ABC

                                                                  Author: Tashi Pemba

IN HIS EDITORIAL S.DASGUPTA IN TIMES OF INDIA DATED 19/04/2008
CASTIGATES THE MANDARINS OF SOUTH BLOCK FOR MISSING THE PROVERBIAL WOODS IN THEIR ANALYSIS OF THE NEPALESE POLITICAL SCENE PRE -THE RECENT ELECTIONS IN NEPAL.

Unfortunately the worthies of both south and north block have
historically  and are even today missing not only the proverbial woods
but  much much more in their analysis of the entire gamut of
consequences that are going to result from the new neo-Nepalese
movement..

The Indian trader is the van guard of our culture and ethos in any
country. .He is the bravest of us  risking his all in distant foreign
cultures and always succeeding against the odds in guarding Indian
values and thoughts in very difficult surroundings often critical and
inimical to his success..

When will we learn that when we turn a blind eye to—- nay even
encourage and allow—- basic anti Indian feelings, thoughts and
behaviour to be articulated in every day life against our Indian
traders, be they ever so lowly and vile in the eyes of the “educated”
Babus of the embassies, we thereby establish the failure of Indian
diplomacy right there and then and lay the foundation stone of all
future Hate India campaigns that are  bound to be  engineered —
because all  people realize all to soon that a government which does
not value and protect its best citizenry is up for sale and open to
insults without repercussions..

The constant giving in by India to outrageous demands often targetted
against India’s basic security interests has encouraged a new sense of
Nepalese chauvinism as evident not only in the Gorkha community of
Nepal but more alarmingly in the Nepalese of Darjeeling and Sikkim
hills .

Thus blatantly Nepal under Maoist control is demanding a revision of
the Indo- Nepal treaty with Nepal insisting that all the benefits of
the open border for Nepal continue while whittling down the protection
given to Non-Nepalese ( read Indians) given by the treaty and south
bloc ( to cover a potentially  explosive situation resulting from the
miss- reading of the Nepalese scene ) is now preparing to placate
Prachanda by again conceding basic Indian interests as protected by
the treaty of 1950.

India basely compromised on basic principals when it gave in to Bhutan
by allowing eviction of Nepalese from Bhutan and as a hidden
consequence it also gave up equal treatment protections for Indian
required from Bhutan by treaty.. Today the government of India turns a
blind eye to blatant discrimination of Indians in Bhutan and lauds
itself for successful diplomacy!!

As a result the Nepalese have learned that Government of India will
sacrifice basic values and policies without any thought just to buy
peace for any petty problem they can engineer as they are aware that
Delhi has no time for peripheral India.

As a direct consequence Nepalese chauvinism is taking directly Anti-
Indian tones in its intellectual  thrust and  on the ground in Nepal
and more importantly at home in Darjeeling ,Jalpaiguri and Sikkim the
consequences are all to evident..

1. In Nepal as soon as Prachanda gets rid of the King his first
political target will be to crush and destroy the very recent Madhese
power base which has developed.(Madhesies are of-course hated and
reviled as Indians)
However without absolute control of this populous and productive
region no Government in Nepal can survive and Prachanda rightly
calculates that India ever willing to buy peace when threatened will
succumb when threatened by Nepalese backing the growing Moaist threat
in India.. India will quickly agree to sacrifice the Madhesi cause for
political and economic freedom in return for a temporary peace but
India will once again gain nothing as Prachanda’s  threat will remain
as blackmail chip against India for ever..
(Note China who would never countenance any such threats will be
encouraging these activities from the sidelines.)

2. In Darjeeling Bimal Gurung has the Bengal Government by the hip and
will soon have his Mini-Nepal as the Bengali Communists are ready to
through in the trowel and will now  allow the new state minus Siliguri
which they are ridiculously protecting from even peaceful Nepalese
processions  by posting armed cadre at the entry points of the city.
Here to the interests of the minority Bengali, Bihari and other plains
people known locally as Madhesies or “Indians” will be sacrificed to
buy peace (and all important Siliguri town) from the proposed
Gorkhaland State  now a foregone conclusion.

3. In Sikkim the proof of all the above is already evident in black
and white as

A. the government flouting all constitutional norms, requirement and
safeguards has reserved 95% jobs in even the private sector  for a
specially created category under which the beneficiaries are  the 75 %
Nepalese Majority of the state . The deprived people are again the
Madhesies.

B. Similarly the Government has also built up a plethora of Municipal
rules specifically to prevent the Madhesi community from getting even
petty trade licenses in this state. Thus even surpassing Kashmir this
state is barred for Indians (Madhesies) unless they are rich Indians
and have million of dollars to invest in lotteries and hydel projects
which fund the political parties who work against India’s interests.

C. Recently under the continuous secret haranguing of the state
government the central finance bill is set to make into law provisions
that will deny
a.      Any Sikkimese women married to an “Indian” not only the political
rights of her offspring but also her constitutional rights of
inheritance  and all this to prevent any “Indian” from gaining
political rights in the projected racially pure Nepalese state.
b.      Stopping benefits under the Income tax act to Madhesies of a
hundred years history while allowing the same benefits to similarly
placed Tibetans of 50 years and less ancestry and Nepalese with only
20 years ancestry.

D. I n the recent delimitation exercise in Sikkim Bureaucrats from
Delhi worked at the behest of local political masters to break up
three important constituencies Gangtok, Singtam  and  Jorethang all
having  substantial Madhesi (Indian) voting blocs. Each constituency
was divided into two constituencies so that Madhesi political power
could be whittled down to become ineffective. Ironically the Madhesies
who are considered forward were in each case put into reserved
scheduled caste / tribe constituencies.

It is quite evident that the bureaucrats in Delhi and their political
masters are either not doing their job or are  incapable of doing
their job and are selling the interests of India and creating states
which will ultimately prove anti-national with tendencies to blackmail
the centre into further concessions ad infinitum and this is the
charitable viewpoint.

The other viewpoint of the Indian Bureaucrat ready to pass any law or
scheme in return for his cut is widely prevalent in the North Eastern
states. Thus no N.E. state bothers with Accountant Generals or
accounts which are in general  woefully missing. Each State is aware
that each secretary is for sale as he always wants his favourite
businessman to be sanctioned each big scheme that he releases for the
state and the planning commission will take its cut for the plan funds
and the well paid officers of the central government are only to happy
to cover up accounting deficiencies by blaming it on the backward
tribal who cannot keep accounts or as necessary payment for preventing
potential insurgency.

In Sikkim China is known as “Mama” and the Nepalese traditionally turn
for help to their mother’s brother when they find going becomes tough
in their fathers house.