Sushil-led Government-73

Tightening Entry Points Blessing In Disguise

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Tightening the Nepal-Indian entry points had been blessing in disguise to the three major political leaders rather than hitting the target of the Indian leaders. It had successfully diverted the attention of the entire Nepalese and even the world from the most important issues of the new constitution to the shortage of supplies in Nepal. It also had adversely affected the ethnic and Madheshi protests against some articles of the new constitution. If Indian leaders had done the tightening of the entries for safeguarding the ten million Indians residing in Nepal then it was total fiasco. China and Pakistan could not do much in meeting the supplies Nepal needed but they could be the important cards to play in the game of politics. Probably, President of US Barack Obama did not know what had been happening on the border between Nepal and India. Even he did know he might not bother to think about it.

Nepalese whether they were ethnic, Madheshi and common folks of different origins had been now more concern about the shortages of supplies than the issues of the new constitution. If we were to believe the Nepalese media reports and even the state media and the public statements of ministers and the political leaders then the Indian border officials had been tightening the entries from India to Nepal causing the delay in the custom clearing up the Nepal-bound supplies trucks that in turn had caused the shortage of the most essential commodity the gasoline in Nepal.

Scenes of the long line of motorcyclists lining up for a few liters of gasoline at the gas stations in Kathmandu, and the government’s announcement to run the vehicles with odd and even numbers alternately amply suggested that Nepalese had really faced the short supply of the fuel. The shortage of fuels would surely lead to the delay in transporting other supplies that meant shortage of other supplies too. All these things put together meant Nepalese had to waste a lot of time in lining up for the fuel, then for other supplies and losing time for the productive work.

If tightening the border entry points were to be the strategy of the Indian leaders to chock hold the Nepalese leaders and try to bend them to the Indian leaders’ good advices then it was a total fiasco. No doubt about that the Indian leaders had good will toward the Nepalese people and they wanted all Nepalese lived in the brotherly manner and in peace; they wanted an inclusive constitution to that end. That was good but the strategy adopted was not good at all and it would not surely give the desired results. Indian leaders had even ignored the popular saying ‘anybody could take a horse to a stream but could not force it to drink water.”

The unwise and not visionary strategy of the Indian leaders had even diluted the ethnic and Madheshi movement against some articles of the new constitution. Equally not farsighted strategy of the Nepalese movement leaders had made themselves weak in the movement because the attention of the entire Nepalese and the world community had drawn to the Indian embargo rather than to the most justified demand of the protesting Nepalese. Everybody started off questioning what Indian leaders wanted stopping all Nepal-bound supplies trucks on the border.

Certainly, Indian leaders had been so naïve to think that making shortage of supplies to the Nepalese would make the Nepalese rise up against the establishment and then make the Nepalese leaders to take refuge in the Indian leaders. If the Indian leaders had slightest thinking of that sort then they were the most irrational leaders that could be in the world.

The Indian leaders had already done a massive harm to the people’s movement for their justified demand but the movement leaders had hurt themselves and the movement stating the Indians had helped them in their movement. What sorts of leaders they were if they could not stand on their feet and needed to ride on the shoulders of others that also on the foreign shoulders. They needed to know that getting assistance from others meant creating dependency. Those leaders even if they were to succeed in their movement they would not be successful to be independent.

Now, the establishment would not even listened to the movement leaders because the entire attention had been drawn to the tightening of the entry points causing shortage of supplies. The movement leaders had adopted the last resort of holding the entry points for causing the short supply of everything on the Nepal side. That was the desperate move of the immature movement leaders. They had been choking their people rather than making them fit to fight for justice. None of the Nepalese except for those Indian leaders would justify such actions of the movement leaders.

Every person supporting the just cause of the protestors had turned on to the Indian embargo on supplies to Nepal. They had been more concerned with the Indian bullies than the protest movement of the people for justice. None of the Nepalese had been ready to endure the bullying of the Indian leaders. The Indian strategy of breaking the back of the Nepalese leaders had surely hitting hard the movement leaders.

The Nepalese government’s attention had been drawn how to manage the supplies in Nepal. The home minister went on saying even to the extent of bringing fuel by air. If the minister had been wise enough he would not worry much about the supplies. Historically, the Indian embargo had been unsuccessful. We needed to wait for some time patiently to come it to an end by itself. The Indian businesspeople would do everything necessary to meet the supplies Nepalese required. I had seen in the past the Indian fuel suppliers had been on the Nepalese side of the border filling up the vehicle tanks with gasoline.

If Indian leaders had done the tightening of the border entry points to protect the ten million Indians residing in Nepal then it was total fiasco. The Indian home minister had said that Nepal had ten million Indians and it was his duty to protect them. For his information, Nepal had not so many Indians but whatever number of Indians Nepal had they had been better off in Nepal. Nepalese had been making them richer every day buying supplies and services from them. Working hard in Nepal they had been able to support the families in India.

