Volume 1, No. 7, September 2000

Koirala’s week-long visit to India in the first week of August took place amidst strong opposition to the ‘Sikkimisation’ of Nepal. This prime minister of Nepal set the tone for his visit by bulldozing the controversial Sixth Amendment to the Nepalese Citizen Act (1963) through parliament despite public demonstrations, and opposition from all other political parties. A long-standing demand of the Indian expansionists, this Act gives citizenship rights to four million people of Indian origin in the fluid Terai border area with India. To prove his loyalty to the Indian rulers this was passed just five days before his departure to New Delhi.

On the eve of his visit, nine student organisations decided to call a general strike in the Kathmandu valley in protest against the passing of the Citizen Amendment Act and the construction by India of the Laxmanpur Barrage. Also, the Nepal Intellectual Council, in its panel discussion, expressed concern that Koirala’s visit was "premature" considering the "unequal" status accorded to Nepal by India in the 1950 Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty.

Yet, the shameless Koirala virtually prostrated himself before the Indian rulers, putting up for sale all aspects of Nepal’s wealth and natural resources, and opening up the country’s market for Indian goods (i.e., goods of the comprador big bourgeoisie and TNCs based in India). Entire Nepal was up for sale to India, with Koirala and his Nepali Congress acting as chief brokers. In addition, under the pretext of curbing the Maoists in Nepal (on which Koirala put enormous emphasis during his talks), Nepal’s entire security apparatus has been even more firmly tied to India’s para-military-police-RAW-IB complex.

Koirala’s visit, accompanied by a high-level delegation of ministers and businessmen, was the culmination of a series of high-level visits, open and secret, between the two countries, ever since he came to power. There is no doubt, the large number of deals struck, on economic, political and security matters, during his visit, will now be further consolidated by the forthcoming visit to Nepal of the External Affairs Minister, Jaswant Singh.

Here, we shall present the extent to which Koirala, in his one week’s trip, mortgaged Nepal’s sovereignty, in all these three spheres.

Ironically Koirala landed in India on the very day of the 50th Anniversary of the signing of the Friendship Treaty. No doubt he fully lived up to the traditions of this Treaty. The following agreements give a picture of how the knots tying Nepal to India have been further tightened:

* The two PMs agreed to regular dialogue at various levels, to further cooperation.

* The two sides agreed that the first meeting of the revived Indo-Nepal Joint Commission would be convened during Jaswant Singh’s forthcoming visit to Nepal.

* The two PMs directed their foreign secretaries to meet once in six months.

* The two PMs agreed that the large hydro-electrical potential needed to be tapped on both sides of the border. A special committee of Water Secretaries has been set up to discuss all important issues every six months.

* The two PMs directed that a joint force on flood control and forecasting be set up to review cooperation in a comprehensive manner.

* An agreement on science and technology was finalised.

With such an intricate network of meetings at the top-level, India’s rulers will be able to more effectively entrap Nepali policy making in a web of India’s economic and political interests.

Earlier, in 1959, India was furious when Nepal flouted its dictates, and purchased arms with out its permission. Now, utilising the Nepali rulers’ desperation for assistance to crush the growing Maoist movement in the country, the Indian establishment has planned systematic steps to bring Nepal’s security forces under its thumb. Brajesh Mishra’s trip there in June, where he sought to impose India’s control, set the trend. This was followed by a secret meeting of the Home secretaries of the two countries where it was decided to expand cooperation between the two law enforcement and security agencies. Further it was decided that India would ‘help’ Nepal set up a police academy and strengthen bilateral cooperation on security-related issues. This was followed, in July, by a visit to Nepal of Interpol’s India unit. A concrete plan of ‘tough anti-terrorist operations’ will be chalked out during Kamal Pande’s (Union Home Secretary) visit to Nepal in September.

In the current visit Nepal expressed its solidarity with India in its efforts to fight terrorism. The prime ministers of the two countries decided to "intensify the crack-down on cross border terrorism". This was nothing but a call for full scale joint operations against the Maoists. While, till now, India only spoke of ISI operations from Nepal, on this occasion it talked about the "ISI masterminded smuggler-terrorist nexus." The intentions of the Indian government is clear — to use the ISI pretext to attack the Maoists. This suits the Nepali rulers, as assistance for curbing the Maoists in Nepal was high on Koirala’s agenda. Both sides expressed increasing concern at the good relations between the Maoists of both countries; with Kathmandu urging New Delhi "to curb the activities of Left-wing extremists from its soil."

Of course, relations built on the basis of proletarian internationalism, of equality and mutual respect, between the Maoists of both countries, are far stronger than the relations of domination of the Nepali rulers by the Indian Expansionists !

It was here that the major deals were struck, with Koirala completely capitulating to the demands of India’s comprador big bourgeoisie.

For long the TNCs and comprador big bourgeoisie in India have been pressurising the SAARC countries to dismantle trade barriers, so that industries set up here can gain access not only to the Indian market but that of entire South Asia. This demand has been particularly urgent in the motor vehicle industry in India which has seen the recent entry of all the major giant TNCs. With most of them facing problems of rising stocks and poor demand, the powerful multinationals forced this onto the agenda of the two PMs. Not surprisingly, as faithful agents, both agreed that the conclusion of a bilateral agreement on trans-border movement of motor vehicles be expedited. And Koirala willingly accepted the import of ‘Indian’ motor vehicles. No doubt, such agreements will follow on all other consumer items, as the TNCs and comprador houses will find it more economical to export from India than set up manufacturing units in Nepal. What they are really interested in is robbing its natural wealth !

