Resetting India - Nepal ties

You didn’t really need an expert to underline the special people –to- people relationship that India and Nepal enjoys. 

Even as a kid, growing up in an Anglo Indian boarding school in picturesque hill station of Kalimpong in 1990s, the relationship between the two countries was apparent.

Majority of the students in the hostel in my school, and a big number of boys and girls in other boarding schools were from Nepal.  We lived together, studied the same syllabus and shaped our goals based on a common value system.

This was further reinforced by a very liberal education that Victorian era schools of the region espoused. The Nepalese students who came to study were well off. They excelled academically and also in sports.

Apart from asserting supremacy of India and Nepal on each other over frivolous issues, which mostly stemmed from our immaturity in understanding international relations as children, there were no tensions as such.

Coming to study in that part of India, the Nepalese students felt at home. The language overwhelming spoken in the Darjeeling area and Sikkim is Nepali, and local cultural practices are akin to that in Nepal.

As Indian students, coming from other far-flung areas of India and abroad, we learnt to speak Nepali, lavished eating momos and Wai Wai, a popular Nepal made instant noodles. In 1990s momos (dimsums) were unheard in mainland India. Many of us fell in love with the pan – Nepali culture.

But we also understood there were some deep-rooted grievances against India – something systematically echoed by the Nepalese students.

As the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi travels to Nepal for a state visit – first bilateral visit by an Indian leader in seventeen years - the spectrum of issues defining the relationship between the two countries have come to the forefront. Experts on Indo–Nepal relations have pointed out what have gone wrong in the past, but also talk about the unbelievable potential of the bilateral ties between two countries if taken to a new trajectory.

Writing in The Hindu, Rakesh Sood, a former Indian Ambassador to Nepal says the 1950 India- Nepal treaty of Peace and Friendship, which allows Nepalese citizens to work in India and own property among many other things, has a clause, which required Nepal to consult India on its defence requirements.  The author says Nepalese see (this) as unfair and is  “used by politicians to whip up anti-India sentiment.”

There is also a bitter resentment in Nepal about India’s meddling in its domestic affairs, though Indian has played a role in ending the a decade old Maoist insurgency by signing a 12 point agreement in 2005.  A Joint Commission set up by two governments to review the relationship between the two nations remained defunct for 23 years.

As India’s economy took off recording impressive growth rates in the first decade of the 21^st century, Nepal as a nation spluttered.  The Royal massacre in 2000, the coup by King Ganendra, the end of Maoist insurgency, restoration of what looks like a fragile and unstable democracy, and lack of consensus by Nepal’s political leaders to draft a constitution have brought the country to a standstill. But despite much lower per capita income than India, Nepal has done better than India on several Millennium Development Goals (MDG), including infant mortality, maternal health, and child malnutrition and poverty reduction rates.

Experts comment on the range of areas that India and Nepal can benefit if the relationship is put on the right track. Tourism and linking pilgrimages sites between the two countries is one of them, but what is striking is Nepal’s hydropower potential, which if harnessed to an optimum level can make Nepal one of the richest countries in the region.

Another former India ambassador to Nepal Jayant Prasad says, “if half of Nepal’s hydro potential was to be harnessed, annual revenues could top $40 billion, over $100 million a day.”

The stakes in India- Nepal is much higher than any strategic relationship that governs bilateral ties between nations.  Indo-Nepal ties is all about common people : with open borders, cross-linking history, traditions and culture, a mutually beneficial relationship can have a direct impact on ordinary citizens.

India, on its part must educate the citizens of Nepal a lot of good things that it’s doing through its public diplomacy tools, and at the same time address the genuine grievances of the Nepalese people on day to day matters like paying in USD for healthcare and education in India, or bringing down the mobile phone tariff between the two countries. Both countries must explore trade facilitation for boosting growth and improving livelihoods at a local level.

India and Nepal are going to talk on host of issues like trade, hydropower, infrastructure and even building a cricket stadium at Pokhra, but one core issue that is missing or being not talked about is human trafficking. Thousands of Nepali women are trafficked into Indian cities and forced into sexual slavery on a systematic manner.

A concerted effort is required to address the issues of human rights, trafficking and cross border local trade. It’s only then the open border between the two countries can act as bridge in fostering a robust relationship based on mutual trust and economic gain – something that is strongly desired for the harmony, peace, prosperity and stability of two South Asian neighbours.