The constant anti-Indian tone of the media, however, betrays more than a remarkable lack of sense. In producing rather illogical accounts of Indian perfidy, Nepal’s newspapers and television channels can conveniently ignore the scramble amongst local political parties to curry New Delhi’s favor. More seriously, the whiff, imagined or otherwise, of India can scotch genuine demands that have been brought to the fore in the wake of the people’s movements since 2006. [Break]
Every political force in Nepal romanticizes, entertains and curses Indian intervention. Only the political prejudices of Nepali media houses blind them to this fact. Their easy silencing of the questions around Lokman Singh Karki’s appointment by equating it with the Rukmangad Katwal case is ample evidence.
India indeed may have pushed its agenda in reinstating General Rukmangad Katwal, engineering the ascent of Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi to lead an election government, and pulling strings to get Lokmam Singh Karki into CIAA. But how successful would these efforts have been if Nepali leaders had not been hand-in-glove with India? With such strong competition for New Delhi’s good graces, can one blame India for its interest in Nepali politics?
These are questions that Nepali media prefer to ignore. Instead of critiquing Nepali political attitudes and corrupt mindset, they castigate India as an exploiter up to no good, an attitude that does not bode well for the progressive nationalism which is needed for Nepal’s development.
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But bad media practices are only one reason for this studied silence. As in mainstream parties, Madeshis, Janajatis and other minorities are hugely underrepresented in Nepal’s newspapers and television channels. Ultra-nationalism, both in the political arena as well as in the media, is an easy curtain to draw before the stories of marginalized people of Nepal. Anti-Indian sentiments are perfect decoys employed by parties and groups who have been suspicious of federalism and the shaking of the elite domination of Nepali society.
A recent instance is a story by Ameet Dhakal in the online news portal Setopati, on the Indian hand behind the coming together of Madeshi parties. Dhakal’s reportage is typical of the mainstream stereotyping. Madeshi politics is made out to be tied to Indian apron strings, while traditional parties are portrayed as free from the taint of foreignness.
If indeed India’s influence in Nepal and amongst the Madeshi parties was aas thorough as painted by the media, one wonders how the constitution did not get drafted in line with Madeshi demands. If not ‘One Madesh-One Pradesh’, but most certainly ‘Two Pradesh’ for Tarai-Madesh region would have been realized and a constitution along those lines promulgated.
Nepal’s foreign policy has been incoherent due in part to the cacophony of its media houses. Their constant tom-tomming of Indian intervention is easily translated into an anti-Indian sentiment in the public mind. Nepali foreign policy remains stuck between the formal and distant ties with China and the complex and resentful relations with India.
Filipino writer Francisco Sionil Jose once said that “we are poor because our elites have no sense of nation. They collaborate with whoever rules ... Our elites imbibed the values of the colonizer”. His words are quite true for Nepal as well. The amoral elite dominance is quashing hopes of Nepal’s development, even as they remain ensconced in their spaces, controlling the modes, minds and methods of thinking of the masses to reap benefits for themselves.
The dissent voice on Nepali media can be heard, even if it does not emerge adequately in newspapers or Television channels. As the saying goes: “One may sometimes tell a lie, but the grimace that accompanies it tells the truth”.
The author is a research scholar at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy, Jawaharlal Nehru University
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