Hey! Have you seen ”Rang de Basanti”. It is really a great movie; the youth of a country can play an important role to eliminate the corruption from the country.
“As we see the situation in Nepal, anyone would think that the problem lies between the King, seven Political parties, and Maoists. But why? What each of them wants? We’d find answers for that also. One may say political parties want full-fledged democracy. Similarly Maoists want the communism, and King wants to reestablish Panchayat or something like that in other form. It may sound weird to you at first, but I see this crisis in completely other way. This is not any kind of conflict between Nepalese themselves.
Every one of us knows the Indian approach of trying to dominate others, especially the neighboring countries. Defense and foreign affairs related decisions of Bhutan are directly handled by India. Which country in the SAARC except Bhutan is happy with India? Forget SAARC, what about other neighbors? China? Myanmar? Mentioning these issues just to rethink on India’s foreign policies! Now let us go to what’s there between India and Nepal? Care to see it thru big brother’s side.
India’s average economic growth rate has reached around 7.5% which is one of the best in world today. India is second largest market in the world in terms of population. Foreigners are seeing China and India as the new markets of this age and investing here rapidly. Bottom line is- India is developing. But how long people will invest in India if basic infrastructure is not there? How much investments would be there in Agricultural industry if outsiders don’t see basic irrigation facilities in the field? In other way, when other area is developing, what about large Indian farmer population? When they’ll prosper if irrigation is not there? And most importantly, energy is vital for all development- industries, technology and everything.
India is not capable of producing the required amount. India has successfully taken control over Bhutan’s energy resources and already started to have the benefit. Bhutan is also getting something out of it but in cost of sovereignty.
Now comes Nepal’s part. Nepal is second richest in water resource having potential of large amount of energy. Enough energy to cater India’s energy need for industrialization and irrigation and clean drinking water for eastern India (perhaps more than that). For that, India can have straight business deals with Nepal. Take it if you want, but please pay. But no! India wants all those in the way they got from Bhutan. They want to have total control in any hydro projects that’ll be build in Nepal. They want to give us something out of it- lot less value than what we deserve. Since history India has been trying for this and as it was obvious for them to get refusal. In the mean time, foreigners wanted to invest in Hydro projects in Nepal.
But India always fumed and fretted for any manipulation in rivers will lead to flood in India. So, all the big projects were cancelled. India didn’t stop. They wanted to get the resources according to their desire. When Nepal refused, they came into games with long vision. What I interpret the game could possibly be as such- Change the non cooperative government of Nepal. Keep people in power that will be ready to sell the resources of the country fro some money. And if required, will be ready to sell the whole country.
Now India could not depend only on those dogs. Attack on the source of economy was the simplest route towards Nepal’s bring down. And then something happened out of blues. Maoists were born in western Nepal which is the hub of ayurvedic medicine and one of Nepal’s major exports. The area is still under Maoists control and no one knows how much of yarshagumba is smuggled from there every year. Country’s revenue is going in vain. And let us recall, whole Nepal knows how Maoists flourished in no time. Besides that, major objective of giving birth to Maoists was to attack the spinal of Nepal’s economy- tourism. And things happened accordingly. Nepal broke and got trapped into the crisis are seeing today.
Now please don’t doubt on who gave birth to Maoists. India was the first to call Maoists as terrorists when Nepal government was still calling it as insurgents. After that, US hit listed Maoists of Nepal in top ten among the world terrorists. Nepal government never called them terrorists those days. And in many cases, we have seen Maoists leader making rounds to Delhi.
The recent meeting between the parties and Maoists leaders occurred in Delhi. How could India arrange the facility when Maoists are terrorists? Do they want to send a message that Lashkar-e-taiba should be entertained by governments of various nations? And surprisingly, nowadays Indian media do not right the word “terrorists” for Nepalese Maoists. The respected word given by them these days is ?Nepal rebel”. This is all happening because of the slavish mentality India possesses due to 200 years of British rule.
Anyways, now let us come to the major issue. After knowing all these, I?m not in a condition to agree that the dispute in Nepal is for democracy. What I believe is it is for nationality. It is for saving the nation. It is for raising the nation with what we have. It is for replying back to all those who try to play with us. Now, it’s up to your intellect to identify who is working for what? What King is doing, parties are doing, and Maoists are doing?
It’ll be a very appreciable opinion if you say what those pancheys are doing again here? We should not forget that democracy is nature’s law. When you are born, you come along with your freedom. No force can stop you for that. Let’s see the cause and what’s happening around. Democracy within the boundary is so important? Or democracy in a country will be there when a country will be there? Let all Nepalese get together and stop the external force for some time when Nepal will try to lift up in a position from where no force would be able to bring it down. Democracy is always there. When Nepalese can change the government in 2046, same Nepalese can change the government again. We don’t have to doubt in our capability. But the current need is not “restore democracy”. Current need for each and every Nepali is to “save and raise the nation”. When US envoy to India made one statement related to India’s internal politics last week, whole India shouted back to the ambassador.
This is something good we need to learn from Indians. When India, and other far away nations are repeatedly trying to interfere our internal matter, our corrupted media (do I have to name the media which have bosses of Non Nepalese origins? Or u find it yourself) is not tired of singing their songs everyday. These Medias are responsible for creating a pessimistic environment in the nation. People are not protesting those external interference which are vital in present.. What if democracy is restored tomorrow immediately? Same old faces who tried to help the neighbor more than own country itself will be back to power. The process of losing the nation’s independency which has been stopped temporarily.
But if Nepal and Nepalese succeeds to pause that external force for some more time, its strength will be minimized. Many things can happen within few years. Best is- country first!
– Bal Krishna Shah
