On/Off the Record

By P.R. Pradhan The present Nepali Congress-UML coalition government recommended 18 names as ambassadors to different countries by scrapping the recommendation by the cabinet of the previous Maoist Center-UML-led coalition government. Shankar Sharma, who was serving as the ambassador to India, was called back by the previous government and he was packing bedding to return home. In the meantime, the government changed in Kathmandu. The NC and UML formed a coalition government and recommended new names as ambassadors in different countries. Most of the recommended names for the post of ambassador are NC and UML close people. Only two are career diplomats from the Foreign Ministry. The remaining others, except some, lack diplomatic experience. Shankar Sharma, Ambassador to India, is the lucky guy, who has again been named as the ambassador to India. Sharma is known to be a business partner of Dr Arzu Rana Deuba and a blue-eyed boy for Delhi. At a time, when Sharma was recalled, he wrote an article in an Indian English daily, The Indian Express, published on July 1, 2024, entitled, “Nepal and India’s special relationship—and how it is getting better”. The article is worthless to read, however, for ambassador Sharma, it is important to please the Indian authorities. Oddly, when a sitting ambassador believes in the Nepal-India special relationship, confusion has surfaced on Nepal’s outstanding foreign policy. Subsequently, senior journalist and political analyst Dhruba Hari Adhikari wrote an article in The Rising Nepal (TRN) on July 31, “A Treaty Without Any Utility”. The 1950 Treaty, which is not in practice, was signed on July 31. Coinciding with the date of the signing of the Treaty, Adhikari’s article was published in the government mouthpiece, TRN. “Seventy-four years have gone by since Nepal and India signed, on 31st July 1950, an accord officially billed as the Treaty of Peace and Friendship. Independent India was barely three-year-old and Nepal was still under the autocratic family rule of Ranas which had begun in 1846", Adhikari has noted. "The 1950 treaty, says former Indian ambassador to Nepal K V Rajan (1995-2000), was a “robust imitation of the 1923 treaty between British-India and the Ranas”, Adhikari has quoted. “In his write-up in the South Asian Journal in 2005, Rajan admitted that the accord “could not and did not go down too well with many Nepalis who felt that it was unequal, non-credible and undemocratic, and who bristled openly at the suggestion that India’s security perimeter legitimately extended up to the Himalayas,” Adhikari quoted the then Indian ambassador to Nepal. “In Nepal’s case, King Mahendra’s government made it clear, in 1969, that the controversial 1950 treaty had already lost relevance", according to Adhikari. “In an interview, published in The Rising Nepal on 24 June 1969, Prime Minister Kirtinidhi Bista was categorical about it: “The theory of special relations for Nepal outside geographical, social, and economic realities is out of step with modern developments in our relations,” Adhikari has quoted Bista. When Nepali leaders have declined the “special relations” status between Nepal and India, our sitting ambassador has given unnecessary emphasis on such relations, which is odd. Confusing is whether the Nepali ambassador is working in the Nepali interests or the interests of India! There are many burning issues to be addressed. The two international airports in Bhairahawa and Pokhara have not come into operation as India refused to provide new air routes for Nepal. The EPG report prepared by the joint team of experts from Nepal and India was denied to receive by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The SAARC activities have been halted due to the Indian attitude. Nepal-India open border has become a threat for both countries as cross-border crime has increased and the chances for misusing the open border by international terrorist groups are high. The Nepal-India border dispute is as-it-is. India has incorporated the Nepali territory Kalapani-Limpiyadhura-Lipulek in its political map. Moreover, the Indian side is constructing a motorable road up to the Chinese border via the Nepali territory occupied by India. The ambassador’s job is to address these disputed issues. Unfortunately, he did nothing in addressing these issues, yet, he sees best and “special relations” between Nepal and India. Can Nepal achieve diplomatic success with such individuals as ambassadors?