Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Editorial

A section of the Nepali academicians believe that it is Nepal 's inbuilt political weaknesses that allows others to coil our arms as and when required. It appears that we have been toeing the line of what the Indian diplomats reportedly do when they confront their counterparts from China , Pakistan and America . It is said that the Indian diplomats as an submissive student in the school listen to what their counterparts lecture them at time of the bilateral negotiations. This is exactly what we have been doing or have been allowing the Indian diplomats to dictate us even on matters that are of vital interests for us as a sovereign nation-state.

The otherwise hothead leaders, the professed vibrant civil society and the self-appointed media leaders surprisingly take a back seat when it comes to condemn India or any other country even when the latter encroaches upon our lands here and there; when some countries in the neighborhood erects a high dam that inundates hundreds of our Nepali villages; when some nation in the immediate vicinity compels this country to sign uneven and controversial treaties and the likes. Where these political creatures disappear when their own "motherland" needs them most? Is it the Indian fear or "special love" for that country, for a variety of seen and unseen reasons, that these political animals and the leaders of the media remain tight-lipped?

The reason? Either fear of possible retaliation or some under table deals? Who knows else better than those involved in this widely believed phenomenon.

Thanks that the things and concerns we the Nepalese should have spelt out have come through the kind courtesy of two Indian high level diplomats and that too within a week's time.

The first diplomat is the new Indian foreign secretary, Shiv Shanker Menon who just last week hinted that his country could be prepared to listen to Nepali application for the reviewal of the 1950 treaty. When Menon has said this then let's deduce for the moment that he has spoken the minds of his country vis-à-vis the 1950 treaty. This should also mean that if Nepali side pressed Delhi hard in this regard then South Block, as per its own assertions and fresh admissions, could take up the Nepali seriousness in its right perspective. Menon's disclosure in this regard also hints that New Delhi of late has been thinking on the lines of making the controversial treaty a less contentious one in order to give the Nepali population an impression that New Delhi is a changed lot than what she used to be in the past. But Nepali diplomats say that Menon's talk in this regard could be a well intended move to soothe the growing hatred against the 1950 treaty in Nepal .

Master brains in New Delhi have several cards under their sleeves to befool the honest and ever smiling Nepali population. They know better on how to prolong the issue concurrently by injecting in the minds of the Nepalese that some thing new was forthcoming for them from Delhi . However, that has just been a sort of mirage for this country and its people since the very first day of the signing of the said treaty in 1950 July.

The second card that New Delhi used as regards the reviewal of the 1950 treaty came from none less than former Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Shri Krishna Venkatesh Rajan who just the other day in an obscure manner hinted that the fault lay with the Nepalese leaders and the civil society members. Or else, should this come from the Nepalese side to the scrutiny of New Delhi , his country will, to put it in his own words look "positively". IN saying so Ambassador Rajan also indicated that it is not New Delhi to be held responsible for this all but the Nepalese people, leaders and more so the members of the civil society here who have yet to make a concerted effort in this regard. Should this initiative come into action, Rajan says, his country will be more than happy to satisfy the Nepali grievances and make the treaty compatible to the changing times.

Here lay the Indian skillfully forwarding of the said cards which could be used both ways: in lingering the reviewal of the treaty by sending positive fillers but doing nothing in that regard. And this is exactly what the Indian establishment has been doing since 1950 onwards.

Who else better knows than former Ambassador Rajan as to how he faired his extended tenure in Kathmandu . He also knows how much efforts he have had to make while he was in this country in order to tame the Nepali media and the so called members of the civil society plus the Nepali leaders.

But then yet since Rajan has made these positive observations and since we know his sincerity, let's presume that he is candid in his statements and that he has also spoken the minds of the so far "unbending" South Block establishment.

The ball now is in Nepal 's court obviously.