On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
Indians have demonstrated their hegemony by constructing a road in the Kalapani area upto Lipulek. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, lauding works done by his government, also included the constructed road in the Nepali territory illegally occupied by India.
When India published a new political map by including the Kalapani territory along with ending the special privilege granted by the Indian constitution to Jammu and Kashmir, the then Nepal government led by K.P. Sharma Oli had protested the Indian intention by sending a diplomatic note. The Indian authorities didn’t respond to that. Later, the Nepal government, by developing an all-party consensus, had decided to publish the new political map by incorporating the Kalapani territory illegally occupied by India.
At present, the Indians, by exhibiting their hegemony, is one-sidedly constructing a road in the Nepali territory. The present Indian attitude has demonstrated the Indian expansionist attitude, which is a serious threat to Nepali sovereignty.
On Tuesday, 27 Pous (11 January) the proud Nepali people observed the 300th birth anniversary of King Prithivi Narayan Shah the Great. The government demonstrated reluctance in observing the day of Nepali proud even denying a national holiday. Not odd, those political leaders in the government, who are unable to speak a single word against Indian expansionism, didn’t observe Nepal’s unifier’s birth anniversary. They have no pride in being Nepali as they are acting in the foreigners’ interests. Some of them, via social networks, have tried to decline that King Prithivi was a unifier of modern Nepal. They have tried to project the Great King as an ambitious and expansionist person. They, however, have remained silent on the historical fact that if the Great King had not gifted us a modern Nepal expanding from Tista River in the East, Sutlej River in the West and Ganga River in the South, where would they have been today! After unifying all small states, the Great King had proclaimed that Nepal as the genuine Hindu Kingdom as he felt Hindustan was no more a Hindu nation as it was ruled by the British. The fact is that if Nepal had not been unified, the British rulers would have already been annexed Nepal. In that situation, perhaps, we would have been identified either as Biharis or Bangalis or else. Today, those Nepalis who were left behind in the Gorkhaland (Darjeeling district) in West Bengal, after the Sugauli Treaty, are compelled to stay under the Bangali civilization, which is vastly different from the Nepali civilization. The people in Gorkhaland struggled hard for their own identity but the cunning Indian rulers never tried to recognize them as the Gorkhas! If Prithivi Narayan had not unified Nepal, we could not have the Nepali identity, which is the reality.
The bitter fact is that after the Nalapani Battle with the British military, Nepal never tried to emerge as a military power. The unequal Sugauli Treaty was imposed on Nepal by occupying a big portion of Nepali territory on all three sides – East, West and South – by reducing Nepal’s territory from Mechi to Mahakali.
Again, the Indians, who were under British colonial rule, are trying to practice the same British attitude by demonstrating hegemony over the small nations in the South Asian region.
The Indians are continuously encroaching upon Nepali territory even after the Sugauli Treaty. Out of the 26 districts of Nepal sharing borders with India, in 21 districts and 54 places, the Indians have encroached our territory. More than 60,000 hectares of land of Nepal has been encroached by the Indian side. In the Kalapani-Limpiyadhura area only, India has encroached 37,000 hectares of land.
The reality is that our political leaders, who are ready to become the Indian slave, have not spoken a single word against the border encroachment by India. When Modi was lauding about the construction of a road in the Kalapani territory, our Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was preparing to visit India just to receive Modi’s blessings! Deuba, who denied paying tribute to the Great King! One cannot hope for safeguarding the Nepali territory from the group of the present-day political leaders, who cannot speak against the Indian hegemony!
To conclude, to save Nepal and to protect Nepalis from becoming Indian slaves, the Nepali military power must be strengthened and those foreigners’ slaves must be exposed!
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