Putting aside the episodes of tough posturing against each other during the last one year, India and Nepal hope to move forward in their relationship. However, while India will continue to pursue Nepal to carry forward more amendments to its new Constitution, there are plans to work together on the reconstruction of the country hit by earthquake last year and equip it with power plants. The details of these will be finalised during Prime Minister KP Oli’s visit to New Delhi this weekend.
Oli will be in India from February 19-24 to hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other political leaders. This will be Oli’s first trip abroad after taking over as Nepal’s PM last year. He is bringing an all-party delegation along with him to interact with a whole range of Indian political groups and recover the lost ground in India.
Oli’s first few months in the office have been very turbulent both internally and externally. The country saw vociferous protests by the Madhesis and other minority group agitated over the promulgation of country’s new Constitution and forced a blockade from their side to prevent essential goods and petroleum products to reach Nepal. Nepal at one point of time tried to play the China card with India and even anti-India sentiments were heard. But the bluff was called soon as nothing substantial came from the Chinese side to bail out Nepal from its current crisis and Nepal had to fall back to India.
While the Nepalese Government blamed India for causing economic blockade on it, India always denied the allegations and counseled Nepal to resolve its issues with protestors in a peaceful manner. Nepal recently brought two amendments in its Constitution to satisfy the protesting parties while India feels there are unfinished tasks in the Constitution and more needs to be done. India has also counseled the agitated parties to peacefully and patiently deal with the situation. However, while trying to bring on greater inclusion in Nepal, India, at the same time believes in keeping its bilateral relations alive with it. New Delhi is fully guarded against the internal politics in Nepal and keeping politics separate from the issue of Constitution.
However, till that happens, India would like to move forward with the neighbouring nation in strengthening the soured ties. The Indian government has advised business houses to invest in Nepal and even told them that the crisis created due to new Constitution will not impact their business. India’s security cooperation with Nepal has remained robust and both sides will like to strengthen that further during Oli’s visit.