India, Bhutan must continue to work closely
The success of Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay's ongoing India tour will be an important measure of the degree to which bilateral relations have now been recalibrated. India-Bhutan ties suffered some unprecedented setbacks earlier this year that disturbed New Delhi's careful security calculus in the region and pushed the Bhutanese economy to the brink. However, if early assessments of Mr Tobgay's six-day trip are anything to go by, those frayed edges are now on the mend. The contentious subsidies issue, for one, has been resolved. New Delhi has clarified that the ill-timed subsidy withdrawal, that sent lPG and kerosene in Bhutan soaring on the eve of a general election, was a technical glitch.
The subsidies were restored almost immediately and, therefore, as Mr Tobgay said before travelling to New Delhi: “Besides thanking the Government of India, this issue shouldn't come up.” Hopefully, that will put to rest all talk, both in Thimphu and New Delhi, about how India's subsidy rollback was some sly diplomatic manoeuvre to tinker with Bhutan's electoral politics and get rid of Prime Minister Jigme Thinley. The St Stephen’s College graduate was perceived to be ‘pro-China' after he met with his Chinese counterpart in 2012, without New Delhi's blessings. The mini diplomatic crisis that it generated points to the challenges that the new Prime Minister will face.
Mr Tobgay will be walking through uncharted territory as he scripts a foreign policy for Bhutan independent of India's ‘guidance'. His predecessor's initiatives in this regard had made some in South Block uneasy. But New Delhi should take comfort in the fact that Mr Tobgay is staunchly pro-India — better India-Bhutan ties was one of his top electoral promises — and also represents a country that still identifies with India more than any other. Instead of nitpicking with the Government in Thimphu, as some ‘experts’ here have been doing in recent months, New Delhi must continue to support it, especially as Prime Minister Tobgay strives to engineer an economic turnaround.
Bhutan receives as much as 50 per cent of all of India's foreign assistance and currently a Rs 5,400-crore financial aid package is being discussed, much of which will fund Bhutan’s 11th Five-Year-Plan. In past years, New Delhi has had concerns about the manner in which Thimphu has utilised the aid money, and it is good to note that the matter of greater financial accountability will be taken up with Prime Minister Tobgay. These are the kinks that need to be ironed out so that India can continue to have a special relationship with Bhutan even as the latter redefines its engagement with the rest of the world.
