Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Editorial

It has not for nothing been said that friends can be changed but not the neighbors. This aptly fits into our own case wherein we the Nepalese and the country as well have been left to the mercy of the expansionist, in the communist verbiage, Indian establishment.

It has repeatedly been proven that as and when Nepal as a nation-state becomes weaker or remains mired in her own internal political problems-fuelled and fanned to an extraordinary level by India indeed always- our southern neighbor-the so-called traditional friendly country-twists the arms of the top leadership of this country in such a manner that every times of such twisting, our leaders yield or are forced to yield to their clandestine and unnatural demands thereby further weakening an already weakened state.

Examples are galore wherein the Indian establishment since the beginning of the 1950s have all along been tortured the Nepali leadership to such an extent that for their political survival sake or for any other logical or even illogical political reasons they have had to act as per the hidden agenda of the country across the border. In the process the loss that this country has had to face should have been colossal in political terms. Needless to say, we the Nepalese every time have been the loser. Not a single instance could be found in the entire history of Nepal-India bilateral relations that we as a nation state have benefited politically. It is India and India alone that has exploited from our internal weaknesses. Let's admit this fact.

Nepal's one of the most popular vernacular weekly-the Drishti- in its November 14 issue has published a comprehensive article that further exposes the inner designs of India as regards Nepal. Now it has become crystal clear as to why the Indian Ambassador Shiv Shanker Mukherjee had been traveling in the recent months to Nepal 's innermost and at times even inaccessible terrains. He was surely making short trips to those remote areas with some designs in his mind and that had been to form a sort of platform for his country to take political stock of those areas in the guise of awarding pensions to the retired Indian soldiers of the Nepalese origin.

Reports have it that a mechanism has been secretly devised by the Indian establishment which forces the pension awardees to submit a political report of the entire happenings and the political events being carried out by various political paraphernalia in the districts and the villages. The idea is to collect the entire political events going in this country at various levels through the kind courtesy of the pensioners. The Nepali pensioners, reports say, must submit in writing about the happenings in and around their villages and districts to the Indian authorities' prior to accepting the pensions.

If this is so, and it is so because it has been divulged by a very prestigious Nepali weekly, then what could be clearly said that the Indian design is to monitor the entire political events and twist the Nepali arms as and when the need arise.

To add insult to injury, the Nepali government on October 30, last month granted permission for the formation of what is called "Indian District Soldiers Board" in ten more districts which if put together makes a total of 24 such entities which if comes into its full swing for which it has been constituted would surely guarantee total network of the Indian establishment in Nepal and what would be its political impact on this India-locked country is best left for the debate among the Nepali academia.

The Nepali cabinet dated October 30 has allowed the Indian to erect such DSBs in Lamjung's Besisahar; Waling in Syangja; Gorkha HQ; Kohalpur; Tikapur; Diktel; apart from the previous ones already granted to the Indian establishment.

We are surprised to watch the stoic silence so far acquired by Nepal 's parliamentarian and the media over such a sensitive issue.

It is further baffling as to how and why the cabinet approved such a dangerous proposal coming as it did from India ? After all whose pressure it was that a personality of Koirala's and Prachanda's stature could not resist in the larger interest of the nation? The cabinet members are answerable. The people possess the right to information as to which minister in the cabinet pushed this Indian Ambassadorial idea that is sure to invite the enemy to sweep Nepal .

It is more or less a case which wants willingly to invite the enemy to pounce the invitee itself. How comrade Prachanda and other nationalists housed in different political camps have got to be watched.

It is time that the Nepali academia pondered over this Himalayan blunder committed by Nepal government on October 30 or else we as a nation-state will be reduced to Sikkim whose chief minister recently said of the Indian annexation of his motherland as, in his own words, "we have every thing but what we lack is our original motherland".

The mental agony of Pawan Chamling, the chief minister of Sikkim is loaded with meaning and we the Nepalese must understand the gravity of his message and identify the grand designs of Indian establishment which she is carrying here through the kind courtesies of her Nepali stooges-better call them the Nepali versions of the Lendhup Dorje who remained instrumental in the annexation of his own land back in the early seventies, and expose them before it is too late. The message should be loud and clear.