Royal Himalayan Mess

King Gyanendra8217;s very regal nod to his Nepali subjects as they sought permission to speak at a FICCI function earlier this summer in Ne...

King Gyanendra8217;s very regal nod to his Nepali subjects as they sought permission to speak at a FICCI function earlier this summer in New Delhi surely gave away the monarch8217;s yearning for real power. And although Gyanendra has promised to restore the constitutional monarchy, the jury is still out on whether he will or won8217;t. Interestingly, all four key nations who watch Nepal very closely8212;India, Nepal, the US and Britain8212;have so far largely kept their counsel about the latest developments in the Himalayan kingdom. But if you were to speculate that the 8216;8216;Palace8217;8217; in Kathmandu, along with the other political parties, keeps in regular touch with these embassies, you would be right. So you can bet your bottom rupee that New Delhi also has an inside track to Kathmandu, and that messages about the efficacy of multi-party democracy have been sent on more than one occasion8212;during his summer trip as well as through Foreign minister Yashwant Sinha later8212;to the man who became King only last year. Then there are the Track Two types, jaw-jawing their way through nations with a high premium on secrecy. Still, the fact remains that such a key event in Kathmandu took place at a time when the Indian embassy in Kathmandu was pretty much headless. The last ambassador, I P Singh, died on August 17 and his number two, Ashok Kumar, was away in Lucknow. With India8217;s enormous stakes all too obvious, everyone8217;s now anxiously waiting for Shyam Saran, currently in Indonesia, to quickly take over his new post in paradise.

Who8217;s Next In Line?

So who8217;s going to be the new interim Prime Minister of Nepal? With New Delhi closely monitoring the goings-on up north, all kinds of names are being thrown up. Top of the list is Madhav Nepal, Nepal8217;s foreign minister during the UML government a decade ago, and very close to the CPM leadership in New Delhi. Then there8217;s Surya Bahadur Thapa, prime minister three times over during the partyless 8216;Panchayat8217;8217;8212;a euphemism for kingly control in the pre-democracy era8212;and who is currently president of the RPP, a party that supports Gyanendra. Interestingly, yet another name doing the rounds is our very own Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, Nepal8217;s ambassador to India. The latter Thapa also has the right credentials: apart from being a Finance minister during the 8216;8216;Panchayat8217;8217; years, he has been ambassador to the US, and has handled the very sensitive relationship with New Delhi over the last few years with perfect aplomb.

UK Approves. Shhh

What a long way it8217;s been from Brighton in 1995 to 10, Downing Street in 2002. New Delhi vividly remembers Tony Blair8217;s Labour Party, at its party conference while in the opposition, announcing that as the 8216;8216;former imperial power8217;8217;, Britain had the historic responsibility to resolve the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. Under the circumstances, a major turnaround on Kashmir has been nothing short of remarkable for Labour, in power since 1997. For, London is said to have joined Washington8212;as distinct from the other Europeans8212;in making the political decision, that the Jammu 038; Kashmir elections are a manifestation of the 8216;8216;wishes of the Kashmiri people.8217;8217; Britain8217;s sophisticated High Commissioner to India Rob Young may not have said as much, unlike his more forthright American colleague Robert Blackwill, but his reticence may also be traced to Britain8217;s special historical place in the subcontinent. Still, New Delhi seems pretty pleased about the fact that Tony Blair is going through the trouble to take an early morning flight back from Moscow to London on Saturday, October 12, to receive PM Vajpayee, who is stopping by on his return journey from the EU summit in Copenhagen.

MEA8217;s Kabul-wallah

So what was Arun Singh, joint secretary in the MEA8217;s Pakistan-Afghanistan-Iran division, doing in the US all of last week? Singh, barely back from Kabul, took the flight out to Washington to, it is said, meet the key players on the continuing Afghanistan story. Considering he met David Johnson, the new US special envoy to Kabul in Delhi just before he left, one wonders who else was on his schedule. Singh is also the pointperson for Pakistan, and, there8217;s no dearth of people wanting to write the next chapter of the New Delhi-Islamabad serial.