India Study Group

http://www.telegraphnepal.com/news_det.php?news_id=3969

Time 3.45 PM.

Venue: The President’s Official premise, Shital Nivas, Kathmandu.

Occasion: Swearing in ceremony of Nepal’s newly elected Prime Minister.

Date: 18 August 208.

The swearing in ceremony has just finished and it is time to congratulate the new PM of Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal. It should have been around 4.00 PM by then.

Among the multitude of residential diplomats, the thrilling one was that indeed of the Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood’s “historical” handshake with Pushpa Kamal Dahal.

The two met with each other as if they were the “Siamese twin brothers” lost some where in the KUMBH MELA some two decades back as could be seen in Indian celluloid films.

The handshake that they have had with each other was so earth shaking that well within a few hours of that historic handclasp, the same late evening , Goddess Koshi River perhaps did not like such sort of “synthetic” acts exhibited by the two almost diametrically opposing political adherents and the Goddess preferred unfortunately to penalize the Nepali PM first to the extent that the Koshi river, out of “sheer anger associated with frustration” flooded the Eastern embankment and let loose horror in the Nepali side of the territory which has till now swept some good hundred plus Nepali population whose dead bodies could well be collected in the adjoining state of Bihar. Reports say that River Koshi was so infuriated with Ambassador Sood that the water did enter deep into the adjoining parts of Bihar, India and has, say reports, caused immense damage of physical lives and properties worth billions and billions on the other side of the border. Some terror stricken Indian nationals in thousands have fled into this side of the border to save their precious lives. While some seventy thousand people in Nepal have been rendered homeless then on the Indian side, according to Indian media reports, some three million people have already been thrown to the mercy of the Almighty. The loss caused by the Koshi flood is colossal in India.

To recall, Koshi River is taken as the sorrow of Bihar.

On humanitarian grounds, the Nepal government has absorbed these ill-fated Indian nationals and has been distributing food packets to all those who have taken shelter. After all, the people on both sides of the border possess no hatred for each other.

The tragedy of Prachanda begins:

Prime Minister Prachanda had a very inopportune beginning understandably.

By August 19, 2008, the newly elected Nepal PM was already in a mess, to be precise.

Contrary to the expectations of the Indian establishment run by an Italian lady, Comrade Prachanda, who had spent some good years in New Delhi under the careful protection of the Research Analysis Wing, the RAW, spoke of the preservation of “nationalism” which by implication or by design the Indians conclude that it were a ploy to undercut the Indian authority that is all enveloping in this country.

Hardly had Pushpa Kamal Dahal assumed office of the Nepal’s Prime Minister, Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood-the trouble maker as he is widely known in the entire South Asian region, entered into the official room of the Prime Minister on 19 August morning. The ruse was to congratulate PM Dahal. However, Ambassador Sood without congratulating the new Nepal PM lambasted at Dahal and questioned furiously, “Why are you visiting China prior to making a formal trip to my country-India”?

Stunned by the unpredictable question, PM Dahal some how or the other managed to control his physical composure and replied, “Well Excellency! My visit to China is just a mere coincidence but not a design! It so happened that the Chinese government extended invitation to me to attend to the concluding ceremony of the Beijing Olympics and thus the trip to China”.

He further guaranteed the erratic Ambassador by saying that “I will surely visit your country upon my return from China. Take it easy Mr. Ambassador”.

Not assured by PM Dahal’s explanation, Ambassador Sood bluntly said that “it will not be taken in good taste by my government which had extended invitation to you for a visit to India much ahead of the Chinese invitation:”

“You will have to pay the price”, said Ambassador Sood in an angered voice to Comrade Dahal leaving the latter to ponder over the “diplomatic liquidation” of the Indian envoys and more so of the men manning the South Block administration in New Delhi.

Nevertheless, PM Dahal remained undeterred and instructed Foreign Secretary Gyan Chandra Acharya to go ahead with the China trip arrangements.

Prachanda annoys India:

The next day, August 20, 2008 PM Dahal rushed to see the Koshi River flood victims.

Words of compassion apart to the flood affected ones who were in hundred of thousands, Prime Minister Dahal summarily blamed India for the Koshi river adversity of the Himalayan scale brought about this time to the lives of the Nepali population residing close to the embankment of the said river in Ineruwa district.

This was not all. In effect Nepal PM said that the “Koshi River agreement signed with India was a Historical gaffe and that India will be taken to task for the tragedies that befell upon the local population.

“We will soon talk to the Indian government and a review of all the past and unequal treaties/agreements signed with the other side at different intervals of time”, is what PM Dahal said to the media men which must have panicked the authorities seated in Delhi.

The utterance of Historical blunder was some what a very rough and tough word used against India and the latter will not easily digest this very special word which is used at times of Himalayan hatred for some disliked ones.

How the Indian establishment strikes back to this Prachanda’s fiery overtures will have to be watched.

Back in Kathmandu, most of the Communist bits and pieces too lambasted at the Indian establishment in tune and made it known to the population that India was the main baddie for Nepal and its overall development.

The message must have reached to Delhi by now.

Save Bimlendra Nidhi, a leader of the Nepali Congress and his ilk, the rest of the political leaders derided India for the Koshi river disaster.

