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Prime Minister’s Visit To India
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 points 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 to turn 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 21st 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 Nepal, 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, 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 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 came to know 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 presenting him each 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 opte for the communists.
In 1959 Dalai Lama fled 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.
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 21st 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 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.
Neither India nor China was the balancing rod for the political leaders to walk on the tight political rope 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
Revised it on February 16, 2016
