Nepal provides an important buffer zone between two giant countries – India and China – in the mighty Himalayas. So far this cushion has worked well. But now an intercepted telephone call between a senior Nepalese Maoist leader and an unknown Chinese discussing the use of $6.75m to bribe members of Nepalese parliament to elect a Maoist prime minister, has created a serious controversy, and concerns about China’s motives.
The intrigue comes at a sensitive time for Nepal’s ailing peace process, which is meant to end 10 years of Maoist insurgency, reports The Economist. “United Nations’ monitoring of the process came up for renewal this week. Second, it shows that Nepal’s domestic tussles are increasingly sucking in India and China, the rival powers that surround the country.
(Photo above shows India’s ambassador Rakesh Sood in Nepal.)
“India has long been influential in Nepal, which it regards as a buffer against China. Roughly half of Nepal’s trade is with its southern neighbour and the country ties its currency to the Indian rupee. In contrast, China has played a low-key role in Nepal until recently.
“But the emergence of the Maoists as the largest party has shifted the balance, with India becoming more closely aligned with the anti-Maoist faction. The prime minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal, says India’s government distrusts them and wants the party to make sweeping changes to its organisation and beliefs.
“Parliamentary elections in 2008 gave the Maoists 40% of members of parliament, twice as many as their nearest rival. During a brief stint in government, the Maoists cultivated closer relations with China, much to India’s alarm.
“The Maoist-led coalition collapsed last year, to be replaced by an anti-Maoist one backed by India and—some think—cobbled together by it. But the new government has been unable to impose its authority. The process of integrating former Maoist fighters has stalled, along with attempts to write a new constitution. Anti-Maoists are challenging the peace agreements while parliament has been deadlocked since June over the election of a new prime minister.” More here…
The Times of India reports: “Though the election to choose a new prime minister scheduled for Sept 26 is in disarray with the Maoists withdrawing their candidate, former revolutionary Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘ Prachanda’, and the communists announcing they will not vote, Nepal nonetheless is bracing for another crucial election next week that will affect the politics of the republic as well as its relations with its neighbour India.” More here…
The Business Standard reports: “With Indian government sources admitting on the condition of anonymity that New Delhi would prefer ‘centrist’ parties like the Nepali Congress, ‘not leftist parties like the Maoists’ to take charge in Kathmandu, the unspoken concern seemed clear: New Delhi was increasingly worried about China’s creeping influence in the still-new Himalayan republic.
“As Kanti Bajpai told the Nepali newspaper, Republica, ‘India lives in fear of its neighbors reaching out to outsiders to balance against Indian power. New Delhi would love to integrate the region under its leadership and keep the great powers out.’
“Delhi’s concerns relate as much to the security and stability of the open border between India and Nepal as to the fact that certain Maoist ideologues are openly pro-China. Indian officials also point out that the open border has become a ‘hotbed of ISI intrigue.’
“A former Indian diplomat with intimate knowledge of Nepal admitted that India ‘needed to be much, much more engaged with Nepal…Delhi’s episodic interest in Kathmandu is a recipe for the next crisis,’ he said. More here…
According to the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis (IDSA): “A month after the visit to Nepal by Shyam Saran as special envoy of the Indian Prime Minister, a delegation of 21 senior Chinese leaders led by He Yong, vice-premier and secretary at the secretariat of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, arrived in Kathmandu (Nepal) on September 11, 2010 on a six-day visit.
“This is the highest-level Chinese delegation to visit Nepal since the beginning of the peace process. The visit also coincided with news about a controversial audio tape purportedly containing a conversation between Krishna Bahadur Mahara, International Bureau Chief of the Unified CPN-Maoist, and an unknown Chinese, in which Mahara is heard asking for 500 million rupees to buy off 50 lawmakers required to form the government under Prachanda’s leadership.
“This tape brought China into the internal political debate of Nepal for the first time. As of now, it is not known whether the tape is genuine or not. If it is genuine, then it indicates a serious shift in China’s policy towards Nepal. It can be seen as the beginning of Chinese interference in Nepal’s internal affairs.
“The Chinese have always adopted a pro-establishment policy towards Nepal. Experts emphasize that Nepal-China relations are based on the Five Principles, or Panchsheel, according to which China will not intervene in Nepal’s domestic politics and Nepal will respect China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity with respect to Tibet and Taiwan.
” Interestingly, China and India have been competing for influence along the Nepal-China border. Soon after India provided development assistance of Rs. 100 million for the remote hill region of Mustang, China responded with financial assistance worth Rs. 10 million for construction of a library, science laboratory and school building with computers in Chhoser village (adjoining Jhongwasen district of Tibet) in the same region to counter Indian influence. The ambassadors of both countries have visited the area.
“China is also opening China Study Centres in Nepal along the Indo-Nepal border. Out of a total of eleven China Study Centres that China has built in Nepal so far, seven are along the Indo-Nepal border.
“In response to the Chinese attempt to extend the railway link from Tibet till the Nepalese border, India is also planning to extend its rail links to Nepal along the border. India has announced assistance worth Rs. 10.88 billion for the expansion of railway service in five places along the India-Nepal border.
“The first phase of expansion is scheduled to start from Birjung of Nepal which is about 350 kilometres south of Tatopani, the place to be connected by China through railways. The power-game between China and India is thus slowly unfolding in Nepal.” More here…
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.