‘Indian Game Plan’ vis-à-vis Nepal is frightening!

Those who understand India better perhaps would recall that it is this country, which has not even spared its own Muslim Presidents, for example Zakir Hussain and Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, and suspected of their genuine motives towards their own motherland. Prior to this, India’s great educationist Maulana Abul Kalam Azad too had been blamed for the growth of the Muslims in India. Consider the fresh case of Dilip Kumar-the top most Indian matinee idol, who still is undergoing through the trauma of being branded as a man ‘close to Pakistan’ and hence, according to India’s notorious RAW-Research Analysis Wing, had some links with Pakistan’s ISI. Ask Syed Sahabuddin Imam Bukhari what pain he has in being an Indian Muslim? He will tell you the real agony through which he is forced to undergo at times. Add to this the mental agony through which cricketeer Md. Azharuddin undergoes at times when his team trounced buy the Pakistanis. The plight of the Muslims in India! Poor Sanjay Dutt, the matinee idol in India too has become the victim of this fanaticism. The list is long.

Recall the 1989 days when India used its ‘coercive diplomacy’ against Nepal and pressed her very hard to sign the document regarding security matters. Recall the Indian media’s role then to flare up the anti-Nepal activities to the hilt in Delhi’s South Block. Had Nepal put her signature, this country would have been under the security umbrella of India. Thanks, the then leaders rejected the Indian offer and instead facilitated the 1990 movement to take a concrete shape. It would have been otherwise if the rulers had decided India’s way. However, India extracted benefits on security matters from the June 10, 1990 joint agreement with her during the tenure of K.P. Bhattarai as Prime minister in lieu of securing the status quo ante. This Nepali gesture prompted the then Indian envoy S.K. Sinha to proclaim our Premier as a precious Indian gift to Nepal at a Lord Buddha celebrations in Swayambhu.

The fresh media onslaught follows the previous Zee TV terror which tentatively painted Nepal as a place where all of India’s enemies had come to Kathmandu and had been ganging against her at the instigation of Pakistan’s ISI. India today’s report, albeit a fake calculation perhaps prepared in Kathmandu by supposedly some Nepali versions of the RAW having gained doctoral degrees in ISI affairs, should be taken in lighter vein. Nothing to panic. Things that are designed in the South Block for the smaller nations are inevitably being brought to open by the media men close to the Block. This phenomenon we all know. What I have understood is that the Indians are your friends till you serve them. They will talk of traditional friendship. Will lecture about Lord Pashupatinath and Baba Bishwanath and what not what not. They would give you the impression that Indians were the best breeds in the globe. However, things would become instantly different if you decide not to toe their dictates. Things will change to the extent that they will see in you a dangerous person inimical to India and her ‘genuine national security interests’ planted by Pakistan’s Intelligence Services- the ISI. However, with tougher persons they become modest to the extent that Foreign minister Jaswant Singh, to recall, himself accompanied the three terrorists with him to Kandhar in the same aircraft. How India becomes pretty ‘nervous’ while talking to China during negotiations, the whole world knows. While talking to smaller countries, Indian leaders and the bureaucrats pose themselves as British Viceroys who ruled them for long many years. Once ruled now possess a desire to rule. This is their declared weakness.

Every second Nepali citizen has connections with the ISI, this is what they believe. Every Nepali nationalist is anti-India and hence close to the Pakistan embassy, the Indian leaders and bureaucrats conclude.

India today’s wild allegations appear to have its origin in Kathmandu. But then question arises who is the real villain? Understandably, if the ISI is very active in Kathmandu then implied is that only RAW could recognize its competing counterpart in Kathmandu, which again means that the presence of the RAW men in Nepal should also be in a sizeable matching chunk. Ambassador Fouzia Nasereen is hereby politely suggested to ask DAWN, Karachi to print the names of the RAW men in Kathmandu if she has the courage. And I have already talked to her about this at the Russian embassy reception this Monday.

Who is serving RAW or the ISI in Kathmandu is not my business to go in for in-depth investigation. However, what is for sure is that India today’s misinformation campaign made public this time against Nepal is dangerous because it was timed with Brajesh Mishra’s trip who is supposed to have handed over the entire fake bundle to Nepal’s authorities. It is India’s game plan and not the otherwise that is aimed at demoralizing the Nepalese seated in meaningful positions and extract significant benefits. The fresh report that intends to damage the prestige of some Nepali leaders, businessmen, media men, hoteliers and the likes will in all likelihood boomerang and the poor Indian Ambassador designate Dev Mukerjee will have to face the brunt of the India today report and the shock that it has imparted on the overall psyche of this nation. It would take months and months for Ambassador Mukerjee to regain the trust and sympathies of this section of the Nepalese whose prestige has been attacked by the notorious Indian media. We feel sorry for you Ambassador Dev Mukerjee!

Consider the fact that you the Indian diplomats come to Kathmandu to take care of your national interests. Should not we then remain alert in the preservation of our national interests in our own country? Is it a crime to be a nationalist? Have we ever suspected the motives of Indian nationals who were nationalists? Perhaps there is no single instance. However, yes, in the eyes of Indian media each and every Nepali national must be subservient to their dictates and summarily die for India’s cause. Those who differ with you are naturally your declared enemies and thus close to the ISI. So simple is your definition of friendship.

I do not understand why Indian leaders and newspapers have developed some sort of allergy with Muslims around the world. India itself houses a sizeable population of Muslims. The tragedy is that after the advent of BJP leadership in Delhi, not only the Indian Muslims but the Nepalese Muslims too have been feeling insecure. The next attack would surely be the Muslims of Bangladesh as some Indian media have already been hinting that the ISI had already penetrated there. A grand rehearsal of the impending scheme of things for B’desh. Colombo has already tested RAW’s machinations. All the Indira’s baby creating havoc there.

Fortunately the report spares the UML and the NSP leaders for understandable reasons. Similarly, the fake report does not wrap other journalists other than the ‘lucky’ six. This means that either the rest were all-sacrosanct or were associated with RAW, the main competitor of the ISI in Nepal.

Let us take this report very lightly as it has come, to recall, from the homeland of infamous MIRJAFARS’ and the JAYACHANDS’ whose stories perhaps the people of this region know better.

Summing up, the whole story picked up and propagated by India today is sure to damage our bilateral ties to a greater extent. The damage done to Nepal-India ties by this locally prepared report will surely make the people here suspect of Indian motives vis-à-vis Nepal for long time to come. Poor Dev Mukerjee!

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