Will parties ever understand consensus politics?

No free lunch in Indian diplomacy: Nepal Analysts
TGW Anlayst
The Indian establishment- a former British colony, is very difficult to understand.

If it is a friend then concurrently a foe of the highest order.

India in verbal utterances claims that it wants peace and stability in Nepal.

Hundred percent incorrect.

Carefully read these lines that follow.

"India was perhaps the first country to declare the Maoists a terrorist outfit".

If, I recall, it was then foreign minister Jaswant Singh, now a BJP functionary, who as back as in 2004 fag end, primarily announced that Maoists should be treated as a terrorist organization.

Later the Indian Ambassador in Nepal Shyam Saran told the Nepali media that “should the Nepal government or for that matter any Nepali authorities confirm that the Maoists were residing in this or that part of India then the Indian regime would nab them and handover to Nepal”.

Thanks Madhav Kumar Nepal that finally he located Prachanda in Lucknow, India and have had a chit-chat with the rebel leader.

Much ahead of this event, yet another UML stalwart, Bam Dev Gautam met Prachanda and his entire team in Siliguri, West Bengal, India, which instantly drew the needed media attention in Nepal.

But then yet, when Mr. Nepal met Prachanda in Lucknow and the news got disseminated in Nepal, a dumbfound Indian Ambassador stood exposed and became restive to the extent that he remained inside the Indian territory in Kathmandu for all along two weeks or so.

A lie has a short life span.

Later things changed to the extent that the Royal regime crumbled and the Maoists joined the mainstream politics through once again the kind courtesy of the Indian establishment more so that of Shyam saran who by then had become the Foreign Secretary of the former British colony.

Analysts then had claimed that Shyam Saran was the key Indian government bureaucrat who extended his “overt and covert” support both to the Maoists while they were waging a sort of fierce struggle with their own State-Nepal during the People’s War.

The presumption being made around the fag end of 2005 by the Kathmandu analysts that the 12 point agreement that the Maoists signed in New Delhi with the then agitating seven party alliances were done under the Indian instructions became crystal clear when only recently Indian Foreign Minister Pranav Mukherjee himself admitted that “India managed this 12 point agreement and brought the Maoists to the mainstream politics of Nepal”.

Neither the then Ambassador Saran nor minister Mukherjee have so far told the media as to what were the key assurances made to India by the Maoists and the agitating parties that they will yield in Indian interests should King Gyanendra’s regime collapse and the parties bounce back to power?

Imaginably, Indian support to the SPA (Seven Party Alliances) and the Maoists must not have been a free lunch. There is no free lunch in diplomacy.

Poor Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal during his India sojourn himself admitted innocently that out of the ten years of the People’s War he spent some good eight plus years in New Delhi. Innocent and honest admission indeed.

One must appreciate his frank but bold assertion.

His self admission then adds strength to the presumption that India was behind the agitation that brought about a sudden but “structured” collapse of the King’s regime.

(Rumors had it that Prachanda resided in a guest house in New Delhi very close to Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital where he used to meet the agitating Nepali leaders like, Pradip Giri, Dr. Shekhar Koirala, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, Hridayesh Tripathi, Mahant Thakur and a host of other Indo-pendent leaders including Girija Prasad Koirala).

That India was pretty engaged in bringing about a total collapse of the Royal institution became evident when its own foreign minister point blank admitted to Al-Jazeera television network recently that his regime made the 12 point agreement possible. (Some even say that the original 12 point agreement, November 22, 2005, was first drafted in Hindi and later translated to Nepali for Nepal’s media consumption).

Sophisticated and sharp brains the Indian possess. Let’s admit this fact.…..

But what were the assurances made then by the agitating parties together with the Maoists to the Indian regime?

Perhaps granting some two million citizenship certificates by Nepal government to newly migrated Indian nationals which have already come into effect.

Analysts also claim that the agitating parties also assured India that they would allow India for the construction of Koshi High Dam inside Nepali territory.

In addition, the agitating parties are presumed to have also given word to India that they would award the entire Hydro-Power projects to Indian companies when in power. This is also currently in full swing.

The third assurance made then to India is perhaps signing of an extradition treaty which if signed by this country will allow India to seek summary deportation of any one whom India concludes that he or she was found engaged in anti-India activities by being in the Nepali soil.

The Indian idea is to nab Pakistanis and even the Chinese nationals (by extension the Americans as well) under one or the other manufactured pretext.

However, the tragedy will be that, upon signing of this extradition treaty, Nepal Prime Minister could also be asked for deportation to India if the latter so demanded.

No one is safe now in Nepal. Alarming…panic….

The extradition treaty as demanded by India is soon to take its final shape and ready for signature.

Sensing that India is about to sign such a treaty with Nepal, Pakistan and China has also approached Nepal for signing of a similar treaty with their respective countries.

In effect, Shiva Shanker Menon’s Kathmandu trip was to press further the Nepal authorities to sign the said treaty at the earliest.

For the time being, signing of the treaty could not be materialized, however, the treaty will be signed by Nepal allowing India a free space to nab any citizen, within or without, under any manufactured pretext that India knows on how to construct.

How the nationalists, if any remaining in this country, will react to such a grave issue that it is by all means will have to be watched.

2009-02-19 18:15:20