Will Nepal become 1939 Poland ?

Residing in a geopolitical location between 3 global nuclear powers, Pakistan, India and China, who share a terrible relationship with each other, Nepal is living in a virtue of absolute ceaselessness. The nation is unprepared for any possibility of nuclear disaster.  India and Pakistan face each other in Kashmir, about a 1000 km away from Kathmandu and Indian troops clashed with Chinese in Sikkim, which is in a very close proximity to our boarder and somehow our corrupt system has managed to maintain a very week military. The events of military standoffs and power play between the superpower put our landlocked nation in a great danger. But most importantly we also share a border dispute with India and hardly manage boarder patrolling army. Is Nepal in 1939 Poland situation? How did we come here?

Grater Nepal with Tibetan territory.

Everything is hidden in the history. Nepalese share proudness for fearless Gurkha solders. Various independent states before creation of unified Nepal fought to each other, Nepalese emperors also battled emperors of Bengal in numerous occasions. Nepal has fought wars with Tibet in 1788-1792 and another war in 1855-1856. Nepal fearlessly fought Anglo-Nepal war from 1814 to 1816 which gave them the reputation of brave shoulders and fought in First and Second World War. Today, Nepalese shoulders fight in front line in many deadliest conflicts like Sudan, Afghanistan, and India-Pakistan conflict. But the soldiers are not fighting for the Nepalese national interest (excluding the Peace Keeping Force as they work for the UN). Every year thousands of brave boys go through tormenting tests to pass for Indian, Singaporean and British military. Every nation immediately develops and upgrades the military after the war in preparation of future possible threats. So, what happened to Nepal?  The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Nepal and India.

Article 1 of this treaty consist the most beautiful sentence ever:

There shall be everlasting peace and friendship between the Government of India and the Government of Nepal. The two Governments agree mutually to acknowledge and respect the complete sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of each other,

The real catch in the treaty is article 5 which reads:

The Government of Nepal shall be free to import, from or through the territory of India, arms, ammunition or warlike material and equipment necessary for the security of Nepal. The procedure for giving effect to this arrangement shall be worked out by the two Governments acting in consultation.

This document makes it clear that this article forced Nepal to take shelter under the security aegis of India. However, Nepal imported arms as it wished from countries such as USA, Belgium, and China. The treaty does not impose limitations on Nepal’s ability to bring in arms from third party countries. In 1988–89 when India imposed an economic blockade on for making a deal with China with regards to intelligence-sharing and the acquisition of weapons, including anti-aircraft guns and Nepal violated this section of the treaty. “Fire met petrol when PM Rajiv Gandhi did all he could to “teach a befitting lesson” to King Birendra for having denied a breakfast meet of some selected few SAARC leaders in Islamabad during the SAARC Summit that was held in Pakistan. The abrupt absence of King Birendra in the breakfast meet of the Indo-pendent SAARC leaders infuriated Mr. Gandhi to the extent that he took perhaps oath to unseat the Nepal King from the throne at the earliest. King Birendra’s thinking was that “the selected few invited” for the Gnadhi’s breakfast will send wrong signals to the rest of the SAARC members.” N.P. Upadhya writes in TelegraphNepal. As a landlocked country, Nepal was severely affected by this blockade, running deficits on every-day commodities needed to sustain livelihoods. P.M. Krishna P. Bhattarai went Delhi to sign a joint communiqué and the blockade was lifted. This also limited the possibility of well-armed army with surveillance, gathering and defense technology.  And came the People’s Movement of 1990 which forced the king to draft constitution. We are mostly aware of what happened after. The UNPM split and started the civil war. Delhi backed the movement. They provided the ammunitions and shelter. And somehow, the chaos reached its height with Royal Massacre. This event completely changed Nepal’s politics. Delhi backed the Republic movement.

Almost all high level politicians sought the shadow of Delhi to overthrow the Gyanendra and later to reach in top political levels. .” The Jungle dwellers came to Kathmandu and the Kathmandu dweller was forced to enter the Nagarjun Jungles. Since then the politics of this nation has been swinging like a pendulum.” Upadhya wrote. This developed a sense of obligation and Nepal became the stage and politicians became puppets. The political instability gave neighbors chance to act on their behalf and started controlling Nepal’s water. Around half billion people are dependent on the water of Himalayas. In addition Uranium, Petroleum, Gold and Iron ore are also shaping the nation. If Nepal had a strong military and intelligence gathering, then USA, EU and India cannot spy the Tibetan region. Otherwise why do you think an American Bell UH-1Y Venom crashed? Because of the clouds, and you bought that?

So, the conclusion is the institutionalized corruption in policy making and internal corruption in Nepal Army (From Sudan to Fast track Scam), which needs a special investigation of its own, is the biggest reason for the weakness.

Solution ? I seriously don’t know. We can’t ask the Gurkhas to come back and save the boarder because of the payment and facilities are limited. I don’t think we are ready for a mass movement or a sudden political change, we are already too poor and segmented for that and politicians are not changing any time soon. But we might lose the right to speak if we don’t speak now. We can’t afford to just wave Khukuri and be 1939 Poland. We should be ready for a movement. It is coming soon.