“Welcome to India and climb Mt Everest!” Some day, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would like to see India’s tourism industry issuing such advertisements. No one can object to a politician’s desire to make a name as a  ‘great’ prime minister. But to fulfil his ambition, Modi, the enchanter of Nepalis a year ago, has now become their persecutor.

Megalomania

Jawaharlal Nehru, as the first prime minister of independent India, guided the nation in adopting a secular constitution. His deputy Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel integrated all the princely states into the Indian Union, and apparently wanted to include Nepal as well. However, Nehru did not like Nepal’s first democratically elected prime minister BP Koirala. His elder brother Matrika has written that Nehru had encouraged king Mahendra to remove BP, but not dissolve Parliament. Mahendra did both. Nehru’s dislike for BP meant Nepal’s democracy faced an early death. Nehru got his just deserts from Chinese leader Mao when China defeated India in 1962. In her book, Profiles of Indian Prime Ministers, its author Manisha has written that the Indian defeat had crippled Nehru.

For Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi, the first step towards ‘greatness’ occurred when she played an important role in helping Bangladesh split from Pakistan. Manisha writes, “Indira Gandhi became taller in her stature after the 14-day Indo-Pakistan war in December 1971…Atal Behari Vajpayee called Indira Gandhi ‘Goddess Durga’.” However, the ‘goddess’ soon started working on her other ambition—annexing Sikkim.

Having been a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) from his early youth, Modi has also been condemned for not speaking out against the hardline Hindu group.  Modi, as the chief minister of Gujarat, was also greatly criticised for his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots where over 2,000 muslims were killed. His late reaction to the recent lynching of an Indian muslim accused of cow slaughter was also condemned internationally. Disappointed at the growing intolerance in Indian society, prominent Indian figures have also returned their awards to the government in protest.

Annexation of Sikkim

The Indian Research and Analysis Wing (Raw) had told Indira Gandhi in the early 1970s that India could take over Sikkim within 24 hours. Although Raw had started its work long ago, the process began in earnest in 1973. In the book Ambassador’s Club, BS Das has given a chilling account of Sikkim’s annexation. Ambassador Das went to Sikkim with Gandhi’s clear order to take over the government. Among the Nepalis who make up 75 percent of its population, not all favoured annexation with India; but Kazi Lhendup Dorji and his allies did. The Indian army had already taken over Sikkim’s police stations and confined the police to barracks. Das writes, “The famous agreement of 8 May 1973 between him [Chogyal] and Kazi Lhendup Dorji, with India as a guarantor, for maintaining his dynasty and providing justice to all ethnic elements, sealed the Chogyal’s fate.” India first became a guarantor and then a “legal” usurper because it did not protect the Chogyal’s dynasty.

Ambassador Das reminded the Chogyal that Sikkim was never independent. Rather, the Chogyal “was a member of the Chamber of Princes of India and an honorary major general of the India Army, …a part of the overall Indian political system.” Also, he had made the terrible mistake of going to the coronation of Nepal’s king and contacting the Chinese!

To save his kingdom’s independence and win the impending election, the Chogyal toured his country. People insulted him and tied shoes to his portraits. The Chogyal’s Nationalist Party consisting won one seat out of 32. Ambassador Das, who now acted as the governor, read out the Chogyal’s inaugural address. The Sikkim Congress demanded the removal of the Chogyal and the country’s merger with India. A referendum supported both. Thus, India could claim ‘legally’ that the people of Sikkim had voted for the merger.

Parallels and lessons

Raw has always been active in Nepal as it was in Sikkim. As Kazi Lhendup Dorji favoured annexation with India, our Madhesi leaders have been demanding ‘One Madhes, one Pradesh’, which, if granted, will make incidents like the present blockade and a merger of the Tarai with our southern neighbour easy. The main Madhesi leader doing so could become the governor of the resulting new Indian state for a term, and then be thrown into the dustbin. A former Indian ambassador to Nepal, Rakesh Sood, has written that he was at a meeting where our political leaders had promised an autonomous state to the Madhesis.

All Indian ambassadors have gone beyond their mandate at the invitation of our short-sighted leaders, who begged them for favours including scholarships for their children. Sushil Koirala, breaking his promise to the CPN-UML, became a prime ministerial candidate for the second time reportedly because India asked him to do so; and the agitating Madhesi leaders abandoned free meals at their Raxaul hotels to cast their votes for him.

If Nepal or the Tarai were to become another Sikkim, kings from Tribhuvan onwards and ‘democratic’ leaders will have to take the blame. Even as benevolent dictators like Jordan’s Hussein, our kings could have taken steps to develop the country’s enormous hydropower potential so that India could not have choked us with the present petrol-diesel embargo. Rather, the kings played one party off against another, and kept Nepal ever dependent on India. Our ‘democrats’ fared no better by starting a futile 10-year war while hiding in India, and ordering the bombing of our hydroelectric plants or siding with crooks like Chari and Ghainte to line their own pockets.

As for the Indian interference, Modi would do well to remember that things have never gone well for India whenever it has interfered in the affairs of other countries.

Khatry holds a PhD from Oxford University, UK and is executive director of the Association for Theological Education in Nepal