Lipu Lekh: The past, present and future of the Nepal-india stand-off
India. Objections to this were raised in the 1980s, but were ignored by the royal regimes. Since 2000, the two surveyed the length of their boundary to resolve outstanding issues, except in two areas, including Kalapani. It is mutually agreed that these issues will be resolved through diplomatic negotiations.
Why then has the Nepal government turned up the heat on the Kalapani issue? Prime Minister KP Oli faces serious internal opposition at the moment, including from within his ruling Nepal Communist Party. This is largely on account of his governance failures and lack of action on combating the pandemic. He has consolidated his nationalist image since 2015 by fighting India’s ill-advised diplomatic intervention on the constitution issue and the counterproductive economic coercion (partial economic blockade) that followed. He perhaps hopes that this face-off with India on Kalapani will give him a new lease of political life.
The strategic community in India apprehends that Nepal is also being prompted by China to get India out of Kalapani. Indian Army chief General MM Navrane’s indirect reference in an Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses lecture may be recalled here. This apparently conflicts with China’s endorsement of the Indian position in 1954 and 2015. However, China is seldom straight in diplomacy. It is unhappy with India’s growing strategic proximity to the United States. It has also objected to India’s defence infrastructure upgradation projects all along the border. The Darchula-lipu Lekh road is one such project. Needling India and alienating Kathmandu from New Delhi serves China’s broader purpose. This explains why is it is playing an active role in preserving the unity of the Nepal Communist Party and protecting the Oli regime.
Prolonging this stand-off is not in the interest of either Nepal or India. It will be exploited by the third parties to their advantage. India and Nepal, keeping in mind their mutual stakes and concerns, should through resilient and mutually accommodative diplomacy, resolve this. better.
Using the Extension of Community Healthcare Outcomes (Echo) model, health care workers are receiving virtual, guided mentoring. This moves knowledge instead of people, to build faster, more sustainable capacity across the chain.
Overnight, you can overturn an apparent scarcity — the lack of good teachers or skilled health workers — into an abundance of distributed, empowered talent.
Opportunities are everywhere — in energy, in mobility, in agriculture, and in livelihood generation. If we can use this flipped thinking, it can create more headroom for those who genuinely need resources — more carbon for the energy-deficient; more land for the landless; more mobility for transport deficit areas, and more potential for sustainable and meaningful livelihoods everywhere.
For example, India’s ubiquitous building infrastructure can be repurposed to harness solar energy, or for vertical and terrace farming. Work from home will relieve the pressure on urban infrastructure and land, which can be released for mass housing or public transport, and critical lung space.
Last but not least, let’s unlock our spiritual treasure trove. Most disciplines invite us to more mindfulness, and more contentment. Not by consuming more externally, but by harvesting more from within, and by sharing more without. Neurosciences and behavioural sciences increasingly corroborate this ancient wisdom — joy can come from giving, and unlimited happiness from bonhomie.
Flipping to an abundance mindset is a creative-yet-practical task for (society) first, but also for the (market) and
(State). We know now that we need to emerge from this crisis together. Let’s boldly use the stimulus to redefine prosperity and redirect resources to make abundance effective.