LAND locked Nepal has been undergoing political turmoils since the monarchy was abolished and turned into a federal democratic republic in 2008. Last week, Nepal’s Parliament elected Pushpa Kamal Dahal, widely known by his pseudonym Prachanda, as Prime Minister in the country’s 25th change in leadership in 26 years. Political instability, which gripped this South Asian country since last fall after Madheshi ethnic groups protested the new Constitution violently claiming their inadequate representation, has been hampering the economy badly. The Madeshis who have strong cultural ties with neighbouring India had stalled the country’s export-import with India during last year’s political turmoil centering the new Constitution. Many Nepalese blamed India for a subsequent trade halt – including vital fuel deliveries – across the border though India claimed the protests made the cross-border trade impossible. In protest of Indian ‘unnatural meddling’ in Nepal’s internal affairs, the then Kathmandu government snapped all Indian TV channels and strengthened trade relation with China.Prachanda’s predecessor KP Sharma Oli resigned last month after only nine months in office. During the period of public anger towards India over the trade issue, Oli administration maintained a hard line towards India and made building relations with China a priority. In last week, he warned India against “unnatural meddling” in Nepal’s affairs and said his party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), would fight any attempts to reverse agreements he had signed with China, including a transit and trade pact. So far, both India and China have expressed support for Prachanda’s new government.Prachanda, under a power-sharing agreement between his Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Center) and the Nepali Congress Party, will serve as Prime Minister for nine months, after which power will pass to Sher Bahadur Deuba, Chairman of the Nepali Congress Party, for nine months. That transition could well add to the political turmoil again involving disputes over Nepal’s new Constitution, which was approved by the Parliament last September, and jockeying between Nepal’s powerful neighbours, India and China. Prachanda has promised to address Madhesi demands, though he hailed the passage of the Constitution in its current form last fall as “a victory of the dreams of the thousands of martyrs and disappeared fighters” of the Maoist insurgency. Many think if Prachanda bowed before Madheshi’s demands it will be seen as a compromise with the sovereignty and dignity of Nepal.The allegation against emerging regional big power India of interfering in neighbouring countries’ internal political dynamics is not unknown. The democratic government in Nepal has decried the meddling, causing political instability and economic impasse to continue there. Nepal is a smaller country in the subcontinent which has no access to the sea and largely depends on bordering nations for the economy. After long experiences of meddling by India in internal affairs, the Prime Minister of Nepal is trying hard to come closer to China which could be a lesson for India. No respectable country can tolerate internal matters to be dictated from outside. However, when a government that does not enjoy the support of the people shall be ready to follow such dictates for protection.
