At a time when the international community is being accused of supporting divisive federalism in Nepal, what do Nepal’s neighbours think? Do India and China also support federalism in Nepal? Raj Kumar Lekhi, former head of the Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities says: “The interests of India and China are different from western and European countries. They don’t say it directly, but we get the feeling that they fear federalism in Nepal is going to create problems in their own countries.”
British ambassador to Nepal, Andrew James Sparkes (in pic above, greeting people in Ilam this week) has a different take on this, with the following example: “In the recent visit by Maoist leader Prachanda to both India and China, neither of those countries told him to drop federalism. In fact, they wanted to know what kind of federalism was being proposed. Everyone knows these two countries are concerned that Nepal might have more states than feasible, because they have their own issues which they must address.”
India plays a big part in events that transpire in Nepal. Its bureaucracy and, more importantly, intelligence agents have become increasingly active. But Kamal Thapa of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party says he isn’t surprised about this.
“All the internal power centres were always in one way or another influenced by external power centres,” says Thapa. “Everyone talks about India, but even the Indian establishment has various departments. Among them, RAW has been active and has had more influence than anyone else, especially since we know that they even gave the Maoists military training.”
Former minister Ghanshyam Bhusal of the UML agrees with Thapa. He says: “It doesn’t seem that India’s political class is responsible for all the unwanted meddling in Nepal. Events show that it is India’s intelligence agency that is most influential here.”
Even though India says that Nepal has a strategic importance, it has been years since an Indian prime minister visited Kathmandu. I asked Ashok Mehta, former Indian Army general and Nepal expert why.
“This is a failure of Indian politics and diplomacy,” says Mehta. “But India has legitimate security concerns because of the open border. And this was highlighted by the detention within Nepal of leaders of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Indian Mujahideen.”
Nepal’s efforts to address Indian security concerns was most apparent during the Baburam Bhattarai-led government, and some say the planned handing-over of Tribhuvan International Airport to Indian management was also a part of this. But Mehta says: “From 1950, through 1990, and right up to 2013, India has not changed the way it sees Nepal.”
Nepal’s government has repeatedly said it tries its best to address India’s concerns. Bhusal says, “We wanted to discuss these things. Upgrading the airport and addressing security concerns is no big deal. But until there is a formal proposal, we will never see eye to eye and this delay in the transition process will continue.”