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Honeymoon in Connaught Place!
Niraj Aryal
Girija Babu preferred not to break the tradition. The tradition that a new prime minister in Nepal should visit the southern neighbor first. And the urgency of the visit was felt badly as the ailing Prime Minister cancelled his Bangkok trip to visit the place of his liking. In other words, he had preferred country’s health to his personal health. This is positive!
Girija Babu was set to leave for the Thai capital for his health checkup, later just to cancel the trip. The mystery still remains though, why Koirala initially chose Bangkok instead of Delhi for his medical trip? But, if the outcomes of the visit were more significant, then the previous argument becomes redundant. The visit this time reveals exactly that. So, there must be positives this time around than usual negatives that are always attached with suspicions.
Here in Nepal, to be fair there is always a fear of loosing something among the Nepalese when a prime minister from Nepal visits the Indian capital. The question here is why Nepalese fear India’s intention? This time it was no different plus when the prime minister is Girija Babu then the fear grows multiplicatively. On the contrary the host may feel comfortable dealing with Girija Babu than any other visiting prime minister. Thus there should be no confusion why Dr. Man Mohan received Girija Babu at the airport and later termed Koirala the greatest South Asian Leader, to which in Nepal the pro-India faction of Nepali press left no space to spread the message all over with glee.
On the other, reading the joint communiqué issued by the Indian Government along with the visiting Nepalese team at the end of the Prime Minister’s visit, the outcomes this time were unexpected. It was unexpected because what Nepal lost this time around was not put into words in the joint communiqué.
Perhaps the growing differences between the SPA themselves and among the Maoists as well could unfold the secret deals Girija Babu had with the Indians in the days to come. This argument at the moment may seem harsh but still holds water if one ponders over Girija babu’s previous India visits. Another question is why the agreements between the two countries are always kept a guarded secret? What of the new one, if any? I suppose, the Maoists will take care of such undeclared secrets when they come to power. Will they?
But this visit was different, few may argue. The visit is dubbed a successful one by the Nepali Media, as the magnanimous neighbor this time again threw (read enbref) a few crore of support (or better say alms) to this nation, which is in economic disarray.
More interesting is the reporting by a Nepali vernacular magazine which says that, the accompanying team along with the journalists were given a four hundred dollar suit each. The contingent of forty-two men from Nepal were all placed in the Imperial Hotel, a five star hotel situated in the Connaught Place, a popular Delhi center. The prime minister was given a five hundred dollar suite. The magazine further writes that all expenses were covered by the Indian government. The reporter must have been a part of the visiting team and very happy with the Indian hospitality.
Another so-called senior journalist who also had accompanied Koirala, perhaps laying in a spongy couch-which was also paid by the Indian government, doing justice to this gesture commented that the Bade Bhai(Big Brother) just wants peace and stability in its backyard. He was replying to a question posed by the BBC-Nepali service. The question that the foreign Radio Station posed was rather awkward, “What India wants from Nepal for this generosity”? I found to my utter dismay that his answer was quite interestingly verbatim same to what the spokesperson in the south block stated. Thus the four hundred dollar suite was even justified.
The visit in all was very successful, Nepalese media continue to write. I cannot deny but agree to this popular analysis even though I was not chosen for the honeymoon trip but was left alone in the soaked gullies of Kathmandu. Sad!
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