On/Off the Record
By P.R. Pradhan
Everywhere we see traitors competing for selling Nepal. Every time, when our leaders visit Neighbouring country India, we are scared about what the leader is going to gift to India! Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal returned home concluding his first visit to India after assuming office as committed by him immediately after he was elected to the post of prime minister. The visit has turned beneficial for India and a loss for Nepal. Nepal authorized India for the construction of the Lower Arun Hydropower Project and the Fukot-Karnali Hydropower Project. The Nepal government has decided to give 51 per cent ownership to the Indian investors in the project as if the Fukot-Karnali is a common river.
Earlier to his departure to India, PM Dahal had prepared a big list following consultation with experts in different fields. Our local experts had asked PM Dahal for putting forward our issues without any hesitation to the Indian leaders. Instead, PM Dahal projected himself as India’s man and tried to please Indian leaders with precious gifts. He didn’t talk to his counterpart about what the latter didn’t wish to listen and he talked about only those issues to which the Indian prime minister wanted to listen.
Until today, our leaders are unable to understand the Indian strategy. Such a strategy has not been developed by an individual but is architected by different institutions related to its national security. The Indian priorities on Nepal are India’s security, control over the Nepali foreign policy and occupying Nepal’s rivers for water. India needs drinking water for its large population in UP and Bihar including the federal capital New Delhi; water is essential for India for irrigation of agricultural land and also for the operation of medium-sized ships in the Ganges (Ganga) River. Besides, India wants to bring Nepal under its security umbrella so that it can expand its security reach up to the Himalayan belt. India doesn’t like the increasing presence of China and the West in Nepal. Whoever becomes the prime minister of India, his policy will be based on the guidelines developed by national security.
India will never support Nepal to become a prosperous and strong nation, instead, will continue to trouble Nepal by funding different political parties, so-called civil society members and media for political instability, weakening nationalist forces and weakening the national economy.
In Nepal, to counter such a hegemonic and imperialist attitude of India, political parties and all patriotic forces should be united. Nepal should also try to move forward institutionally by developing a national security strategy. All those India-paid political leaders, bureaucrats and experts give emphasise on the export of electricity to India instead of increasing the consumption capacity of electricity within the country. How are our policy level people working in the vested interests of India, for example, increasing the import tax on the electricity operating vehicles from the existing one per cent to 10 per cent, we can understand. For public consumption, the government is saying that it has decided to replace all petroleum product-consuming vehicles with E-vehicles, in practice, the government has inked an agreement for the construction and expansion of new petroleum pipelines. We procure petroleum products from India at the monopoly price set by the Indian Oil Corporation. India is taking benefit from the export of petroleum products. We should understand, Nepal will continue to import petroleum products by selling electricity at superficially low prices to India. Nepal can become self-reliant on agricultural products but the government has encouraged imports of the agricultural products by discouraging local agricultural products. For example, local farmers are not getting the price of cabbage and tomatoes and the consumers are compelled to purchase Indian cabbage and tomatoes.
The government policy is to send local youths for abroad job and invite Indian labourers into Nepal. These seem minor things but we are committing big mistakes and betraying the nation while doing so. Decades ago, Dr Harka Gurung led a commission that suggested issuing work permits for the Indian labour force and those migrated Indian nationals. The commission report has been dumped and our political parties have drafted a new citizenship amendment law which has been approved unconstitutionally by President Ramchandra Paudel on the day PM Dahal was leaving for India. Understandably, those Indian puppets did it so just to please their bosses.
Why our executive chief didn’t talk about withdrawing the Indian security force from the Kalapani area, a Nepali territory, why PM Dahal didn’t talk about accepting the EPG report, why our leaders don’t talk about the 1950 unequal treaty? Moreover, why has India denied giving more air routes for aircraft bound for Nepal, which is the fundamental right of a landlocked country like Nepal? Why India is creating hurdles in providing a land route reaching Bangladesh? Reports say that the Indians are creating obstacles by saying that the trucks bound for Bangladesh are overloaded.
To conclude, the first duty of all the political parties should develop a national strategy through an all-party consensus and the chief executives of the nation should follow the strategy developed by them. The Nepal Army should play the role of putting pressure on the political parties for developing a national strategy. Unfortunately, we cannot hope for such an act from the existing political parties in the country, which has pushed Nepal into an unfortunate era.
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