India-Nepal tension must be redressed through dialogue

Nepal is a test case for the efficacy of the Modi government's neighbourhood policies and related astuteness. Managing the Chinese footprint in the Indian neighbourhood will be less onerous if Delhi is seen as an empathetic and reliable partner, sensitive to the concerns of the smaller neighbours. The 'special relationship with Nepal' should not be allowed to drift further south, writes Commodore (retd) C Uday Bhaskar.

Hyderabad: In an unprecedented development on Sunday (May 31) the Nepalese government introduced a Constitution amendment bill in Parliament that seeks to alter the country’s official map to show some parts of India as falling within its borders. This comes after a complex but relatively dormant territorial dispute came into focus when India decided to inaugurate a road in Uttarakhand to open a new land route via the Lipulekh pass for the annual Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage.

The dispute has been simmering since Delhi issued an official map after the re-organization of the erstwhile J&K state and included areas such as Kalapani and Lipulekh that Nepal deems to be its own. Claims by Nepal that this act by Delhi was a departure from the earlier agreements on the contentious and sensitive matter were rejected by India and the situation was further exacerbated by remarks made by the Indian Army Chief General Naravane who suggested that Kathmandu may be protesting at the behest of 'another' country – alluding to China.

The bilateral relationship between India and the land-locked nation of Nepal is often described as ‘special’ and for good reason. The 1950 Peace and Friendship Treaty gives Nepali citizens much the same access and opportunity to work in India as is the case for Indian citizens and the border is open.

The fact that Nepali citizens are part of the Indian military (the highly respected Gorkha regiments) and that some even rise to general officer rank is without precedent between any two other nations and is to be cherished. By tradition, the Indian army chief and his Nepali counterpart are invested with the honorary rank of General in each other's army, in a special ceremony. The symbolism of this investiture is substantial.

Located between the two Asian giants, India and China the relatively smaller Nepal has made a tumultuous but determined transition from monarchy to democracy beginning 2006 and during this period the resilience of the ‘special’ relationship has been tested. Given its complex domestic demographic mix and the centuries-old linkages with mainland India across a 1,750 km long border, the India-Nepal relationship is multi-layered.

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The Hindu character of the erstwhile kingdom that is also the land of the birth of the Buddha and the more recent Maoist insurgency phase and nascent electoral compulsions have introduced a new socio-political dynamic in the proud but relatively impoverished mountain nation.

The special relationship with India has since frayed and the fact that the Nepal Communist Party is now in power in Kathmandu has given China a political cum ideological advantage that was not a factor in earlier decades. Southern Asia has distinctive political geography reflected in the fact that none of the individual nations (Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka) have a border with each other and are part of the extended region only through a border with India.

In certain trijunctions, China is also part of the grid thereby adding to the cartographic tangle and intractability in many of India's unresolved territorial disputes.

Post dissolution of the British empire the region has disaggregated into independent nations and territoriality is both sacred and contested. India as the biggest nation by way of geographic size and demography looms large in the eyes of its smaller neighbours. Concurrently Beijing has its agenda about the southern Asian region that is often in competition or adversarial to Delhi,

In the current case, the territorial dispute with Nepal is part of colonial history and Kathmandu invokes an 1816 treaty to buttress its claims over the contested areas (Lipulekh, Kalapani, and Limpiyadhura) while India has its historical claim that was formalized post-1950 and 1962 and now 2019.

Given that Delhi has its own anxiety and sensitivity apropos disputed territoriality with Beijing since October 1962 (there is a stand-off with China along the Line of Actual Control currently simmering) and being fully cognizant of the current Kathmandu-Beijing political chemistry, one would have expected the Modi government to deal with the map issue with Nepal more empathetically.

It is understood that Kathmandu was not kept fully in the loop about the opening of the 80 km road through the Lipulekh pass by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on May 8 and this has been played up by the anti-India factions within Nepal as reeking of Indian high-handedness.

Whatever be the truth behind these aspersions, the challenge for India is to ensure that when nationalism and sovereignty issues with the smaller neighbours can be easily stoked and manipulated, a more pro-active, conciliatory, and persuasive out-reach to prevent such a flare-up is imperative.

India’s image in Nepal is mixed. The blockade imposed during the Rajiv Gandhi years and the more recent attempt to introduce certain provisions in the Nepali constitution when it was being drafted has added to the bullying big-brother syndrome.

Many bilateral issues have been allowed to remain in limbo and commitments made (according to Nepal) have not been honoured – thereby casting doubts on India’s sincerity.

The most important security strand in the currently troubled bi-lateral is how the Nepali citizen has contributed to the Indian ‘fauj’ – the Army in particular. The total number includes the seven regiments of the Gorkha Brigade in the main, amounting to about 35,000 troops currently in service and 90,000 plus fauji pensioners – and they form a unique bond in the India-Nepal relationship. The contribution of this Nepali HR ( human resource) to India’s overall national security is significant and it must be nurtured with care.

Nepal is a test case for the efficacy of the Modi government's neighbourhood policies and related astuteness. Managing the Chinese footprint in the Indian neighbourhood will be less onerous if Delhi is seen as an empathetic and reliable partner, sensitive to the concerns of the smaller neighbours.

The current map bill will be passed by the Nepali parliament soon and the challenge for Delhi will be to deal with this exigency in a less high decibel manner than what has been the case till now. This special relationship with Nepal should not be allowed to drift further south.