If the Indian home minister was talking about the Nepalese of the recent Indian origins, they did not need the Indian home minister’s assistance. They were Nepalese they knew how to survive. Nepalese had managed to live independently for thousands of years unlike the home country of the Indian home minister that was probably born when the British governor general sitting in Delhi had been running the administration in India.

Obviously, Indian leaders including the home minister had not learned the lessons from the failure of the saffron-clad Indian Hindus fighting for the Hindu state in Nepal. The so-called Indian Hindus had wasted their time, energy and resources in Nepal doing the things they were not supposed to do. They had weakened the advocate of the Hindu state Kamal Thapa of RPP-Nepal and ultimately made him a failure. The Indian Hindus had tried to do in Nepal what they could not do in India.

So, whatever the Indian leaders had been doing in Nepal in support of the Hindu state or of the ongoing movement had been the blessing in disguise for the Nepalese leaders. First, all Nepalese had been rallying behind the leaders against the Indian tightening the border entry points. Nepalese had been ready to endure whatever the hardship might come from the Indian blockade but not to bow down to the Indian demands whatever those demands might be. Nepalese had been the interdependent-minded people and they would remain so forever.

One thing the establishment needed to understand that China and Pakistan could verbally and morally support Nepalese not really physically meant meeting the supplies Nepalese needed. For some time to come, Indians would be the major suppliers of the Nepalese need. Gradually, Nepal could increase the trade with China but the physical infrastructures had been deadly weak even whatever the limited infrastructures had been for the movement of supplies between Nepal and China. Even if China wanted to supply the Nepalese with the fuel and other needs it could not because the entry points destroyed in the recent quakes had not been repaired for the regular traffic even after five months of the first devastating quakes hit Nepal.

The so-called tunnel through the Mt Everest would remain the wishful thinking for some time to come. Even if China were to build it, it would not be for saving Nepal from the onslaught of the Indian bullying but saving Tibet going out of the Chinese hands. China’s main interest in Nepal had been the concern for keeping the Tibetans under tight control. China had not taken interest in the Nepalese water and hydro-energy resources as India had done. India had already control over some water resources of Nepal. India had been trying to have the control over the hydro-energy resources Nepal could offer.

China could ignore Nepal’s needs any time. We have seen how China disregarded Nepal for reaching an agreement with India on opening the trade route via the Nepalese territory Lipulekh in the far western Nepal. China knew that Lipulekh was the Nepal’s land but China also bullied Nepal ignoring the fact and directly negotiating with India to go ahead with India to run the trade business through Lipulekh. It was not only a shame on both the large countries to disregard Nepal while reaching agreement on doing the business via Lipulekh but also the unwise decision on running the trade business through the Nepalese Territory without the participation of the host country.

If we were to flip the pages of the history book we would find that the Chinese had been near Nuwakot trying to overrun the Nepalese territory. But Nepalese drove them out of the Nepalese territory. Nepal remained independent from both the unequally large neighbors. Whether they liked it or not, they had to reckon Nepal as equal as one of them. They might not like it but that was the fact.

If we were to flip the pages of the history book even deeper we would find out that one of the Nepalese architecture went to China to build the white famous pagoda in Beijing. The Nepalese architecture and builder named Arniko went with the army of fellow builders to Tibet and then to Beijing for designing and building pagoda and monasteries. The pagoda had been standing as one of the ancient artifacts of China.

Pakistan had supported Nepal against the Indian blockade but it was not a big deal. It might be the moral support but the saying “the enemy of the enemy is the friend” must have overwhelmed Pakistan rather than the sincere support for Nepal. Of course, Pakistan had been the natural friend and well-wisher of Nepal but the fact was the fact. Pakistan was far away and reaching Pakistan for Nepal had to cross either the Indian Territory or the Chinese.

Crossing even the neighbor’s territory was not so easy sometimes. For example, Bhutanese of the Nepalese origin easily crossed the Indian Territory to take shelter in Nepal but when time came for them to go home the Indian security blocked them. That was how the Indian leaders saved the Bhutanese monarchy but that had led the Bhutanese leaders to be not more than the puppets of the Indian leaders. Hundreds of thousands of the Bhutanese languished at the refugee centers in Nepal for more than 20 years but the heartless Indian leaders did not let them go back to their homeland. Ultimately, they were settled elsewhere in the world.

America was even farther away from China and Pakistan. American president Barack Obama might not like how Indian leaders had been harassing the Nepalese but he could (rather would) hardly do anything except for objecting it. Once the president publicly accepted that Nepal was within the sphere of the Indian influence so America would leave Nepal for Indians. So, Nepalese could anticipate nothing more than the lip services from American establishment.

September 28, 2015