By N.P. Upadhyaya It is definitely a matter of national shame of the Himalayan order that in Nepal there is tentatively a fight going these days in between the ruling leaders (the Nepali Congress included which is ruling party in waiting) as to who should wear an Indian badge (having Tri Color Indian flag) first so that the newly elected Indian Prime Minister together with the new BJP Card holder Mr. S Jay Shankar who has been ‘crane elevated’ by the Indian Prime Minister from a high-level-clerk to a full minister and that too who would look into India’s relations with the world. Mr. Shankar now is a Rajya Sabha member. Hope his inner cruelty goes down during post loaded with gravity. In effect the domestic fight in Nepal is for forwarding a formal application to the perusal of the Indian fundamentalist regime to grant Nepal the status of what Bhutan singly enjoys today that of being a “protectorate” to which Bhutan denies by forwarding the amended Bhutan-India treaty. Give the treaty any name, the Indian arm twisting remains the same so say the Bhutanese nationals in a subdued voice after Prime Minister Dr. Lotay Tsering made a critical but appropriate comments as regards the benefits of the SAARC regional body. His comments hit India very hard expectedly. SAARC has become the victim of Indian inferiority complex. In simple words, Nepal prefers now to remain as a bonafide protectorate of the former British slaves. Or else, if Nepal were a sovereign country (though the people take Nepal as an ever independent and sovereign nation but have little to intervene into the government’s follies) then it should have instantly rejected the entrance of the import of the Indian vegetables with heavy pesticide content. The Indian media itself claims that the vegetables they have been “eating” has hazardous chemicals and that Nepal by blocking the import of such vegetables from India did a job that a sensible government does to save its population from being poisoned. Nepal is being poisoned by Indian vegetables. The Nepal government thus blocked the import of the vegetables at the border points for some days and won the hearts of its population. However, the Nepal’s micro-manager that the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu is, learnt to have sent a threatening letter dated June 29, 2019, to the concerned ministry in Kathmandu which practically shook the new protectorate to the hilt and the end result was that the government out of fear of the imposition of yet another Economic Blockade by the regional bully, instantly released the blocked import of the Indian vegetables. Now begins the fun. The Prime Minister claims that he doesn’t know of the inner details of how and why the Indian vegetables were not allowed to enter into Nepal and he also did not know who or which ministry in Nepal later allowed the import upon the receipt of a threatening letter from the Indian embassy addressed to Nepal government. In fact, the Nepal PM claims that the Indian viceroy did not threaten his lame duck government through a letter. PM Oli says he doesn’t have any idea about what had happened in the meantime as regards the import of the Indian vegetables at the Nepal-India border. The minister for Industry and supplies, Mr. Matrika Yadav-the former Maoists leader says he was duped by his secretary at the ministry and thus the blocked Indian vegetables got its easy entrance into the country. Minister Yadav laments for his lapses. His laments are real or what? Only the Indian embassy knows. He too has spent almost a decade in India, to recall. The real fun begins with the issuing of the Embassy of the strong worded letter, June 29, 2019, demanding the release of the India’s poisoned vegetables. The government authorities kept on insisting that they have not received any such letter from the Indian viceroy. Prime Minister Oli too said so, however, as the luck would have it, the Indian embassy letter got leaked which established that the Indian government through its embassy in Kathmandu wrote a threat loaded statement demanding the easy entrance of the blocked Indian vegetables inside Nepal or face grave consequences. These two previous funs created yet another, let’s call it, the third fun. This fun polarized the entire population into two halves. Those who supported the easy entrance of the Indian vegetables with heavy percentage of pesticide were instantly dubbed as “Paid Indian stooges” and conversely those who opposed the Indian vegetable entrance into Nepal were taken as strong nationalist and the brave sons of the Nepali soil. And there was thus another fun associated with all these events that followed after the issuance of the Indian embassy letter. The National mainstream media too got divided into favor and against which gave birth to a chaotic fun which dubbed the media men who supported the entrance of the Indian vegetables as to have been “close chums” of the Indian embassy who may have been enjoying “hefty envelope incentives” both in cash and kind then the other were-the ones who were against the import of vegetables with higher percentage of pesticides to have been working for some unseen but yet powerful camps which could have opened its treasury. Who looted what and from which camps is yet to come to the public knowledge. Let’s wait for the details to come to notice. The entire fun got a dangerous but yet chilling twist when the population were given to understand that the Chief of the South Asian terror Machine, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was almost set to land in Kathmandu this September in person under one pretext or the other upon the completion of his Bhutan’s visit. How Bhutan PM Dr. Lotay tackles this dangerous and wild elephant shall have to be watched. We pray for Dr. Lotay Tsering’s good health. The question is why this Narendra Bhai Modi-the Indian Prime Minister repeatedly lands in Kathmandu? Is he trying to gulp Nepal formally? Why he prefers Nepal every time? What could have been the prime reason? Yes, some sharp brains have found the clue. PM Modi is visiting Nepal this September (most likely) in order to thwart the possible visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Nepal. He is sure to contaminate the entire Nepalese politics to the extent that President Xi himself cancels the Nepal trip. And Modi’s followers shall for sure assist him as against, hefty and lucrative envelope. High placed sources claim that President Xi is sure to land in Nepal this year. But whether he would make his Nepal trip after or ahead of his likely India visit is yet uncertain. However, what is certain that President Xi is arriving Nepal and this is what has perhaps transpired in between Nepal FM Mr. Gyawali and Chinese FM Mr. Wang Yi. While Mr. Gyawali has been a picked up personality who apparently doesn’t know the basics even of diplomacy then his Chinese counterpart is a man who has almost been swinging the world politics as per the desires of China. Similarly, Indian PM Modi is also equipped with a sharp but crooked brain for handling India’s external relations. Thank he has not landed in Nepal so far. The day he arrives, he is sure to dictate PM Oli and his band of fake communists to apply for Bharatiya Janata Party membership which means that Minister Shankar’s first target would be on Nepal’s secular status. Mr. Shankar being a fundamentalist Hindu card holder, he is sure to order PM Oli through FM Gyawali to tie the entire proponents of the secular order in Nepal in a single rope and whip later enmasse as a larger section of the South Asian population observed this pathetic scene in one of the towns of India just the other day. The ugly scene has gone viral in the South Asian region. That Indian minister Shankar has already begun behaving like a super viceroy gets reflected from his distaste exhibited against Nepal and its Ambassador posted in Delhi. Ambassador Nilambar Acharya, a preferred candidate of PM Modi himself as is the rumor in Nepal, is being denied a courtesy call meet with the new Indian Foreign Minister for over a month of his official request. Mr. Shankar is seeking the revenge of how he was insulted by the Nepali rulers some hours ahead of the promulgation of the Nepal’s new constitution when he had come to appeal the Nepali ruling elites to suspend the promulgation for some months as preferred by India. However, the then rulers, though all were the declared loyal servants of India, but yet Shankar returned empty handed. He will pounce upon Nepal any time soon. Now he is not just the upper level clerk at the foreign ministry but instead he is now the BJP Card holding minister of External Affairs of India. And he in himself is half Indo-Pacific in that he is born Indian national and that he has a Japanese wife Mrs. Kyoko-Shankar which explains as to why he should be taken as an expert on US designed Indo-Pacific strategy. In all, Mr. Shankar shall bring disasters for Nepal if his dictates are not honored by the present day thug communist leaders who claim that they are the disciples of Indian thugs who currently rule India. His first order to Nepal shall expectedly be to declare itself as an “Indian protectorate” a la baby Bhutan. If so then Nepal shall win the “Jai Hind Medal” which would prove the utility of the 12 point agreement that had been imposed on Nepal by the most hated person in the South Asian region-Mr. Shyam Saran, who pushed Nepal to this sorry state and managed the forceful ouster of the Nepali monarchy through the effective use and help of the Nepal Maoists who were then residing in New Delhi enjoying Indian government’s hospitality. In effect, Mr. Saran exported Nepal Maoists to Kathmandu to capture the state and they did it for him. The rest is history. The Indian guests were Prachanda and Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai. Very freshly, the ousted monarch has written a very long story which speaks of his love and honor that he still possesses for the country which had been founded by his august ancestors. Dr. Man Mohan Singh, the cursed proxy Prime Minister of India then did all he could to humiliate King Gyanendra but even after losing the throne, the former King never compromised and the fact is that the people in general apparently express their sympathy for the King and they lament in that they got lured by the India paid thugs and cheated their own nationalist monarch. Thus India is a living devil for this South Asian region. Just imagine that an India which could not be a loved nation for its own population, how could it be compatible for others? How the Muslims and the Dalits plus other minorities inside India are being treated day in day out these days after the election results more so after the resounding victory of the ruling BJP has stunned the global population. Interestingly, the US loves such a country whose religious freedom index is under a big question mark. This is somewhat mysterious. The Kashmir issue is altogether a permanent story of horror and atrocities being committed by the Indian security forces in and around the area of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The UN Body has very freshly accused India once again of human rights violations in Kashmir and has called for the formation of a commission of inquiry into the allegations, writes Rifat Fareed for the Al Jazeera July 8, 2019. The UN makes comments at times but doesn’t take up the issue seriously. The UN system is talked to be India friendly. The UN report asked India to investigate the killing of civilians following the killing of rebel commander Burhan Wani in 2016. More than 100 protesters were killed in the five-month-long street protests following Wani's killing, triggering a new wave of popular anger against the Indian rule, writes Rifat Fareed in his fresh report made for the Al Jazeera from Sri Nagar. The UN report says the heightened tensions in Kashmir following the February suicide bombing continues to have a severe effect on the human rights of civilians, including the right to life, adds the Al Jazeera journalists from India occupied Kashmir. The report adds that “authorities in India-administered Kashmir "continue to use various forms of arbitrary detention to target protesters, political dissidents and other civil society actors". Though the Indian atrocities