Allay Kathmandu’s fears, protect India’s interests
Union Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj's three-day visit to Nepal, beginning on July 25, has the potential to herald a new beginning in India-Nepal relations. She will participate in the Joint Commission Meeting which is being held after a long gap of 23 years. While the two countries have other bilateral mechanisms, the JCM is important because it deals with a gamut of contentious issues, commonly referred to as the ‘five cluster approach'. They are: Political, security and border issues; economic cooperation and infrastructure; trade and transit; power and water resources; and culture, education and media. Since this will be the Narendra Modi Government's first bilateral interaction with Nepal, Ms Swaraj will meet leaders from across the spectrum, ranging from the President, the Prime Minister, and Maoist leader and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda'. The NDA regime does not carry a historical baggage unlike the last two Governments which had interacted widely with Nepal's political spectrum including the Maoists during their combined 10-year rule at the Centre. In the process, the UPA had earned for India goodwill but also resentment for its ‘high-handed' approach, interpreted as undesirable intrusion into the affairs of that country. The Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government did have interactions with Kathmandu, but they were largely limited to the monarchy and the parties in power. The regime did not have a widespread reach to the Maoists, primarily because the latter's violent People's War was at its peak. Towards the end of its tenure, the Government did indulge in tentative talks with prominent Maoists who had begun to prepare the ground to enter the political mainstream by giving up the gun.
While the challenges before Ms Swaraj and Prime Minister Modi, who is expected to visit Nepal soon, are many, two issues will seize their immediate attention. The first has to do with security. India and Nepal share an open and free border, and there have been instances when it has been exploited by anti-India elements, especially from Pakistan, to infiltrate into the country. New Delhi is also unlikely to forget in a hurry the hijacking by Pakistani terrorists of a Delhi-bound flight from Kathmandu in 1999. Security concerns have also to do with the growing imprint of China in Nepal, through the former's investments in projects and encouragement to Nepalese students to study in China. The idea, it is said, is for the new generation of Nepal’s citizens to get tuned to the Chinese way and replace the tradition where a vast number of Nepalese have had their education and even upbringing in India.
But a great deal of the progress in bilateral relations rests with the handling of the hydropower projects there, of which India is a direct beneficiary as the predominant buyer of power, and in which it is an investor too. There is a perception that India has been short-changing Kathmandu and that Nepal must invite participation from countries such as China in its hydropower sector. Days ahead of Ms Swaraj's meeting, a bunch of prominent Nepalese politicians opposed India's proposal to further develop Nepal's hydropower, alleging that New Delhi wants to convert Nepal into “another Bhutan”. This alarmist view must be corrected.