India steps into Nepal's
fray By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - After keeping silent over the
past three weeks of anti-royal protests in Nepal,
India has asked King Gyanendra to start immediate
dialogue with political parties to end the
instability.
Washington's tough stand
against Gyanendra seems to have prodded New Delhi
to move likewise.
After a high-level
meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
India's ambassador to Nepal met with the king in
Kathmandu and conveyed to him India's concerns at
the situation
and
the immediate need for holding dialogue with
political parties.
India's toughening
stand comes in the wake of the most damning
attack so far by the United
States, describing the monarchy
headed by King Gyanendra as
having failed to restore democracy in the
Himalayan kingdom. The US censure follows intense
and violent pro-democracy protests and a Maoist
backlash that has prompted a harsh crackdown by
security forces loyal to the king.
On
Tuesday, protest leaders and political parties
vowed to carry on with a massive rally on Thursday
to mark the start of the third week of their
pro-democracy unrest. The government has warned of
further crackdowns.
US State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack said, "As a friend of
Nepal, we must state that King Gyanendra's
decision 14 months ago to impose direct palace
rule in Nepal has failed in every regard."
King Gyanendra seized power in February
last year, firing the democratically elected
government, imposing emergency rule and vowing to
tackle the Maoist uprising that has claimed more
than 13,000 lives since 1996. India, Britain and
the US suspended military aid to Nepal in protest
against the coup. Many other countries withdrew
aid commitments. India subsequently partially
lifted the arms embargo, but only for "non-lethal
supplies".
There is no doubt that the
widespread protests - the worst and most sustained
the country has seen - from every walk of life
have weakened the position of the king
considerably. In a somewhat unexpected move, the
leftist parties in India, which tend to sympathize
with the Maoists but are virulent in their anti-US
stance, have welcomed US statements against the
king.
India has to date held its hand,
fearing that a strong stand against Gyanendra
would drive him into the arms of Pakistan and
China, two countries whose influence India wants
to minimize in Nepal. Gyanendra has been making
efforts to build bridges with both these countries
since the suspension of military aid.
India's decision to lean on Gyanendra is
cause for concern in the palace, as Delhi's arms
have played a key part in the country's struggle.
India has provided arms worth more than US$100
million over the past few years to the Royal
Nepalese Army (RNA) that is fiercely loyal to
Gyanendra. The RNA led the coup in Nepal, and is
fighting the Maoists as well as taking on the
pro-democracy protesters.
As India shares
a long and porous border with Nepal, it is
extremely sensitive about any other nation having
a say in the country. Even the US likes to keep
its interactions with Nepal routed through India.
In the past, Pakistan has said it is ready
to provide arms and counter-insurgency training to
help Nepal tackle the Maoists. Beijing has not
helped matters by declaring that the royal
takeover was Nepal's internal matter.
New
Delhi has been closely following interactions
between China and Nepal. State counselor Tang
Jiaxuan, who visited Kathmandu last month, was the
highest-ranking Chinese official to travel to
Nepal since the king seized power, though to the
chagrin of the royalists he met some opposition
leaders. The chief of the RNA has visited Beijing
and talked about intentions to purchase military
equipment from China. Nepal's foreign minister,
too, has visited China.
On the other hand,
New Delhi also believes that a democratically
elected government is the best bet to solve the
problems with the Maoist rebels, who nurse a deep
hatred against the monarchy. If the hands of King
Gyanendra are strengthened, India expects the
Maoists to link up with radical leftist groups in
India. The latter are the biggest cause of
law-and-order problems in the northern Indian
states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, as
well as the southern states of Andhra Pradesh,
Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh.
Indian
intelligence agencies have been chaperoning Maoist
leaders and organizing meetings with Indian
leftist-party leaders. India is trying to persuade
the Maoists to join the pro-democracy alliance in
Nepal, not crush them, as Kathmandu wants. Indeed,
this has now happened, with the Maoists and the
political parties forming a loose alliance.
The US has, however, been hostile to the
recent understanding between the seven-party
pro-democracy alliance and the Communist Party of
Nepal (Maoist), which has been declared a
terrorist outfit by a number of countries.
Observers also point to the collapsing
Nepalese economy and the specter of thousands of
unemployed illegally migrating to India, creating
a new set of humanitarian as well as law-and-order
problems. According to reports, more than 10,000
Nepalese have already moved into India illegally
after the recent crackdown on protesters.
The emerging picture of King Gyanendra
holding control over Kathmandu with the rest of
Nepal in a state of lawlessness, a collapsed
economy and rising unemployment, and the Nepalese
Maoists spilling over into India is not something
that Delhi wants - or, it seems, is prepared to
tolerate.
Siddharth Srivastava
is a New Delhi-based journalist
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