continue, the USA has been supporting the Indian machinery blindly for reasons which could have direct linkages with the Indo-Pacific strategy-the brain child of the US which has designated the regional bully the boss of this policy for the South Asian region and much beyond. The US is doing injustice to the smaller countries of South Asia by aligning itself with the Indian regime which may bring in disasters for the USA ultimately in that the smaller countries if pushed to the wall by the Indian regime may easily slip into the lap of the Chinese establishment. What this slip means to the larger interest of the US is understandable? Some of the countries of the South Asian region have already gone to the Chinese camp and that too willingly. Shocking it could be for the Indian regime but the fact is that China and Bangladesh on Thursday, July 4th, 2019, agreed to advance their cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative-the BRI. India has invested much in the creation of this country-a very good friend of Nepal. The consensus was reached by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and visiting Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was on an official visit to China. Sri Lanka is already in the Chinese camp and Bhutan too is willing to join the China club. Bhutan is just waiting the Chinese inkling, it is hoped. Calling Bangladesh an important cooperation partner of China in South Asia, Li hailed the two countries' traditional friendship. "Since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two sides have always understood and supported each other on issues involving core interests and major concerns," Li said. In 2016, the two countries, China and B’desh, established strategic partnership of cooperation. The disturbing of it all is the fresh reiteration by a Nepali leader groomed and indoctrinated by the Indian establishment for well over a decade plus and that too in New Delhi, Comrade Prachanda, has very freshly stated that “we will facilitate the China’s Belt and Road Initiative”. This means that India’s trusted and tested friend Comrade Prachanda too has slipped into the warm and the cozy camp of China? But Prachanda can any time change his stance. He is basically an India man, it is believed. Now India has only two options. First to invite Netra Chand to Delhi and groom him as it did with Prachanda and Bhattarai and the second is to reinstate King Gyanendra to his lost throne. However, the question is that whether the people in Nepal will honor such an India re-instated monarch? Needless to say, if Chinese President Xi lands in Kathmandu this year end, that would mean the end of Indian hegemony in Nepal once and for all. Yet the people in Nepal have no trust on their leaders who were essentially India trained the indoctrinated. They have the distinction of submitting the Nepalese pride and honor to the mercy of the Indian regime and they have, truly speaking, become a national burden on the country. The people wish an early ouster of their leaders as the people have concluded that the longer these leaders stay in power, the nation shall suffer. Had the National Army been strong and disciplined and nation-serving, the incumbent leaders-the termites that they are, would have been sacked. Now let’s know what is happening in Afghanistan. Much ahead of a meeting scheduled between the US President Donald Trump and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, July 22, 2019, America on last week in an unexpected manner designated the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), a terrorist organization, which is fighting Pakistani rule in Baluchistan province. This could be taken as some sort of political hint signaled to Pakistan in advance from the host country-the US. This also means that the US heavily counts on Pakistan’s meaningful support for the resolution of the Afghanistan imbroglio once and for all. Though the meet arranged by the Qatar-Germany combine for sorting out the conflict in Afghanistan in Doha has scaled new heights but yet Qatari officials are of the view that it would be the final effort to be made by Pakistan which shall bring about a permanent settlement of the Afghan peace process that satisfies all the stakeholders-the Afghani government, the rebellion Talibans and the US at a single stretch. Much depends upon how Imran Khan takes Donald Trump into confidence and under what pre-conditions? There is no free lunch in diplomacy, it is rightly said. Khan has some cards under his sleeves that has the ability to sort out the present US-Iran crisis for the better. The US can go to any extent in helping Pakistan if the latter resolves Afghanistan issue to the liking of the US. So how the US treats Pakistan in Washington and vice versa this time shall determine the politics in South, Central Asia together with the Gulf nations. The US wants to pull out from Afghanistan for which Pakistan’s support become crucial. It has been eighteen years of the stay of the US forces in Afghanistan. To recall, the terrorist designated BLA group has carried out a number of terror attacks in Baluchistan. Pakistan has already classified the outfit as a terrorist organization and have been urging the US to do the same and though late the US has done what Pakistan preferred. In its statement, the State Department said: “The BLA is an armed separatist group that targets security forces and civilians, mainly in ethnic Baloch areas of Pakistan.” The department made it a crime for anyone in the US to assist the BLA militants and freezing any US assets they may have. Now it remains to be seen whether the US elevates the ranks of its longtime ally (Pakistan) or gets lured once again by the ulterior designs of the Indian regime which is in effect cheating the USA for some good reasons. Any good offer from Russia, India shall turn down the US. However, Pakistan’s real strength lies in having balanced ties with the US, Russia and China. This shall make not only South, Central Asia but the entire globe a stable one. It is here that Pakistan’s matured and balanced diplomacy shall be tested. Khan’s national stand may bring in dividends. That’s all.