The UML’s absence in the cabinet:

In the mean time, the Maoists were appeasing the UML leaders for joining the Maoist led government. The UML apparently managed the names of the ministers to be sent to the cabinet. However, at the last minute of the swearing in ceremony of the cabinet ministers which was scheduled for 22 August 2008 afternoon at the President’s office, a minor glitch that cropped up in between the Maoists and the UML blocked the way for the swearing in of the UML candidates.

The reasons made public by the UML was that the Maoists did not honored the seniority of the UML leader Bam Dev Gautam and that he should be the second man in the cabinet hierarchy or else no entrance of the party in the government led by the Maoists.

Media reports have it that by now the Maoists have already accepted Mr. Gautam’s seniority and that upon the return of PM Dahal every thing related to the seniority clue will be fixed.

If so then it does ensure that the Maoists led government will last for long contrary to the rumor that PM Dahal may not continue in government more than four months or so.

Nevertheless, PM Dahal some how or the other managed Upendra Yadav’s party candidates to bring into his cabinet.

Come August 22, 2008.

In the early morning of this day, PM Dahal made a passionate appeal to the national population wherein he sought support from all to make his government a grand success.

What must have jolted the Indian brains is that PM Dahal in his maiden address to the nation repeatedly stressed on the need to preserve nationalism, territorial integrity and national sovereignty. Where from he was sensing a threat to these vital aspects, however, he did not reveal.

The habit of the Indian bureaucrats has been that as and when Nepali leaders talk of the preservation of nationalism, it is taken as an anti-Indian stance and thus they prefer to encourage their declared local stooges (which are in thousands in Nepal under salary) to cry foul against such statements.

The China trip and Sood’s absence:

Soon after delivering the address to the nation, PM Dahal flew to China-India’s declared bete noir.

Dahal made this trip despite the fact that he was scolded by the Indian Ambassador. How much the Indian establishment was pained by Prachanda’s China trip could well be observed from the “undiplomatic” act exhibited by Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood.

Out of sheer frustration associated with Himalayan diplomatic debacle, Sood did not show his face at the VVIP lounge wherein he was supposed to bid farewell to Nepal’s Prime Minister to China as per the diplomatic practice.

Persona Non Grata:

In diplomatic practices, all the residential diplomatic heads have compulsorily to be present while seeing off the head of the government of the host country when the latter departs for a friendly trip abroad. Failing to do so, the host government has the right to declare such diplomat as Persona Non Grata.

Fortunately, the US Ambassador Nancy J. Powell and the British Ambassador Dr. Andrew Hall too toed Sood line and remained absent at the airport to see of PM Dahal to China.

But the fact is that, as the rumors say, Ambassador Nancy and Dr. Hall have had prior commitments on that very time and thus they could not make it up with. They had informed the Foreign Ministry of their absence in advance.

However, Sood’s mystifying absence at the airport does tell that he took PM Dahal’s China trip as an insult to “Mother India” and thus preferred to send his negative signals to PM Dahal and his establishment by making a sudden trip to Mustang.

High placed sources say that Sood may have gone to Mustang to ensure as to how his country can spy on the adjoining Tibet in the days ahead.

But then yet gifted analysts claim that the absence of Ambassador Nancy, Sood and Dr. Hall at the airport on August 23, 2008 is nothing but the revival of the now defunct London-Delhi-Washington “axis”.

If this axis has really been revived, as talked, then what is for sure is that extremely bad days for PM Dahal have already begun.

If King Gyanendra could not resist the “pressure” of this axis when in power then PM Dahal is just a small fraction of the whole who could be easily deposed should the countries in the revived axis so desire.

Enter FM Yadav:

Yet another blow to the Indian establishment was provided by none less than by Nepal’s new Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav on 24 August, 2008.

Talking to media men in Kathmandu, minister Yadav condemned the Indian negligence which caused the Koshi River to create havoc in Nepal.

To recall, the areas under flood in Sunsari district fall under the constituency of minister Yadav.

Minister Yadav said that he will raise this issue with the Indian authorites in Delhi. By time this issue approaches you, Mr. Yadav will already be in Delhi.

How the Indian hawks chide Nepal’s foreign minister will be no less interesting an event to mull over.

All in all, by the Indian standard Prime Minister Dahal has committed a crime by denouncing India and flying to China.

Prachanda meets Chinese President and PM:

The final shock Indian establishment received was on August 24, 2008 when PM Dahal was warmly greeted by the Chinese President and the Prime Minister at the Great Hall of the People.

On both the occasion, the Chinese “assured” the Nepal Prime Minister that China will continue its “support” to Nepal. But there was some condition attached. Nepal must not allow pro-Tibetan protests in Kathmandu, this was the Chinese indication made to Nepal.

A beaming and overly excited Premier Dahal later told the media men that his talks with the Chinese top hats had been “extremely fruitful”.

The word fruitful is enough to lose the nerve of South Block mandarins for understandable reasons.

Dahal not a Gandhian adherent:

Analysts opine that Indian nationals residing in Nepal must have received a high voltage current shock when they could see a Chinese airliner carrying Dahal to Beijing via Tibet or Guangzhou. PM Dahal’s maiden trip to China perhaps made it abundantly clear to the other side of the border that he was not at all an adherent of Gandhian philosophy but instead a true “disciple” of late Mao Tse Tung. Now no illusion perhaps.

This should perhaps console the Indian establishment.