National/Regional Affairs:
By N. P. Upadhyaya
Kathmandu: Pakistani Ambassador Syed Haider Shah after a long “hibernation” has become suddenly active in Kathmandu’s volatile politics.
Let’s presume that the Pakistani envoy may have talked about the revival of the Modi killed SAARC, the South Asian regional organization, which to many, a difficult proposition perhaps for the India bend leaders of Nepal.
Let’s presume that Ambassador Haider is well acquainted with the Indian regular mindset as to how this republican country twists the arms of the smaller South Asian nations as the former has had a considerable stay in Delhi as a Pakistani senior diplomat.
Hopefully, KP Oli who is “my darling” of the Indian regime must have calculated the visiting diplomats’ acumen. Though less educated, Oli is a man who has a sharp brain.
How former PM Oli reacted to Ambassador Haider’s remarks on Nepal-Pakistan relations during the one-on-one meet is not known to us, however, what has been given to understands by the concerned Pakistani officials in Kathmandu, “it is a courtesy call as part of outreach to political leadership in the context of strengthening Pakistan-Nepal bilateral relations”.
It read further that the envoy complimented Oli for his immense contributions in furtherance of bilateral ties during his tenure as the Prime Minister.
This is meaningful as it has no meaning at all in that Oli except receiving Khaqqan Abbasi who suddenly dropped in Nepal.
If tom-dick or harry were the PM of Nepal then he would have, as a matter of protocol, received the Pakistan PM in Nepal.
Yet Oli had dared to invite the Pakistani Prime Minister and had sent enough signals here and there.
The next SAARC Summit should have had held in Islamabad but due to the intransigence of the regional bully, the regional body has failed to convene its annual meet there. The last meet was held in Kathmandu.
Oli as PM of Nepal, to the best of my knowledge, has never talked with PM Modi to resume the SAARC Summit nor he can dare for some reason.
However, the “tamed” nations of South Asia, including protectorate Nepal, feel scared even to talk to PM Modi on the resumption of the SAARC meet which explains why South Asia is reeling under the firm clutches of the Indian regime, the darling of the Super Power USA. Nepal’s submission is voluntary.
The volatility thus has been made presumably so with the well-established unwarranted penetration of the Indian RAW (Research & Analysis Wing) agency in Nepali politics and also with the political polarization among and between the political parties of Nepal on matters pertaining to the US’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) which stands tabled in Parliament.
In addition, the Ukrainian crisis has almost polarized each and every country to which Pakistan could not be an exception.
And amid this chaotic mess in Nepal, the PAK envoy met with two presumed “India bent” Nepali leaders. The outcome of such a redundant meet is anybody’s guess.
The meet may be of high importance to the visiting Pakistani dignitary, but talking to those who possess immense love and honour for the regional monster will perhaps yield nothing, this is what observers presume here.
Yet, the process of visiting leaders must continue which finally yield positive results.
While it is unmistakably believed Indian spy agency RAW tentatively rules and controls Nepal’s politics then the US’s MCC too has visibly divided the country into two equal halves which is surely neither good for the political health of the country nor for the bewildered domestic population and the world.
Those who back the approval of the MCC opine that if and when this American grant is accepted by the Nepali government, this will not only bring in miracles in Nepali development efforts but will also concurrently prevent the pathetic exodus of the Nepali youths to the Gulf countries for the search of suitable and profitable jobs.
Nepal is being run by the remittance that the Nepali youths have been sending to their country bearing the 50-degree celsius temperature in the station of their jobs in the Gulf countries mostly in Qatar, Kuwait, Riyadh and United Arab Emirates-UAE.
Yes! South Korea and Israel too are the lovely destination for the ignored, rejected and dejected youths of this “ever independent and sovereign” country.
And those who are against the MCC claim that if and when the MCC is accepted by the Nepali government, the US may use Nepali territories to tease the Chinese regime through the stationing of the US military force which is the ultimate aim and the objective of the US.
The US may turn Nepal into yet another Afghanistan, the opponents of the MCC believe.
The US and China are not on good political terms though both the countries trade in billions and billions with each other.
Which country is powerful: the US or China? China though enjoys Russian support.
The fact is that China at times expresses its highest concerns as Nepal becomes the venue for anti-China activities.
To recall, the Nepali narrative is that “We believe in one-China policy and that Tibet is an integral part of China”.
Because of Nepal’s open border with India, China concludes that anti-China elements sneak into Nepal through the porous Nepal-India border.
Let’s not forget that the Tibetan exiled Dalai Lama lives in India and the latter has been using the Tibetan leader as a “China card” since Nehru’s time.
The Dalai Lama has found a safe shelter in India from the time of Pundit Nehru who when badly defeated by the Chinese in the 1962 War almost became sick and finally left the world for his heavenly abode some two to three years later in the early sixties.
With these two fluctuating narratives on the American grant MCC, the country is under severe stress giving rise to anti-American and Chinese slogans.
Those who favour the MCC for Nepal accuse the Chinese regime of having engineered the lobby which is hell-bent on against the MCC.
