India-Nepal confrontation must end at earliest
Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj enunciated New Delhi's position on Nepal in her statement to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. Seeking to refute remarks by certain leaders in Kathmandu that India had blocked the supply of essential goods including fuel to Nepal in the wake of the agitation launched by Madhesis against the provisions of Nepal's new Constitution, she dismissed the charge and said that India would re-route cargo supplies from safer entry points along the border. The fact is that the situation along the India-Nepal border is unstable, with Madhesi protesters and Nepal's security forces clashing intermittently. Violence has taken over the streets and dozens of people have lost their lives. In this unsafe environment, it is natural for the movement of vehicles carrying goods from India into Nepal to be affected. It is primarily the responsibility of Nepal's leaders to address the concerns of the agitating community. If they have been failing in that task, India can hardly be blamed. Unfortunately, instead of finding a way out of the crisis, certain important members of the coalition Government in Kathmandu have been busy making irresponsible statements against New Delhi. Remarks that India is interfering in Nepal's internal affairs or that it is fuelling the Madhesi protests or is indulging in a conspiracy to tear away the Terai region from Nepal and add to its territory, have strained India-Nepal relations. These are hardly the sort of comments that can bring bilateral ties on an even keel. India's interest in the events that are presently unfolding there is primarily driven from the fact that the violence is taking place along the border and has the potential to impact India as well, both in matters of law and order as well as strategic interest. In any case, it is rather amusing to hear allegations from communist leaders in Nepal that New Delhi is playing the ‘big brother'. They seem to forget that it was due to India's interventions in the past that they got an opportunity to occupy the centre-stage in their country's politics. India had also played a decisive role in ensuring that Nepal transited from a monarchy to a democratic republic. It has become a habit of certain leaders from Kathmandu to blame India for problems their flawed decisions result in. However, there have been some welcome signs which give hope that bilateral relations will soon get back on track; really, failure is not an option even. Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister Kamal Thapa recently made his second visit to India in less than two months to take discussions forward and said that the talks he had with Ms Swaraj had helped in “clearing the existing misunderstandings”.
Ms Swaraj's offer to send an all-party delegation to Nepal to assess the situation there is welcome for two reasons: The first is that it demonstrates the Government's outreach to the Opposition on an important foreign policy matter. And the second is that it offers an opportunity to members who are not too appreciative of the Narendra Modi Government's handling of the issue to understand first-hand the ground reality. If this initiative materialises, it will hopefully assist these members in revising their critical opinion or at least offering constructive suggestions to the Government on the issue.