Border Nationalism

Last week, newspapers splashed stories of border encroachments and harassment of Nepali nationals by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel. Political parties and their sister wings staged demonstrations against the ‘encroachments’ and United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) even organized an all-party meeting to take up the issue—the meeting ended deciding to send a parliamentary committee to the field to take stock of the situation on the ground. The Indian Embassy in Kathmandu dismissed the ‘encroachment and harassment’ stories as ‘baseless and fabricated’. It even said, ‘the issue being raised by certain sections of media and some political organizations is politically motivated.”



The government, in the meantime, became an onlooker of these serious events for many days and at last sent a fact-finding team headed by Home Ministry officials just for formality. The report has not been publicized—it’s unlikely to be. This is not the first time that it has happened—stories of border encroachment crop up in media over and again; political parties, especially the left-parties, hold protest rallies and shout anti-Indian slogans for a few days and then gradually things go normal as if nothing ever happened. The reoccurring saga of ‘border nationalism’ shows our weaknesses and frivolity with which we approach the issue of nationalism and territorial integrity.



If these encroachment stories were true, why are we silent about them now? Why hasn’t the government taken up the issue with India? Why haven’t the two countries gone to war as many countries do over border disputes? And if they were false, why do we engage in this nonsensical drama time and again? Is nationalism or territorial integrity so trivial an issue that we raise it at our whim one day and dump it the very next day?



The Home Ministry officials have told this newspaper, citing initial field reports, that the stories of border encroachment in Dang were fabricated. But they say this only in private, leaving the public guessing what actually happened in Dang. We urge the government to release the final report and bring out the truth.



And we also urge all Nepalis, especially political parties, civil society and media (that includes ourselves), for a national introspection. We can no longer take up the issue so casually—so irresponsibly. If we continue to do so, it will not only make us look stupid in the eyes of India but also hit our national confidence. When generations after generations grow up hearing stories of Indian encroachment and highhandedness, however unfounded, our national psyche begins to develop an inferiority complex, with which we can neither promote nationalism nor defend our territorial integrity.

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