Opinion Once more in Nepal
Modi government must first take note of how Delhi has undermined a crucial bilateral relationship.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s three-day visit to Nepal, beginning today, seeks to build on the diplomatic gesture made to India’s neighbourhood at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on May 26. Modi and Swaraj have since visited Bhutan and Bangladesh, respectively, in keeping with the government’s “neighbourhood first” approach to foreign policy. In Kathmandu, Swaraj is expected to set the stage for Modi’s visit to Nepal, scheduled early next month. She will chair the joint commission that will review the spectrum of bilateral relations. The commission has not met for 23 years, and Modi will be the first Indian prime minister to embark on a bilateral visit in 17 years.
New Delhi has subjected the Indo-Nepal relationship to political inattention and neglect for almost two decades. While continuing to view Nepal as part of the Indian sphere of influence and professing concern at Beijing’s rising profile there, Delhi has confined its own engagement with Kathmandu to the bureaucratic level. This has, unsurprisingly, been taken for a slight by Nepal’s political class and has bred a deep resentment towards India in that country.
Matters have not been helped by Nepal’s political turmoil, which has made Kathmandu acutely aware of its own vulnerabilities. Nepal’s transition from absolute to constitutional monarchy and then to a republic, even as the country recovered from a decade-long civil war, has not been easy. The challenging task of integrating the Maoists into the political mainstream and the instability bred by coalition politics have seen seven prime ministers in the six years of the Nepali republic.
After goading Kathmandu on to its new path, Delhi has shown little ability or willingness to reach out to Nepal’s leaders. Nor has it demonstrated any political empathy through its years of trouble. Swaraj and Modi are well placed to change that now.
If the BJP claims a special affection for Nepal, there are big expectations in Nepal too that Modi’s government will politically strengthen the relationship and remove the bureaucratic impediments. Modi and Swaraj must ensure they do not join a long list of Indian leaders who visit Nepal, make promises and then don’t keep them. A vulnerable Kathmandu is especially prone to misunderstanding Delhi’s intentions. With water resources, energy, trade and transit, boundary management and border infrastructure and security earmarked for cooperation, Delhi must first take note of India’s terrible record of project implementation in Nepal.
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