Politics is not constant anywhere around the world, except in Communist states. KP Sharma Oli, being the proclaimed Communist he is, leading a Communist government in Nepal, seems to have developed the illusion that he is irremovable from the Prime Minister’s seat. It might be about time for the clearly delusional man to learn from the disaster of a state head which Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, made out of himself.
Acting at the behest of China, Prime Minister Oli of Nepal has perhaps begun considering himself to be the supreme leader of Nepal. However, much to his displeasure, we’d like to remind the man that he is scripting his own irreversible political downfall, much like Mahathir Mohamad. As a matter of fact, both these overenthusiastic Prime Minister’s will go down in the annuls of history for having self-destructed their career, right at their peaks.
Mahathir Mohamad, for the purpose of pleasing Islamists around the world, and in order to be perceived as a champion of radical Islam among Muslims, completely set fire to bilateral relations and trade between Malaysia and India. It first began with his crass anti-India propaganda at the UNGA, where he raked up the Kashmir issue. Ever since, he had occupied himself in relentlessly attacking India like an inconsequential minion. Finally, an irritated Modi government pulled the plug, and stopped importing Palm Oil from Malaysia, to the extent that the imports of Malaysia’s most important and single-largest export commodity to India turned to zero.
This led to economic consequences of immense proportions for Malaysia. Mahathir, clearly, was hell-bent on pursuing Islamism as a state policy for Malaysia, which would explain his reluctance to extradite Zakir Naik back to India. This further led to the deterioration of bilateral relations, and Mahathir was soon seen by the Malaysian people, who are otherwise very non-Islamist, to be an absolute despot, ruining what were flourishing relations with India only a while ago. Finally, Mahathir stepped down as Prime Minister of Malaysia, and Muhyiddin Yassin stepped in, who is now (metaphorically) working overtime to fix relations with India.
Why has a brief disaster of a history of Mahathir been stated? For the simple reason that KP Sharma Oli has set out on an eerily similar trajectory, only that his fall will be all the more glorious. Nepal is culturally, geographically relayed to, and economically dependent on India, perhaps like no other nation. There is a civilizational continuity that one can observe between the two countries. It is this civilizational relationship that KP Oli has set out to snap.
Recently, China and Xi Jinping are said to have played a major role in saving Oli’s government from an imminent collapse. As such, Oli is indebted to China, for having saved his political career, which, until recently, was on the line. Whether it be hateful statements against India and Indians, or whether it be illegally publishing new maps claiming Indian territory as their own, the Communist state of Nepal, headed by PM Oli has done it all. In fact, he went on to shamelessly claim that it was Indians who were responsible for the CoVID-19 outbreak in Nepal. As such, the man is on a life mission to have India’s national security jeopardized.
What KP Sharma Oli is failing to understand is the large backlash which he is about to face form the common Nepalese citizen, who are by no means any fans of China, or for that matter, communism. The ordinary Nepali will be outraged against such indiscriminate efforts of their government to hijack relations with India, only to serve their political purposes.
Nepal, under PM Oli, is increasingly showing signs of having turned into a client-state for China. As such, Nepal pose a security threat to India and its sovereignty, and can no longer be treated in a similar fashion as it has been for decades.
The Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty of 1950 established an extremely close and cordial relation between the two Hindu nations. The treaty allows free movement of people and goods between the two nations and a close relationship and collaboration on matters of defence and foreign policy. The entire border between India and Nepal is open. Yet, puppet PM Oli seems keen to risk all of this only to please China.
Nepal is heavily dependent economically on India, and any severe snapping of ties from our side will have unimaginable consequences for Nepal. Largely a remittance-based economy, close to 28% of Nepal’s 2018 GDP was due to remittances received by them mainly from India, and also other countries. There are close to 7.8 lakh accounted Nepalese people in India, and the figures of unaccounted Nepalis would be innumerable. Is Oli willing to risk the livelihoods of all such people?
Now while India would be no fan of cutting ties with Nepal only due to the buffoonery of a particular communist Prime Minister, it would be forced to do so, eventually, if things get out of hand. And this would be a death knell for the economy of Nepal and lakhs of people who are directly or indirectly reliant on India for livelihood.
Now while Nepal and India should ideally stand shoulder-to-shoulder as cultural compatriots, going by past precedent, PM Modi will definitely not risk India’s security only for the purpose of maintaining cultural ties with Nepal.
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As such, KP Sharma Oli, who is already infamous for being a Chinese puppet in Nepal, is risking his political career, much like Mahathir Mohamad. The difference between Nepal and Malaysia will, however, be that Nepal has much deeper cultural and economic ties with India than Malaysia ever did. As such, any flare-up in relations between the two countries will have an unprecedented impact on Oli and his communist party, and his fall to the ground will be far more glorious that Mahathir’s ever was. The ordinary Nepali is already in no mood to risk their country’s relations with India only for the whims and fancies of a desperate proxy Prime Minister whose allegiances clearly, lie in Beijing.