October 7, 2010
The Maoists continue to do the bidding of Beijing. Yesterday, they stepped up their anti-Indian campaign by attempting to foil Rakesh Sood -- Indian Ambassador to Nepal -- from visiting the Mt. Everest region, where he was scheduled to inaugurate various Indian-assisted projects previously green-lighted under bilateral cooperation.
A group of 30-35 Maoists associated with a regional group called the Sherpa Rastriya Mukti Morcha-Nepal tried to block the road when Sood touched down at the Solukhumbu Airport. They waved black flags at the ambassador, a particularly menacing and insulting warning sometimes used in Nepali demonstrations. The group was led by former Maoist minister for culture Gopal Kirati, who had earlier spearheaded the attack on Indian priests at the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu – a protest that seriously backfired on Maoist Supremo Prachanda, who was prime minister at the time.
There can be little doubt that the protest was mounted on behalf of China. Northern Nepal remains an extremely sensitive spot for Beijing, ever since China annexed Tibet in the 1950s.
The Sherpa Rastriya Mukti Morcha-Nepal Maoists alleged that the Indian government was stepping up “so-called charitable and religious projects” in northern Nepal in a bid to incite another anti-China movement. And in Kathmandu, Maoist leader C.P. Gajurel echoed this sentiment by criticizing India for its alleged continued “interference” in Nepali affairs.
Curiously, the Maoists sensitivity to foreign interference does not seem to apply to Chinese undertakings in Nepal. Chinese “cultural centers” are popping up across the country, most notably in the Terai, along Nepal's southern border with India. India’s RAW has protested their intrusion as thinly veiled Chinese spy-centers, erected along the border for the specific purpose of spying on Indian security forces. But one doesn’t hear any complaints about the mushrooming Chinese centers from the Maoists.
In spite of the Maoists protest at Solukhumbu Airport, hundreds of locals gathered at Salleri, the district headquarters, to welcome the Indian ambassador. Mr. Sood’s itinerary eventually proceed as planned.
He inaugurated the newly built district branch of Nepal-India Human Development and Friendship Association.
He inaugurated an eye camp at Lukla in the district from which some 75,000 people will be benefited. New Delhi provided Rs 6 crore -- 1, 345, 926 American dollars -- for eye health care.
He also inaugurated a drinking water project constructed under Indian assistance in the district.
Nepal is landlocked between China and India; Nepali governments of any political color have little choice but to take into account their two powerful neighbor's primary concerns. In the case of India, New Delhi remains Kathmandu's biggest supplier of essential goods, including gasoline. Although new roads (and perhaps a railroad) in Nepal's northern reaches may one day extend the country's economic linkages to China, for now the majority of all trade flows are to and from India in the south.
For the Maoists to continue to needlessly insult Indian goodwill gestures (as a means of ingratiating themselves with Beijing) is under-considered and gravid with consequences later on.
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