Time to unite for national interest

Yuba Nath Lamsal

Nepal is currently in history’s worst crisis. But those who are in the helms of affairs are least bothered about this dire situation of the country. Our parties are so heavily preoccupied with power politics grossly ignoring the interest and the country and the people that they have, in fact, no time or energy to think about national interest. Nepal’s national sovereignty and interest are, therefore, under serious threat due to this power-hungry attitude of some of our political parties.

These parties seem to have compromised national interests just for power and position. The external forces are taking advantage out of Nepal’s political uncertainty, instability and most importantly the power-hungry ‘run-after-power’ mentality of our parties.

The attitude to do anything for power, perks and position of some of our parties and leaders has provided open ground for external elements and forces to directly meddle and interfere in our international affairs and they are dictating our leaders and parties for foreigners’ interest at the stark expense of our national interest. The parties and leaders are so subservient to certain external powers that they accept diktats of external force and act accordingly, which often turns out against our national interest.

Interference in other country’s internal affairs is against the accepted norms of diplomacy and internal laws. But some external forces in Nepal have ignored and openly violated these norms and rules of diplomacy and international laws. The United States of America is the global superpower which seeks to have its presence globally and keep tab on affairs of all countries in the world. In the case of Nepal, the United States is less dangerous as it is a far away country and has a little interest in Nepal. But it has declared Nepal policy, which falls under the overall South Asia policy.  The US interest and priority is to respect and protect Nepal’s sovereignty and independence. However, Washington has failed in its Nepal policy because the United States has not been able to play an effective role in keeping the interference of some countries in Nepal at bay. Instead, Washington has hobnobbed with the country that has been real threat to Nepal’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and national independence. This is the failure of the United States’ Nepal policy.

Nepal is a country that is situated in strategically vital location. Nepal’s position as a buffer state between the two Asian powers—India and China—has drawn global attention. We have China to the north. Despite having shared a long common border, China’s interest is to keep Nepal a truly independent and stable country. Beijing has always refrained from any kind of interference and coercive policy in Nepal. China is a genuine development partner as it has been continuously providing general and self-less assistance to Nepal. However, Beijing has keenly watched each and every development in Nepal because any events that unfold in Nepal would have its fallout and repercussion in the adjoining part of China—that is to say Tibet. But China’s handling of Nepal affairs is strictly within the limit of rules and norms of international diplomacy despite.

The real problem is with India. Nepal’s sovereignty is always under threat due to India’s high-handedness and interference. India has definitely its stake and interest in Nepal as we have a long common and unregulated border. Nepal is always sensitive towards India’s concerns and sensitivity. India often raises the issue of cross border smuggling and terrorist, which New Delhi has attributed to the unregulated border between Nepal and India.

The open and unregulated border between the two independent countries is a modern day contradiction. Nowhere in the world has the unregulated border between the two independent and sovereign countries. Although India has raised the issue of cross-border crimes due to open and unregulated border, it is the weakness on the part of India to control it in Indian side. Moreover, the open and unregulated border has benefited India more than Nepal. We have suffered due to this unregulated border as tens of thousands people from adjoining states of Utter Pradesh and Bihar enter into Nepal and snatch away jobs and opportunity from poor Nepalese. Some manage to obtain Nepali citizenship certificates by illegal means, which has caused demographic imbalance in Nepal. If India agrees to regulate cross-border movement, Nepal would be happy to cooperate. But India would never agree because it has benefited from the unregulated with Nepal. If India has to defend its border with Nepal, it will have to spend billions of rupees for deploying border security force.

Indians and even some Nepalese try to defend the open and unregulated border saying that it was a historic and unique nature of Nepal-India relations. They are of the view that unregulated border is more beneficial to Nepal than India. But this is an absurd logic devoid of factual support. Nepal and India did not have open and unregulated border in the past. The dense forest served as a natural border between Nepal and India in the south and rivers demarcated Nepal-India border in the east and the west. Until Rana rule, there was some sort of regulation on cross border movement and one required permission to leave Nepal for India and some kind of vigilance had been maintained on the people who would enter into Nepal from India. The unregulated and unchecked movement along the border is a recent phenomenon which has only added burden to Nepal.

The border between Nepal and India was demarcated and defined on regular basis in the past so that no country could ever have chance to encroach. The last time Nepal-India border was inspected and demarcated during Jung Bahadur Rana’s period and border pillars were installed. These border pillars are called in Nepal as the ‘Junge pillars’ (pillars installed by Junga Bahadur Rana). Since then, Nepal-India border was never inspected, managed and demarcated it has only to India to encroach Nepal’s territory every year. Now India has already encroached in more than four dozen points. This encroachment into Nepal’s territorial is, in other words, is an open attack on Nepal and its territorial integrity. Nepalese people have long been raising this issue vocally. But the government of Nepal has not been able to raise this issue with India officially and settle this in a diplomatic channel. This is because people who are the helms of political affairs are bought by India under various pretexts. As a result, Nepal’s border is being encroached every year.

Apart from border encroachment, Nepal has always been fallen prey to direct Indian interference against all kinds of international norms and rules. Indian interference in Nepal goes back to British colonial rule. When India was under British colonial rule, British rulers in India also tried to take over Nepal. As a result, Nepal and British India came onto head-long collision and Anglo-Nepal war broke out in which Nepal lost sizable portion of its territory. The Sugauli Treaty that marked the end of the Anglo-Nepal war was the beginning of interference in Nepal.

Indian interference is more naked and blatant in recent years especially after the Constituent Assembly election held four years ago. Prior to the election, India created Madhesi parties in order to have one more card in New Delhi’s sleeve that would further help India to control Nepal’s affairs. The other parties, too, are toeing New Delhi’s line else they would be out of power. It has now been an established fact that one has to toe New Delhi’s line if he/she wants power. Any patriotic force or individual that supports national independence and national interest of Nepal and opposes Indian hegemony and interference would be out of power. As a result, existing political parties and their leaders, except a few, are in the race of appeasing India and get power in Nepal. What can be greater irony than this? Political parties and leaders tend to appease foreigners than their own people to go to power and retain it.

All political events and change of governments in the post Constituent Assembly election in Nepal are its testimonies. The recent political alliance and agreement of forming Bhattarai-led all-party government is yet another example how India is behind in each and every political event. The political parties that talked loud against the external interference and advocated national interests have now quietly fallen into the trap laid by India. The recent case is the meeting of the political parties in the presence of Indian Ambassador Jayanta Prasad and decision made to form the all-party national government under the present Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai. This is a humiliating incident for Nepal and Nepalese while it must be diplomatically embarrassing to India, as well. Patriotic Nepalese people have taken it as a big insult to their national pride. It shows that our political parties are simply incompetent to take decision on their own and they seek foreigners’ advice on our own affairs. This is a great humiliation to all patriotic people who should rise against such national humiliation. This is high time that we must launch an effective movement to safeguard our national identity, sovereignty and independence and expose the parties and people that are acting against our national interest at the behest of foreigners. Currently, a design is underway to reduce the sovereign status of Nepal into that of Bhutan and some of our political parties and their leaders are unfortunately collaborating with it. All patriotic Nepalese must join hands in order to oppose this tendency of national capitulation of political parties and others and protect our national sovereignty. This is not against any particular power or country and we are against interference from any country. But we would seek moral support from our international friends in our struggle for national independence and identity.