Summit mentality

Another year, another round of dignitaries visiting us, and another summit to host! This time it’s the impressively named Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation or BIMSTEC as it is widely known. Or not! A lot of folks around here generally don’t know about BIMSTEC because unlike SAARC it wasn’t really a part of their school syllabus. It’s the sort of thing you would have an interest in if you were a specialist in regional initiatives, were directly involved or indirectly employed by them, or in my case (and I suspect for many others too) attempted the Lok Sewa exams a fair few times.

Don’t fret if you have never heard of it. This grouping hasn’t exactly been setting the region on fire in the just over two decades that they have been in existence. There is now renewed optimism that it’s the one regional initiative that will finally work after India began showing some interest in it seeing as it syncs nicely with its ‘Look East’ policy and any progress with SAARC has basically just stalled for the time being.

But for all the talk about South Asia’s connectivity with ASEAN and absence of Pakistan, up to now, it has been just another talk shop – and not a very regular one at that too. The summit in Kathmandu is only the fourth one to be scheduled so far (although there have been other ad hoc meets at periodical intervals). To be honest, there are so many regional or sub regional forums in this part of the world that it’s hard to keep track of who’s integrating with who and who’s out of which grouping.

Anyway, another one of these optimism bandwagons is due to roll into town soon and, if the news channels are to be believed, Kathmandu is gearing up for it. Our news channels have well and truly begun the slow slide to ‘Indianization’ now with their over reporting and ‘shout-y’ coverage. Anyone switching on the channels would be fooled into thinking that there was a festival round the corner and we were all beside ourselves with excitement over it.

By Kathmandu, they don’t really mean you or me but all our politicians and their cronies who are taking great pains to get the capital spruced up. And no we are not excited, just mildly amused with a strong sense of deja vu (remember the SAARC summit or Modi’s visit) when we see all this last minute beautification work going on. There is no real dearth of skeptics who say that Nepal doesn’t really benefit from hosting any of these regional and sub-regional meets. It currently doesn’t mean a lot to many of us but who’s to say that we can’t make the most of SAFTA and BAFTA and all these regional free trade measures or the much-vaunted confluence of Asia and South East Asia under the aegis of BIMSTEC.

But for now we must be content with the roads getting patched up, the unruly wiring being sorted out, sidewalks being painted, and other beautification measures being carried out and two days of holidays and disruptions across the capital. I actually quite liked Gagan Thapa’s suggestion of putting up the leaders at different hotels so that the government is compelled to immediately solve all of the capitals’ woes for the short term. It’s great that he has found a voice now that he is in the opposition but I’m sure the irony was not lost on him that if his party were in power they would be doing the exact same thing right now.

Because that is what we do when we have guests over. We only clean our living rooms and make sure that they don’t stray too far from it. We suck our stomachs in collectively to make a good impression and then when they are gone all the pressure is released and we are back to the old state of affairs.

These days, even kids know that some dignitary or the other will be visiting our dust-bowl pretty soon. I happened to overhear a conversation between two kids the other day discussing the potential school closures for the end of next week and they didn’t know what BIMSTEC was, or more accurately they simply didn’t care. All they knew was that ‘Modi’ was coming to Nepal again. It’s hilarious and quite sad at the same time that our progress has now become synonymous with Modi’s or any other dignitaries’ visit to Nepal. Perhaps, in the years to come, this is how our infrastructure development and progress will be measured – not in terms of project or years but the different summits and dignitaries we have hosted. If that is so, I say, bring on the next one!

The writer loves traveling, writing, and good food when he is afforded an escape from the rat race. He can be contacted at gunjan.u@gmail.com