Tensions keep mounting between India and Nepal, and though it is clear that it is China that is pulling the strings in Kathmandu, it wasn’t really clear as to how the Oli regime completely gave up on Nepal’s civilizational ties with India.
Now, we are getting to understand the real driving force behind Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli’s anti-India brinkmanship. Reports suggest that Islamabad and Beijing are making use of the divisions within Prime Minister Oli’s Nepal Communist Party.
The latest Zee News report has made this shocking disclosure. According to the media outlet, the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi has played a big role in instigating the landlocked, Himalayan country against India.
This doesn’t come as much of a surprise as it was the Chinese Ambassador who had managed to save the ruling Nepal Communist Party from a likely split last month, thus saving KP Sharma Oli’s government.
In reality, she was actually exploiting the fissures within the ruling party in Kathmandu. Incidentally, Hou Yanqi was stationed in Pakistan before being made the Chinese Ambassador to the Himalayan nation.
She was given an upgrade into a related mission by Beijing. Generally, when such an upgrade happens, then it is more than likely that the new mission is closely related to the previous one.
In the present case, we can clearly see that Hou’s two assignments- Pakistan and China bear a close nexus.
Reportedly, Phanindra Nepal, the leader of the Unified Nepal National Front has been meeting officials in both Chinese and Pakistani embassies over the past few months.
This is where anti-India toxicity in the country is coming from. The China-Pakistan nexus has made deep inroads into the Himalayan country that was once the only Hindu monarchy in the world.
Led by Phanindra Nepal, the Unified Nepal National Front claims ‘Greater Nepal’. Established on August 15, 2015, the organisation rakes up irredentism and claims certain parts of the Indian territory that it claims Kathmandu lost on the basis of the 1816 Sugauli treaty.
Incidentally, the Oli regime has also ratcheted the same territorial disputes that emanate out of differences in India’s and Nepal’s perceptions of the origin of the Kalapani river. The river demarcates the Indo-Nepal border in the disputed Kalapani tri-junction.
Nepal has been claiming Indian territories of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani as parts of its own territory ever since India inaugurated the Dharchula-Lipulekh road link that gives India easy access to the LAC- effective Sino-India broder.
For several decades, or more, the Himalayan nation never raked up the Kalapani territorial dispute. Oli himself says, “India has deployed its troops in Kalapani since 1962 and our rulers in the past hesitated to raise the issue.” But now the Communist regime in Nepal is creating border disputes out of thin air.
But suddenly, there is a wave of hatred towards India in Nepal- the country’s Parliament is approving new maps that show Indian territory in Nepal and Prime Minister Oli is blaming India for spreading the Wuhan virus.
To make matters worse, the Nepalese Armed Police Force (NAPF) even opened indiscriminate fire on Indian civilians, killing one Bikesh Kumar Rai and injuring three others. One Indian national was also taken into custody by forces.
This is happening regardless of the centuries-old, Hindu ties between India and Nepal. And guess what? Anti-India elements in Nepal are colluding with Pakistan and China at the same time.
A Chinese Ambassador in Kathmandu with strong relations to Islamabad is the one deciding how the Oli government in Nepal approaches India. For it to play into the hands of Beijing was antagonistic to New Delhi’s strategic interests, but for Kathmandu to bring in Pakistan is a sheer affront to New Delhi which is going damage ties irreparably.
Pakistan and ISI want to bleed India through a thousand cuts. Now, Nepalese elements are joining hands with them. They are backstabbing their traditional, Hindu neighbour and the Indian State will find it hard to heal this wound.
The China-Pakistan axis wants to open a new front against India. Nepal is allowing itself to be used for a 2.5 front battle against India- Pakistan, China being the other fronts.
The next thing we know, the Oli government might allow Pakistani elements to use the country for hampering Indian interests. In fact, the Indo-Nepal border is already a hub of anti-India, terror activities sponsored by Pakistan.
But India endured it all along. This however could be the turning point of Indo-Nepal ties. The landlocked country is becoming a fertile ground of dirty games against India being orchestrated by China and Pakistan.
The political establishment in the Himalayan nation has committed too big a blunder to be excused, and New Delhi might well have to consider shutting its borders notwithstanding the profound effect it will have on the Nepalese economy. The China-Pakistan nexus has entered Nepal, and it has strained Indo-Nepal ties like never before.