A few highlights of Nepal visit by Mr. Narendra Damodardas Modi, PM of India
By: Balbir Singh Sooch, International Election Observer*
A last-minute dispute between India and Nepal over the wording of a major hydropower development agreement meant that the two sides signed only minor agreements on Sunday. August 3, 2014. Nepal, like India, is majority Hindu.
A 10-year insurgency ended in 2006, but a resulting Constituent Assembly, Nepal failed after four years (after the first time a general election for the Constituent Assembly, Nepal was held on 10 April 2008) of effort to write a Constitution. By KIRAN CHAPAGAIN and JIM YARDLEY-Published: May 27, 2012.
Paralysis ensued until Nepalese Constituent Assembly November election, 2013 led to the rout of the dominant Maoist parties.
South Asia is one of the world’s poorest and least integrated regions in the world, and India’s longtime preoccupation with domestic matters is partly to blame.
In recent years, China has stepped into the vacuum left by India, leading New Delhi to assume responsibilities in its own neighborhood.
“The warm embrace Modi has received in Nepal raises the question of whether China is really the threat to India’s influence that some feared,” Ms. Kripalani said.
In his speech, Mr. Modi described Nepal as a “federal democratic republic,” dropping the “secular,” long a fraught word in Indian politics as well. But he did not call for explicit Hindu identification and said Nepal was “the birthplace of Lord Buddha.”
Ruled for centuries by monarchs, Nepal has 125 ethnic groups, 127 spoken languages, scores of castes and three distinct ecosystems that have long divided its 27 million people into feuding communities, making political consensus difficult and hurting the country’s economy.
Still, it is being observed rightly or wrongly that from unwarranted meddling from Indian intelligence to this latest highest-level political visit, the two countries´ relations have come a long way.
But, it is also being expected that Mr. Narendra Damodardas Modi, PM of India clear directions to the all-powerful but conservative bureaucracy could change the course of relations between the two countries. There is no doubt that Modi exudes confidence and honesty but the Modi-fication (modification) of Nepal-India relations depends on how the bureaucracy in Delhi follows through on his commitments.
Is the fact that China’s infrastructure development along the Nepalese border is a cause of concern for India?
Could thus, Modi's visit be viewed as an effort by the Indian government to increase its sphere of influence in Nepal to counter China?
These are the few highlights and the questions from here and there of the recent Nepal visit by Mr. Narendra Damodardas Modi, PM of India.
*By: Balbir Singh Sooch,