This was openly stated by the Indian business lobby on the very day before Koirala’s arrival to India. They declared "scientific inputs for harnessing Nepal’s considerable natural resources and assistance to set up an infrastructure for Information Technology (IT) make up the first line of India’s diplomacy with Nepal." Crudely put, but frank ! Koirala fully obliged.

Regarding the "harnessing of Nepal’s considerable natural resources" the sell-out has been all-en- compassing: Two gigantic hydro-electric projects, resisted by the Nepalese people for years, has finally been given the green signal by Koirala. These projects, which will be done in collaboration, will be controlled by the Indian comprador bourgeoisie in alliance with TNCs. The bulk of the hydro-electric power generated, will be sold to India at dirt cheap rates. With such big projects the revenue generated to Nepal will be high (inspite of the low costs) giving India further control over Nepal’s economy.

On this visit Koirala gave the OK for the construction by India of the Saptakoshi High Dam, which had been resisted for the past 50 years. This huge project, which will take a decade to construct has the potential to double Nepal’s GDP. Besides this, it was also decided to complete the detailed project report on the construction of the 6,000 mega watt Pancheshwar dam on the Mahakali river by 2001. For these projects, it was decided that the Water Secretaries of both countries will meet regularly.

The second point demanded by India’s business lobby was the penetration of India’s huge IT complex into Nepal. Here too, Koirala fully obliged. The two PMs agreed to extend cooperation in the development of IT to Nepal. It was agreed that a technology institute would be established in Nepal as a partnership project, with IT as the key thrust area. Also, a bilateral working group will set up task forces on e-commerce regulation and taxation, trade in services, intellectual property and movement of natural resources. An IT summit would be organised in Nepal in September.

So, the Indian compradors and TNCs got what they demanded. But this was not all. Koirala offered even more. Addressing two separate meetings of the FICCI and CII, he said that besides the above two spheres (i.e., energy and IT), tourism, manufacturing, agro-processing, horticulture, floriculture, sericulture, herbal and livestock products, pharmaceuticals and health care — were all open for foreign investment. He begged business leaders to invest in Nepal saying his country offered good untapped prospects. It was agreed to set up task forces on various issues related to agro-processing, leading to the formation of an Indo-Nepal food processing complex.

Finally, in order to tie the economic interests of Nepal more firmly to that of India’s comprador bourgeoisie two more agreements were signed : An ‘Indo-Nepal Protocol’ between India’s FICCI and Nepal’s FNCCI (Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry), and a Memorandum of Understanding between the CII (India’s premier pro-imperialist business lobby) and the FNCII "to strengthen ties and promote cooperation between the two organisations."

India already has a stranglehold over vital sectors of Nepal’s economy. The present steps will further tighten the hold. The grounds for this had already been laid by the 1996 Treaty on Trade, and Nepal’s decision to increase the limit on fast track clearance for Indian investment in Nepal 5-fold, from a mere Rs. 25 crore to Rs. 150 crores. This has already resulted in a flood of ‘Indian’ goods into Nepal and a spurt in Indian investments. Koirala’s present trip will result in a total suffocation of Nepal’s economic growth, with the Indian comprador bourgeoisie/TNCs extracting the major benefits of the development planned.

While the Indian rulers pushed through its full plans for the economic, political and security control over Nepal, during Koirala’s visit; not one of the issues seriously disturbing the Nepalese people were discussed.

Since many years Nepal has been raising the following contentious issues with India : review of the 1950 Treaty; India’s illegal occupation of Nepal by the Laxmanpur Barrage; Indian occupation of Kalapani; India’s unwillingness to get involved in the Bhutanese refugee problem, despite the fact that over 80,000 of them crossed over to Eastern Nepal through Indian territory; an assurance for an alternative transit point for Nepal through Bangladesh and to provide Nepal navigational access to the sea.... Though Nepal has sought to raise these issues time and again, even on this visit they were brushed aside.

On the contrary, a section of the Indian media, representing the view-point of the rulers resorted to open threats and dadagiri. Numerous articles appeared with aggressive warnings to Nepal to behave themselves; an example of which is C.Raja Mohan’s article (Hindu, July 30th) which said : "the rise of prickly nationalism in Nepal and the tendency to politicise even normal state-to-state relations have begun to extract a heavy toll on bilateral relations.... There is enormous goodwill for Nepal within the Indian political class, and Kathmandu will be unwise to squander it and push New Delhi beyond reasonable limits."

What is this, if not blatant dadagiri, of a big country bullying a small neighbour. The Indian people strongly condemn this attitude of the Indian ruling classes against its neighbours in general, and against Nepal in particular. It demands the scrapping of all unequal treaties and agreements with Nepal and establishment of the full sovereignty of Nepal to its people. It vows to fight jointly with the people of Nepal against Indian expansionism, and it supports the just struggle of the Nepalese people, led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), for an independent, free and new democratic Nepal, against the Nepali rulers, who are nothing but stooges of imperialism and the Indian expansionists.

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