On/Off the Record

By P.R. Pradhan

Different foreign actors are involved in different plans to destroy this peaceful Himalayan country. Unfortunately, we, the Nepalis--senior political leaders, and academicians, among others, are working for different foreign powers. The Indians are playing here with different options. They are trying their best to keep Nepal under the Indian umbrella. The other Indian plan is to annex Nepal’s Tarai districts if it fails to annex Nepal, a sovereign and independent nation. Otherwise, keep Nepal at Bhutan’s status. The Indians, through different channels, have exposed their men working in Nepal. Just recently, they qualified our sitting Prime Minister Pushpakamal Dahal as an “Indian horse” and former prime minister and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba as a “horse in the stable”. The then RAW chief Samant Goel had a midnight meeting with the then-sitting prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli at the PM’s official residence in Baluatar. Just recently, a retired RAW officer RK Yadav claimed that our sitting prime minister is working for the RAW. The Indians are trying to expose their men in Nepal to exhibit their “strong” influence in Nepali politics and bureaucracy.

The government has made it easy to obtain Nepali citizenship for the Indians and now the Indians in Nepal have become the decisive force while electing India’s comfortable men during elections. Moreover, the government has granted permission to spend 200 million rupees worth of projects without informing the Nepal government. Why the Indians are spending such a huge amount in Nepal, is very much understandable.

The Americans are planning to make Nepal their base for conducting their activities against China and perhaps against India as well. When the Western countries saw difficulty in fulfilling their interests, they supported the Indians to dethrone the institution of monarchy by declaring Nepal a secular nation with federalism and entered into Nepal with the Christianity campaign. 

Since Nepal has been declared a secular country, the Christian population has been increasing surprisingly. In every nook and corner, we can see churches. Now, the Christian community has already emerged as the decisive force in electing their candidates during elections. During the last elections, the Christian community here issued a circular to its members to support the Rastriya Swatantra Party’s candidates.

Some Western countries are involved in fueling conflict among different communities in the name of identity. Even our Chief of Army Staff Gen Prabhuram Sharma remarked that there is a serious threat from some groups involved in the separation of the nation.

In the process of paving the way for fulfilling their interests, the Indo-West groups joined hands in declaring Nepal a secular, federal republic. During the time of writing the new constitution, the majority of the Nepali nationals had given written suggestions against federalism, secularism and republicanism. When those foreigners paid constituent assembly members who saw adverse outcomes, they dumped the suggestions in a store room. Nepal was declared a federal secular republic without the consent of the people. Even today, the political parties championing the present constitution are against conducting a referendum for a fresh mandate. Many intellectuals have suggested empowering the local organs by dismantling other federal structures. In case, if federalism is obvious for the political parties, then, they had suggested introducing only three provinces considering the country’s revenue source. Today, the government is unable to manage the increased expenditure of the country due to the introduction of seven provinces and 753 local bodies. For the past five years, the country’s debt burden has doubled, which means that the government is taking debts for the operation of the provinces and local bodies. Be that as it may, the foreign powers’ plan for ruining the national economy has become successful. If the provincial structures will continue, the nation is going to be bankrupt soon.

When the Indo-West grouping tries to develop a base in Nepal aimed at containing China, the latter will be forced to come to Nepal to counter the Indo-West design. Today’s China is not the China of yesteryears. Not to forget, China is the second largest economy now.

Nepal has adopted the MCC grant project but has kept pending the BRI. Nepal has discarded the Russian offer for the construction of hospitals and other supports including supplying petroleum products at concessional prices. Those immature political leaders are performing partiality while dealing with friendly countries. We don’t see a balanced foreign policy based on non-alignment. In conclusion, Nepal is going to turn into a battlefield of foreign powers due to the wrong handling of foreign policy.