing the people’s aspirations for the democratic rule, the then freak king Gyanendra killed the democracy in February 2005 the second time in the history of Nepal. Apparently, Gyanendra did not understand that the Nepalese were of the 21^st not of the time of his father Mahendra. After three months of the Twelve-point Understanding reached between the SPA and the Maoists in Delhi, Gyanendra had to quit his hold on power on the advice of the Indian envoy, as Gyanendra hinted at it repeatedly in his public talks. His sycophants even used to say in the public chat that Gyanendra lost his power and the crown because of Indian leaders not keeping their commitments but they never disclosed what commitments Indian leaders had made. One thing it was sure that Gyanendra had to go because Nepalese wanted so.

Now, Nepalese political leaders must have learned that not the Indian or Chinese leaders could keep the Nepalese political leaders in power but the Nepalese. So, if the political leaders were to lose the popular support of the Nepalese people then they would be vulnerable to the foreign leaders as the current Madheshi leaders had been. They would be the disgraced leaders as had been the Madheshi leaders.

The Madheshi leaders went to Narendra Modi in Delhi and then to Lalu Prasad Yadav in Bihar for their support. Modi did support them but without much success. Lalu just laughed at them. Lalu knew what he would need to pay for supporting the Madheshi movement. So, Madheshi leaders needed to stand on the support of the people rather than on the foreign leaders if they were to achieve their demands, and not to be the laughing stock.

The current visit of Prime Minister Oli to India would warm up the relations that had been cooled down to such the extent it had never been before in the history of the relations between Nepal and India. Oli was taking with him his deputy holding the portfolio of the foreign affairs Kamal Thapa, home minister Shakti Basnet, and finance minister Vishnu Poudel, and a large number of others including the opposition NC party members. Surely, his spouse Radhika Shakya was accompanying Prime Minister Oli to Delhi on February 19, 2016.

Prime Minister Oli would be the guest of President of India Pranab Mukherjee. So, Oli would reside in the presidential residence called ‘rastrapati-bhavan’ for the period of his India visit. Oli received such a special privilege and welcome because he had the strong support of all political parties except for the NC and a few Madheshi political parties. He could be a decisive prime minister.

In contrast to the reception Oli would receive in Delhi, the then Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal did receive even an invitation neither from India nor from China in 2011, as they knew that Khanal would be a prime minister only for a short period, and he was vulnerable to the Maoists’ Chairman Prachanda that had held majority seats in the parliament at that time. Khanal was prime minister only for six months. In fact, Khanal had been the weakest prime minister, as he could not garner the full support of his own party.

The attempts of Indian Prime Minister Modi on blatantly interfering in the internal affairs of Nepal had deteriorated the relations between Nepal and India in the way unprecedented in the history. The first try Modi made was to stop the adoption of a new constitution in September 2015. Then, Modi made another try to install Sushil Koirala as the second term prime minister sending the Madheshi leaders to vote for Koirala in the parliament in October 2015. The third try was to send the Madheshi leaders to participate in the voting on the amendment to the constitution in January 2016 but the Madheshi leaders did not follow the order of Modi this time. Modi had failed in all the three attempts on interfering in the Nepalese businesses.

The Oli government had used the victory of the Nepalese football team over the Indian team in the final game in India during the SAG (South Asian Games) to demonstrate that Nepal could win over India not only in the politics but also in the game, too giving the high publicity to the football victory. Nepal earned the sixth place in the SAG winning three gold, 23 silver and 34 bronze medals altogether 60 medals in the Twelfth SAG, according to the State-run daily newspaper called ‘gorkhapatra’ in the Nepali language of February 17, 2016. Other sportsmen did not get the publicity and the heroes welcome, as did the football team in Nepal on February 18, 2016.

Neither India nor China was the balancing rod for the political leaders to walk on the tight political rope in Nepal but the Nepalese in general. Previously, Nepalese leaders had erroneously taken one foreign side or another for balancing their power base in Nepal. That had caused them to fall from power. Now they must come to sense that they could not repeat the same previous mistakes of securing the blessing of the neighboring leaders or playing one neighbor against another for taking the benefits. Nepalese needed to set the tradition of standing on the power of the people rather than on the shoulders of the big brothers.

February 12, 2016

Updated on February 16, 2016

Updated on February 18, 2016

Updated on February 19, 2016

P.S. If we were to take a look at the ancient history of Nepal and beyond then the mythological god of various crafts, Manjushree for the Buddhists and Sarasvoti for the Hindus came from Tibet, and he cut an opening at Chovar to drain the water from the Nepal Valley, and he made it habitable for the human settlement. Thereafter, he built a settlement called Manjupatan, and he taught various arts and crafts to the people. Nepalese continued to celebrate his visit on the ‘Shree Panchami”: the fifth day of Magha (January-February) following the lunar calendar every year.

In the fourth century, the Nepalese princess called Vrikuti wedded the monarch of Tibet. The matrimonial relations between the Nepalese and the Tibetan monarchs were for strengthening the relations between the two countries. She took with her the Buddha’s teachings scripture, and she converted the Tibetan monarch into Buddhism.

Thereafter, Nepal became the bridge between Tibet and India for the Tibetans learning Buddha’s teachings. Tibetans going to India for learning Buddhism stayed in Nepal several months to acclimatized before heading to India, and they learned Vajrayan Buddhism during the sojourn. Then, they went down to learn the Buddha’s teachings further. Returning from India, they stayed in Nepal for three or four months to acclimatize again before going back to Tibet.

Then, in the thirteenth century, the Nepalese architect and builder called Balbahu (Arniko in Chinese) went to Tibet with about one hundred builders and craftsmen to build monasteries there, and then they went further north to Beijing on the invitation of the then emperor of China. They built a famous white pagoda that stands in Beijing even today. Balbahu became Arniko in China. He received the ministerial status in the royal court of the Chinese emperor of that time.

With India too, Nepal had the similar close and matrimonial relations. King Tribhuvan married two Kashmiri princesses. It was the tradition of a Hindu king wedding two princesses. Hindu king was believed to be Lord Vishnu that needed to have two spouses: Sarasvoti (goddess of learning) and another Lakshmi (goddess of wealth). Former Nepalese royalties continued to have the matrimonial relations with the former Indian royalties.

“Dolesvor Mahadev (one of the many names of Lord Shiva) in Bhaktapur is the head whereas the Kedarnath in India is the body,” Shankaracharya said while he visited Nepal in the recent past. Shankaracharya is the head guru of Hindus.

Thousands of Hindu devotees visit Nepal to celebrate the Shiva-ratri (the night of Lord Shiva) at Pashupatinath (another name of Lord Shiva) in Kathmandu. Hindus believed Lord Shiva appeared in the world on this night. The Pashupati Area Development Trust provided Hindu ascetics called ‘sadhus’ coming from India or Nepal with foods, fuel wood for burning day and night to keep them warm, and marijuana for smoking while at the Pashupati area in Nepal for eight days: four days before the Shiva-ratri, and four days after.

Nepalese Hindus and Buddhists made pilgrimage to Hindu deities and Buddhist sacred areas in India. Nepal had built a Nepalese-styled Hindu temple in Kashi (Benares) in India. Indian Hindus did the same in different sacred spots in Nepal. Nepal is a tiny country compared to India but her share in both the Hindu and Buddhist religion has not been so small.

February 19, 2016