Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has played a key role in restoring a sense of balance between India and China. He seems to realize that disproportionate influence of either country on Nepal is undesirable. So he first visited India to remind the Indians that his government was not, in any way, 'anti-India' and to impress upon them that Nepal has no option but to have best of relations with India. This was wise. Nepal really has nothing to gain by alienating India, to which it is inextricably bound by geography, like no other country, not even China. The prime minister then visited China and got the Chinese to agree to nearly all the demands of Nepal, including on transit facilities through Chinese territories and a long-term oil deal. We believe both the visits were, in their totality, successful in advancing Nepal's interests. PM Oli deserves to be credited for this and for making Nepalis believe that they are not destined to quietly endure punitive measures of India such as the recent economic embargo.Where the prime minister gets it wrong, we believe, is in trying to repeatedly prove his nationalist credentials through mistimed jibes against India. Yes, India has indeed been rather harsh on Nepal of late. Nepali people's suspicions about India are further heightened by things like the needless mention of Nepal in the joint EU-India statement. What does India, people are asking, really want in Nepal? But immediately after the EU-India statement was made public on March 30th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had issued a strong rebuttal, denouncing the undiplomatic conduct of both India and the EU. But the prime minister was apparently not satisfied. The next day the cabinet issued another strong-worded statement against the joint communiqué. In diplomacy there is thin line between judicious pursuance of national interest and needless posturing, which, ultimately, harms national interest. We believe it does not behoove the prime minister to repeatedly bad-mouth any particular country, something he has himself accepted. If so, what is the point of time and again needling India?
During a recent politburo meeting of his party, Prime Minister Oli again felt the need to emphasize how Nepal has "learnt a serious lesson" from the blockade and how the Madhesh-based parties were involved in "anti-people" and "anti-national" activities that in turn had jeopardized the country's sovereignty and national integrity. Such statements are unhelpful when what the government should be doing is reaching out to Madheshi parties and accommodating their concerns in the new constitution. We suspect another reason behind his recent posturing is to deflect attention away from his government's inexcusable failure to ease the supply of fuel and LPG, two months after the end of the blockade. Senior government officials, it is widely suspected, are involved in the black-marketing of these daily essentials. To regain public trust, the Oli government must now get down to the business of governing. The prime minister, we hope, realizes that the enormous political capital he has earned by fearlessly standing up for Nepal's national interests on the international arena could soon be fritted away if people continue to feel that he is simply not bothered about their suffering. Rabid anti-India nationalism will take him only so far.
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