Editorial (Spotlight Weekly)

A few days back Indian Ambassador Shyam Saran in an interview to a local daily has urged the Nepalis to ìLook at the visible hands of friendship (of India) that is extended to the people of Nepalî. Indeed. Those who have been fortunate to have seen the beginning of Nepal-India relations after India got her independence from the colonial rule in 1947, the several twist and turns and the numerous heart aches and heart burns this relationship has generated in the five and a half decades, would not fail to agree with the Indian ambassador that Nepalis have failed to see the Indian hand of friendship. But in plain words it could mean the Nepalis have been ungrateful they could not even show some gratitude to all the Indian munificence they have showered upon Nepal. No wonder, the benefactors are sore and their patience is wearing thin with their smaller neighbor egging them to exact their pound of flesh. But all that meets the eye could not be the whole truth. The Nepalis people are not that ungrateful. They are not only very docile and tolerant, they are also forbearing and forgiving. The hands of friendship have not been visible to them as they have been covered by the innumerable invisible hands of hostility that have inflicted incurable wounds that keep on smarting their pride and reminding of their utter helplessness and vulnerabilities. If Saran wants us to see those hands of friendship he has to make them clearly visible by taking away all the uncountable and invisible covering hands that have caused unmitigable harm to the development of a healthier and friendlier bilateral relations. He must not fail to realize that only rhetorics and propaganda do not go a long way in cementing relations. Neither can they fool all the people all the time. We do acknowledge they have a very powerful propaganda machinery. But truth cannot remain concealed permanently under any propaganda, howsoever enduring and powerful. Saran must understand that no patriotic Nepali can even dream of confrontation with India. His own self-interest would always forbid harboring such thoughts even. It is the handful of Nepalese Lendup Dorjis who are giving all kinds of wrong notions to the Indians. Consequently, if India is sincerely exhorting the overwhelming patriotic Nepalis to give due recognition to their various acts of benefaction to Nepal, they have not only to stop patronizing the Nepalese politicos and interfering in the internal politics of our poor and small country but also withdraw the countless invisible hands that have been perpetrating severe damages to the normal psyche of the innocent Nepalese people. They must take their critics as their good friends because they expose their flaws and failings. By treating them as p.n.gs and pariahs they are doing irreparable harm to themselves, subjective diplomacy will not help achieve any good and fruitful result. We have, time and again, advised our good Indian friends to renounce the hackneyed colonial mindset and infuse their minds with modern liberal twenty first century thinking. That is the only way to mend fences with all of their neighbors. As such, we would not hesitate to advise our good friend Shyam Saran, the Indian ambassador not only to exhort us to look at the visible hands of Indian friendship extended to us but also to withdraw all the invisible hands of hostility that have been marring our mutual relations for over half a century.

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A word of advice now to the fifth time new Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa would neither be irrelevant nor untimely. This is indeed, a golden opportunity provided by his kind fate to Thapa to refurbish his image. May be, he might not get another chance, as this one too was most unexpected. At a time when he can command few kind thoughts and even his tenure is most insecure, Thapa should miss no time to endeavor to bring the country back to track. It is no time to think of wooing the corrupt politicians. It is no time to think of restoring the dissolved house of representatives. And it is no time to go piggy back to entrench his weak position. It is the time to secure a lasting peace with the Maoists. It is the time to restore the damaged pride and self-respect and almost ruined economy of the country. And it is the time to go to the polls as early as possible. As such, he must not lose a single moment to prepare the ground infuse confidence amongst the people and resign at the earliest opportunity so that King Gyanendra might appoint the election government of non-politicos to give a free and fair elections to the country. If he can do this much, he would not only be washing away his old sins but generate for himself a clear conscience and a more peaceful life.