China’s Game to drive Wedge Between India and Nepal Must be Defeated

 Pandit Arjun Prasad Bastola, a Sanskrit and Vedic scholar, who is also on the Board of Pashupatinath temple is a well-wisher of India. He once told me that relationship between India and Nepal is like warp and woof from time immemorial and that cannot be separated. Two of the most sacred shrines, Pashupatinath and Vaikunthdham are situated in Nepal, and every Hindu nurse desire to visit those places. Nepal has its presence in almost all important religious places of India. Nepali temple of Varanasi is one of the important religious/tourist places in North India. Millions of Nepalese live in India and lakhs of Indians live in Nepal. They have far and wide business interests. Thousands of Indians and Nepalese have their relatives on both sides of the border. There is no language problem of communication between the two countries. So much so, Hindi and Nepali both are written in the same Devnagari script. Buddhism has more deep and pervasive effect in Nepal than that of India, the place of its birth. Shri Bastola's observations are like eye-openers. During his Delhi-visits he prefers to stay in Jain Dharamshala of Gole Market but then that has nothing to do with what I wish to say here.

   For the last few days, there has been a war of words from the side of Nepal regarding a road that is being built by India for strengthening the defence supply as well as to facilitating smooth passage for pilgrims to Kailash Man Sarovar Yatra in Tibet.  Nepal is doing it at the behest of China, which has become a hegemonistic superpower because of cheating, browbeating, bullying and authoritarian policies. She has never fought any war against any country except, of course, minor skirmishes here and there. She promised the end of all labour laws, twenty-four uninterrupted water and electric supply and good roads to accord red carpet welcome to multinational companies. Later she stole their technologies to gain upper hand over the countries from where these companies came to set up their manufacturing units. This is all clear from the very revealing book ‘The Hundred -Year Marathon’ of Michael Pillsbury. China has never been straight in its diplomacy. Of late, she has been perturbed over the emergence of India as a global power and its proximity with many countries particularly the USA. That is why she wants to needle India through her neighbours like Sri Lanka and Nepal.

   For the last nearly three decades China has been able to hypnotize Nepal through the Communist Party of Nepal, which is out to destroy everything for which Nepal can rightfully boast of. China has set up moles in the Nepalese administration, politics, and business by heavily bribing some people. Bribery is the name of the game in which China has got no parallel in the world. One of the Indian journalists has filed a case in the court with abundant proofs that Chinese companies, like Alibaba, have been paying bribes to Indian politicians, bureaucrats, media persons and even businesspersons to take roots in India. Pakistan has always been against India and it gets emboldened due to brazen support of  China.

    India will do well to align with all countries of the world to expose the chicanery and dangerous policies of China as it is now  well known that she was trying to exterminate the world through biological weapons like Coronavirus. Luckily the world has seen through its game of deceiving the world through its puppet Director-General of WHO. India must scale up its diplomatic efforts to soothe the feelings of Nepal, which has been ruffled because of the mischievous needling of the Dragon.

   My heart is filled with praise for the Senior Advocate Swaraj Kaushal for his 11 beautiful tweets  addressed to famous Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala. He has recounted the history of his relationship with her grandfather and has addressed her as the daughter. Shri Kaushal besides being an accomplished Advocate is also a senior politician. He is one of the few Advocates, who I used at least twice a week before the lockdown in the Supreme Court. Designated as a Senior Advocate by the Supreme Court at the age of 34, he hardly wears the senior's gown and the coat to show off his importance. He is perhaps the one and the only Advocate who happened to be the Advocate General of Mizoram before becoming the Governor of the same state. His wife late Ms Sushma Swaraj was one of the finest politicians of India. Therefore, the Government of India will do well to take the help of Shri Swaraj Kaushal and Pandit Arjun Prasad Bastola to ensure that the Chinese game plan to drive a wedge between India and Nepal is squarely defeated.