Surendra Phuyal

As the Indian heartland including the capital Delhi reeled from scorching heat, Simla in Himachal Pradesh, the summer capital for the British rulers, looked chilled. 

The summer of 2005 was no different from other summers: The foggy, misty hills were cool, and they offered a perfect getaway for holidaymakers looking to escape the heat. At Kufri hill, outside the crowded market square, teenage or younger boys towing horses waited big, fat tourists willing to take a ride up the hilltop. 

All the boys were Nepalis, meaning Nepali nationals (In India, the term Nepali refers to both Nepali national and Indian-Nepali from Darjeeling, Sikkim, Assam, Uttarakhand or Delhi; a lot of Indians can´t differentiate the two types). All the youngsters hailed from the then Maoist insurgency-infested Midwestern hills. Including then nine-year-old Buddhiram Subedi of Purandhara, Dang. Thanks to the insurgents who didn´t even spare schools and used a lot of them as a source of their cadres or "child soldiers", Subedi fled his homeland and joined his mother who worked as a migrant worker in the north Indian hill station. 

No Refugees

The decade-long bloody insurgency forced tens of thousands of young Nepalis like Buddhiram Subedi to quit school and flee to India, with which Nepal shares an open border. Owing to special relations, upheld by the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship, lakhs and lakhs of Nepalis have been living and working in India. Nepalis aren´t called refugees in India. Back in 2005, at the height of the Maoists´ armed uprising, Buddhiram wore an old jacket and carried roti in his cotton bag that dangled from his side as he pulled the horse. Today, we don´t know where Buddhiram is. We have no idea how he is.

But what we all know is this: Baburam Bhattarai, the second Maoist premier after the former rebels joined the peace politics, is embarking on his first official visit to India. We also know that Bhattarai went to university in India, that he earned his doctorate from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), and he occasionally oversaw his "people´s war" from his sanctuary in India. We are aware that some of his party comrades call him pro-Indian, a charge Bhattarai denies yet points out the indispensability of co-existence and cooperation.

Diplomatic gestures and visits are supposed to be reciprocal. Yet no Indian Prime Minister has visited Nepal after I K Gujaral visited Nepal in June, 1997 and another Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Nepal for the 11th SAARC Summit in January 2002. Whereas no Nepali PM has missed a chance to visit Delhi; about ten of them have visited Delhi since 1997. Often times, Nepali PMs have gone on foreign trips, completely ignoring domestic obligations such as constitution- and peace-building.

Reciprocal?

Bhattarai´s upcoming India visit is no exception. It’s coming at a time when his government has failed to live up to its promises--such as completing the task of regrouping of the Maoist ex-combatants within 45 days. The failure has cast a pall over the collective Nepali dream for peace and constitution. If not reversed, it could further damage Nepal’s reputation in the international arena.

India is right next door. So visits at all levels—high and low—are common. Yet cynical Nepalis love to term the—frequent--Delhi trips of Nepali politicians as ´ashirbad´ (blessing)-seeking visits. The cynics, despite enjoying the voting rights, don´t believe anybody gets elected as the PM in Kathmandu without Delhi green-signaling, or playing a role. 

For its part, Delhi, wary of growing Chinese influence in what it considers as its ´Himalayan buffer´, regularly doles out economic assistances. The vortex of trans-Himalayan geopolitics is such that China and India have in recent years tried to outdo each other while extending economic or development assistance to Nepal. The assistances have started crossing billions of rupees every year.

Days before Bhattarai´s India visit, reports from Delhi suggest that the southern neighbor will likely extend a huge "economic package". Nobody knows what that entails just yet. But during India-educated and Mao-inspired Bhattarai´s India trip, Delhi could extend surprises and make fresh attempts to build bridges with the Maoist party, which has a reputation of being anti-Indian. 

No Miracles

Or India could well tread cautiously, given Nepal’s not-so-good track record of aid effectiveness. Take this. Did India´s big economic package extended to Nepal during former PM late Girija Prasad Koirala´s 2006 visit make any differences vis-à-vis Nepal´s economic recovery? Did Indian aid help Nepal attain peace and security? No substantial achievement has been made in key areas of social development. Neither has the investment climate—or working conditions—improved. And several long-standing Indian projects such as the Birgunj-Amlekhgunj petro pipeline or the East-West Railway haven´t taken off as yet. 

It will be foolish to expect—economic, or peace--miracles from Bhattarai´s India visit. It will surely promote mutual cooperation and goodwill. So, once in India, Bhattarai must take some time out of his busy schedules and interact with the poor ´Bahadurs,´ the watchmen guarding Chandigarh, Delhi or Mumbai´s neighborhoods; the cooks and helpers working in Dhawas, and, if possible, young boys like (the 2005) Buddhiram Subedi, who pull horses carrying tourists outside Simla. 

If he is really the champion of the proletariats, Bhattarai must urge Delhi to treat Nepali workers right, ensure that they get the respect and pay they deserve. For the lakhs and lakhs of Nepali workers forced to flee their villages and give their blood, toil, tears and sweat to ´Muglan´ are really looking forward to Bhattarai´s visit. Surely, they are looking forward to returning home. Bhattarai must work towards creating jobs back home. He must ensure no Buddhiram quits school and flees to India ever again.

Published on: 18 October 2011 | Republica