Map that threatens to derail India-Nepal ties
Territorial claims between contiguous States are not a new phenomenon, but highlighting them on currency notes or national emblems has living consequences and is a matter of seriousness when the ties are friendly and close. The government of Nepal has just approved a map of the country to be printed on the country’s new 100-rupee note. This has rightly drawn criticism from India as the map of Nepal was amended in May 2020 to explicitly highlight its claims on Indian territories in Uttarakhand. Those tensions had barely calmed down before the latest one boiled over.
Nepal and India are bound by strong civilisational and economic ties, and repeatedly upsetting these through such action hardly bodes well for the people of Nepal or its economy. Nepalese politicians have no hesitation in indulging in brinkmanship over ties with India for their own personal benefit. This was certainly the case in 2020 when then Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli played the nationalist card of “safeguarding” Nepal’s territory with the map revision in a bid to avoid ouster.
The 2022 elections threw up a hung parliament, with the Nepali Congress, led by former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba, having 88 members in a house of 275, while Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), or CPN-UML, had 79. This allowed Prachanda, the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), to assume prime ministership with just 30 members of parliament. Initially, it was an alliance with Oli’s party but it soon moved to the Nepali Congress, and in February 2024, back to Oli’s party. In the shifting sands of Nepalese politics, where no one is untouchable, observers speak of several other possibilities, including the Nepali Congress and the Unified MarxistLeninist tying up or combinations involving smaller parties. But these are not easy to stitch together.
Historically, India has been more comfortable when the Nepali Congress is a part of the ruling dispensation in Kathmandu. This was certainly so when the Prachanda-Deuba combination was in office through much of 2023. Prachanda also went the extra mile to reach out to New Delhi by donning the daura suruwar, the traditional Nepalese dress associated with the monarchy and visiting the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, during a State Visit. As a Maoist, such displays were out of bounds for him earlier.
The present alliance with the CPN-UML may be electorally advantageous to Prachanda, but Oli apparently has the upper hand. The map on the currency notes is certainly reminiscent of Oli’s 2020 act with the map in the national emblem, and he can’t be oblivious to its long-term negative and intractable consequences for Nepal. There is little doubt that he would have been urged on such a move by his Chinese backers.
Interestingly, as this latest shenanigan unfolds from Nepal, a new book, Kathmandu Chronicle, that seeks to “reclaim” India-Nepal relations”, is out in the bookstores of Delhi and Kathmandu. The authors are KV Rajan, the longest-serving Indian ambassador in Kathmandu, and Atul Thakur, a young scholar and observer of Nepal. The book provides a “diplomatic gleaning” of India-Nepal history since India’s Independence and charts the frequent ups and downs in these ties. The book discusses the role of the British in pushing a certain wedge in the civilisational ties between India and Nepal by bringing in facets of a nation-State scenario and issues of identity. Many today are oblivious of the Great Game involving the British and Russian Empires in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The role played by Pakistan, directly and through its proxies such as the D Company, in recent years appear to be forgotten in today’s times, but these bear recalling. While noting the ever-present China angle in the way Nepal positions itself vis-à-vis India and not overlooking the influences of the West, the book views India-Nepal ties through an Indian lens. It underscores Nepal’s strategic location and provides interesting anecdotal accounts of interactions on ties with the royal family, Nepal as a Hindu State, the hijacking of IC-814, and the coup by King Gyanendra.
In 2020, the whipped-up nationalist fervour had only one or two Nepalese MPs voting against the amendment to the national emblem that incorporated the new map featuring areas of India. Hopefully, a debate in the Nepalese parliament on the issue of incorporating its map in the currency notes will see large numbers of its members oppose a move that could debase the Nepalese currency in the eyes of the people of its most important economic neighbour.
Rajan and Thakur note that “India does not fashion its policies on the basis of reciprocity expectations, but some reciprocity in terms of respect for vital interests is a necessary underpinning for sound relationships”. They suggest the need for Nepal and India to accept their special relationship as a “real asset” and work on the benefits of growing together. Diplomacy is obviously the key to the way forward, but “the style of diplomacy matters as much as the substance”.