NEPAL-INDIA RELATIONS
India depends on Nepalese waters

Rabindra Khanal

Amandine: Is there an Indian connection regarding the Maoist insurgency? Are the Nepalese Maoists linked with the Naxalite movement?

Dr. Khanal: It is true that the Naxalite movement originated in Nepal. The Naxalites have fought the government from the 1960s but have not achieved anything. They are nevertheless now joining the Maoists in Nepal. Their design is to come to Nepal, and from there to the North East border of India, then to Burma and Thailand. They would thus progressively gain all the upper part of the continent. This is the reason why the Maoists of India are helping the insurrection in Nepal. However, there is no assistance from the Indian establishment, as they are even threatened by the movement. The organisation is quite powerful in India and can exercise pressure at the Chief Minister level. Yet there is no cooperation at the policy level, and the subject is of enough concern for the Indian government not to have taken away the terrorist tag it had put on the Maoists.

Amandine: According to B. C. UPRETI, Nepal is suffering from an inferiority complex. Isn’t it more exact to speak about an Indian superiority complex?

Dr. Khanal: It might be true that Nepal is suffering from an inferiority complex. Nepal is in fact not a small country compared to many others in the world. However, it is very little compared to its neighbours. This gives smallness in thinking. The reason is also to be found in the way Nepalese and Indians interact. People in the Nepalese administration for example are not even able to deal with Indians, partly because of language problems. Nepalese are thus not able to put their arguments properly. In this sense it is therefore true there is an inferiority complex. Otherwise, owing its own resources, Nepalese do not have to feel this way. Even India depends on Nepalese waters.

Amandine: The controversies in 1950 Treaty: what is at stake?

Dr. Khanal: This treaty has been done by an alien force, the Ranas regime, which disappeared soon after. The treaty is therefore not considered as valid. Moreover, it states that after the signing all the pre existing treaties are not applicable. It thus cancels the 1816 Treaty that fixed the border. If the treaty is abolished, Nepalese should then get the land the British had taken at that time.

Furthermore, when a new government came, there should have been a new treaty. But due to Nepalese weakness at that time, the things went on like this.

These are the reasons why it is felt the treaty is invalid. Besides this, it is not effectively working. The reality is that only one or two clauses are effective when India needs them to be so. Only few things regarding arms, extradition and the border have been indeed implemented. One clause states in addition that if Nepal and India have relations with third countries, they should let the other know. In spite India is not doing it, it expects Nepal to do so. If only one side is expected to respect the clauses, the document should not be considered as valid.

Amandine: Could the border be closed?

Dr. Khanal: The border between Nepal and India is the only unregulated border in the world. Indians argue that the cultures of the two countries being so similar, it is impossible to close it. However Bangladesh and India have the same cultural affinity and the border is not opened. The argument is thus not valid. The border should in this regard be closed and properly regulated. The money of the irregular trade is anyway not going to the government but only benefiting to gangs. The lobby pressuring for the open border is though very strong, and the border is thus not likely to be closed soon.

Amandine is a French student of M.A. Political Science, at the moment working as an intern in The Telegraph Weekly, Nepal.

(Amandine is a French student of M.A Political Science currently an intern at The Telegraph Weekly conducting research on Nepal-India Relations)

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