Prabin Devkota
Never in history was India so tangled in its neighbourhood. The evolving regional isolationism is the result of incompetent Indian diplomacy and a lack of concrete strategy.
Nothing is in a symphony. PM Modi’s acclamation of ‘Neighbourhood First’ is an illusion and nothing as such has been reflected in the politico-diplomatic deliberations of the Modi government.
Unfolding events reveal that India has been repeatedly in border standoffs with China and Pakistan. Failure to avoid such standoffs raises questions over its ‘Big Power’ aspiration.
Not only with China and Pakistan, India continues to get embroiled in border disputes with other neighbours, including Nepal. Neither with China and Pakistan – the two big regional powers, as well as India’s said and known enemies – nor with other small powers, has it demonstrated its diplomatic credentials to resolve the outstanding border issues. It has worsened the relations. Under these circumstances, aspiring to become a regional power is vastly unrealistic.
The case in point is India’s good old friend Nepal. India shares more than 1,800 kilometers of land borders, with disputes in nearly 100 places. India has occupied the Nepali territory of Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulek for more than half a century now. In essence, the occupation of the territory of other nations is an act of aggression.
The dispute over the Indian Occupied Nepali Territory of Limpiyadhura, Kalapani, and Lipulek has surpassed the conventional definitions of statecraft; war and diplomacy. If diplomacy would be a peaceful means issue settlement, India has so far failed in resolving the border dispute with Nepal peacefully.
India didn’t respond to Nepal’s repeated requests for dialogue and has seldom expressed its sincere willingness to do so. Fundamentally, bureaucratic credence of Indian diplomacy could not rise above its British colonial name ‘India’, in contrary to PM Modi’s assertion.
Strategically, a mystery surrounds the contradiction in Lipulek, where India and China have colluded to connect through road networks in the wider scope of overall bitter Sino-Indian border disputes. In reality, India is using an offensive means for a piece of Nepali land in Lipulek because of its strategic advantage over its arch-rival China. The present scene of road construction may have surfaced as part of a grand Indian plan designed decades ago.
The political war began in guise centuries ago with changes in maps over the years. This continues in many forms and manifestations. On November 2, 2019, India included Nepal’s territory of Limpiyadhura, Kalapani and Lipulek in its political map. On May 8, 2020, India demonstrated its military posture by inaugurating an unfinished road to Lipulek through Nepal’s territory.
This plan was launched following the failure of its attempt to topple KP Oli’s government in Nepal in the face of Chinese Ambassador’s home visit of top-three CPN leaders. The following political uproar of the Indian Army chief endorses their continued design to create political instability in Nepal.
Experts on Nepal-India relations, based on the analysis of strategic Indian culture, forecast that India will now consider the economic design, should Nepal not come to their terms. Over the years, post-colonial India has adopted economic design in the form of blockades as the most prominent tool in its armory to choke Nepal.
However, the repetition of the failed tactic of the 2015 type blockade would not be the right choice for India this time for the resultant international embarrassment again. Many argue, and rightly so that India will not elevate the current standoff with Nepal above political level. India will not even engage itself diplomatically because its occupation of Nepali territory is an illegal historical truth. Therefore, India would continue to resort to political tactics, the most successful and the most trustworthy instrument in its Nepal policy. In every political upheaval in Nepal since 1950, India has taken persistent benefits through every possible maneuvre and to the extent of all limits.
RAW, the Indian intelligence body has been the most potent agent that India has to establish its regional stature as ‘Big Brother’. Its credibility in global politics remains untested or unproven. That said, it can be argued that India would make every possible effort to keep it political and refrain from diplomatic discourse as far as possible.
One of the retired Indian Army officers recently asserted that ‘India without Indian Army and Indian Army without Gurkha Regiment is Unthinkable’. It highlights the heavy dependence of India on Gurkha regiments for its national security and is not only a special tradition India historically carries.
Think tank says that India must discontinue Gurkha recruitment and dismantle Gurkha regiments, which it cannot do. Otherwise, the political game is the only solution. To that end, India must and will continue to instill instability in Nepal by continuously creating differences among Nepali political leaders and by fueling frequent foilers.
As the whole of Nepal is united for ending the centuries of a national disgrace, India must, in full grace and honour, return the territories of Nepal it has occupied. In the larger strategic context, India would benefit from this outcome. This offers India a golden opportunity to demonstrate its amicable resolve to other neighbours as well. As long as India gets entangled in border disputes, it cannot visualise and venture beyond its borders. Reshaping its neighbourhood policy determines the road and speed commensurate with India’s destiny into the future.
(The author is an Architect Engineer.)
– The Rising Nepal