The Chinese deny their involvement and say, “it is up to the Nepali government” to decide whether they approve the MCC or reject it.
In the process, the heightened activities of the sitting Chinese Ambassador Hou Yanqi has also become the topic of intense discussion. Her acts are real in that she is here to defend her country’s interests. Nothing to panic.
However, the unwarranted intervention of the Indian Ambassador is easily digested for quite understandable reasons.
If one were to take the UML leader Jhal Nath Khanal as a man having a Beijing tilt, then he in effect is against the approval of the MCC for Nepal.
Should this then mean that Khanal is opposing the MCC project under the “coercion” of the Chinese mission in Kathmandu? Who else better knows than Khanal himself? Or Khanal is against the MCC to please the Chinese only?
But yes, China concludes that its Belt and Road Initiative will get a great reversal if and when Nepal approves the MCC.
It is their belief as Nepal is one of the signatories of the Chinese BRI mega projects that intends to link entire South Asia through road connectivity.
This is yet to be substantiated but many high placed political pundits believe it to be so though we at this portal are not sure.
China and Pakistan have common friends who finally “inform” the RAW in Kathmandu, it is strongly said and believed.
However, the general impression in Nepal has been that since the early 1990s, India some way or the other controls Nepal either activating its Kathmandu diplomatic mission or straight from Delhi which decides the very political course of this “India pained” country that it has been since the first days of India gaining conditional independence from the British Raj.
The most insulting phenomenon has been that the national media reportedly is inside the pocket of the Indian mission which is yet a strong rumour.
Though the media barons out rightly reject this notion and claim that they were the “nationalists” who have so far kept the country sovereign and independent to which it is not or else Nepal would have already become Sikkim.
Under this political background or better say a mess, the Pakistani Ambassador has met former PM Oli at his private residence in Balkot.
Oli though is taken in Nepal as a bit more nationalist compared to his political colleagues yet his “direct” links and association with the Indian RAW chief, Samanta Kumar Goyal is not a secret.
The RAW chief went to Prime Minister’s official residence straight from the International Airport which provides an inkling into what sort of “link” Oli may have with him.
So what the Pakistani envoy may have been assured by Oli whose proximity with the RAW is clear.
The ambassador also called on former PM Madhav Nepal. Nepal became Prime Minister even when he was not elected but “selected” or “elevated” by some invisible power centre(s) both from within and without.
Nepal is the one “distinguished” communist leader who had proposed to his party leadership Madan Bhandari during a party meet back in the 1990s for “Indian military intervention” to tame the then sitting monarch King Birendra.
Party supremo Bhandari had scolded the former stating, “Good or bad, King Birendra is our King…and that India must not be invited to settle our internal political differences”. Former minister and former UML leader R.K. Mainali has quoted this inside story of the then underground party in his memoir, “Nalekheko Itihas” (Unwritten History).
Thus the wish of Nepal was dumped.
As if it were not enough, Nepal while talking to a Nepali Television network proudly declared that he and his boss Madan Bhandari were “key persons” in negotiating the Mahakali River treaty with India much in advance of its official ratification by the Nepali parliament.
At the people’s level, the Mahakali treaty with India is taken as a curse on Nepal.
Perhaps these two incidents speak so many things unspoken and thus no more elaboration it needs, we presume.
Thus in sum, the meeting of Ambassador Syed Haider with the two senior communist leaders of Nepal must have been a “tea-coffee session” and nothing more than that.
We though don’t wish to dishearten the distinguished envoy from a very friendly country.
Yet let’s hope that both Oli and Nepal contribute to the enhancement of our bilateral ties with Pakistan which has been shadowed or visibly dwarfed by excessive India bend.
Yet comparatively speaking, former PM Oli when in power dared to challenge the Indian government and published an actual political and administrative map of Nepal which incorporated even those Nepali landmasses which at the moment is under the “illegal occupation” of the recognized “expansionist” of South Asia-India which unfortunately is Nepal immediate Southern neighbour.
Last but not the least, a sizeable section of the Nepali people would wish to see Nepal-Pakistan relations attaining new heights, however, that needs sincere efforts from both sides which are unfortunately missing.
The Pakistani Foreign Minister rarely finds time to make a trip to smaller South Asian countries. And this Pakistani lapse has advantaged India to a greater extent.
Yet Ambassador Haider has taken the timely initiative which, let’s hope and expect, that the momentum doesn’t evaporate in the ethereal medium sooner than later.
Good or bad, the Nepali population haven’t the liberty to “import” leaders from friendly countries be it the US or for that matter, the all-pervasive Indian regime born 1947.
All the best wishes to Nepal-Pakistan ties.
For the Road: Most of the ambassadors posted in Kathmandu these days have begun rushing to the private residence of K. P. Oli as if the entire political weight of this “unfortunate” nation remains on his shoulder. Is it what the diplomats conclude?
Those who rushed to see Oli include, the German, the French and the US ambassador and now the Pakistani ambassador. Do all roads lead to Balkot? The US Ambassador Randy Berry has met practically all the Nepali leaders and his meeting is for something beneficial. That’s all.
Login to add a comment