China’s ensnarement of Nepal

Another day, another inconsequential remark, and the Nepali foreign Ministry goes into a damage control mode. This has become a new normal. Yet again, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s remarks, “the place called Thori near Birgunj is the real Ayodhya, where Lord Ram was born. In India there is great dispute on Ayodhya. But there is no dispute in our Ayodhya” has sparked fresh controversy. Oli’s unrelenting anti-India tirade has sent the region into a tizzy.  His off the cuff remarks are creating fresh fissures in the tenuous Indo-Nepal bilateral ties.

Amid intraparty quibbling, protests over gross mishandling of the pandemic, mounting corruption charges, reluctant to renounce his high chair, Oli sensed an opportunity in India’s 80 km road to Lipulekh road to revive his political career. Losing no time, Oli raked up disagreements over the Kalapani region. Convening a joint parliamentary session, Oli rolled out a legislation to include three Indian territories Kalapani, Lipulekh and Limpiyadhura in the improvised political map of Nepal.  Stoking nationalist sentiments, Oli tried to avert the domestic attention from his incompetence when India is locked in a major stand-off with China across LAC. Timing in geopolitics is really crucial. With PLA troops at the border, battling a surging pandemic, India assured Nepal of foreign ministers talks to resolve the outstanding border issues. But Oli refused to relent. Soon the improvised Nepal political map with Indian territories after President’ authentication was incorporated with the Coat of arms. Oli’s extraordinary urgency to unilaterally change the territorial boundaries has only fuelled mistrust but failed to alleviate domestic political dissent.

Barring the only discordant note of Nepal acting at the “behest of someone” by Indian Army Chief, who is conferred the title of ‘honorary general of Nepal Army’ which ruffled some feathers, reminding Nepal of ‘roti-beti ka rishta’ and the “untenable” territorial assertions, India maintained strategic silence. Despite Oli’s barrage of invectives holding India responsible for the pandemic, mockery of India’s National Emblem, ‘Satyameva Jayate’ and accusations of Indian Embassy plotting to topple him, India refrained from responding.

Amid Oli’s ultranationalist posturing and strident anti-India attacks, opposition leaders pulled him up for China’s surreptitious encroachment of country’s northern territories. Maintaining deafening silence, Oli demurred. Ensconced by China’s omniscient puppeteering, Oli continued to fan nationalistic sentiments by spewing out venom against India. While China continued to actively reshape the domestic political dynamic of Nepal, strategic analysts harangued India’s Neighbourhood First Policy. They sneered at India’s travesty of failing to strengthen robust ties with the Himalayan country.  While there is some amount of merit in their observations, curiously Oli seemed to have ended up in the similar situation as many other leaders of the region.

Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, Former Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen have something in common. These two disgraced leaders with dubious Chinese links are charged with embezzlement of funds and corruption respectively and jailed. Najib who set up 1 Malaysian Development Berhard (1MDB) in 2009 having siphoned state funds in a massive abuse of power, sought China’s help to bail him out from money laundering in return for investment deals. As the President of Maldives from 2013 to 2018, Yameen went out of the way to woo China. Besides joining BRI and signing FTA, he favoured Chinese investments and reportedly leased out islands to China under the ruse of tourism development. Voted out of power, Yameen is currently facing jail term for his scandalous deals. Even the legacy of the authoritarian Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen’s legacy is awash with corruption charges and replete with shady Chinese connections. Sen is known to have awarded numerous projects to China and received massive kickbacks in return. Cambodia, which is at the brink of turning into a neo-Chinese colony is among the list of the eight countries affected by predatory policies and debt trap diplomacy, hall mark of the BRI.

Analysts have been cautioning about Dragon’s modus operandi of penetrating the weak economies headed by corrupt leaders to foster its business interests. The political fall outs and ouster of the corrupt leaders from power in different countries affirm their prescient observations. So far, President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Najib Razak, President Abdulla Yameen have paid a hefty price for favouring Chinese investments. Scepticism towards Chinese investments is a reality and countries are clearly wary of China’s opaque deal making.

Given ideological moorings of Oli, Nepal’s drift towards China has been imminent. Oli hastened the levitation by signing trade and transit treaty with China in 2016.  By ratifying BRI in 2017, Oli legally opened flood gates for Chinese investments into the Himalayan realm. Under the guise of reducing over-dependence on India, Oli indulged in unprecedented patronage of China. Nepal is home to significant number of Tibetan refugees, with Oli rolling out a red carpet to Dragon, twin purposes of bolstering investments under the flagship BRI and coercing voices of the Tibetan voices in Nepal were effectively fulfilled. China accounted for 90% of total FDI to Nepal in the past four consecutive years ¹ which is reflected in Dragon’s proportionate increase in Nepal’s domestic politics as well.  

Classic feature of BRI has been co-opting corrupt leaders of weak economies to surreptitiously penetrate the system. Roland Jacquard, reports in The Global Watch reported China’s machinations on the Himalayan country². This explosive piece, traced Oli’s links with China since his first stint as Prime Minister Oli in 2015-16 when he assisted the then Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Wu Chuntai to invest in telecommunication sector in Nepal.

Brazenly violating the government regulations, Oli awarded contracts to Chinese companies or Nepali businessmen with close links to Prime Minister’s office. In 2018, Huawei bagged the project of setting up, “Digital Action Room” in Prime Minister’s office even when such technologies were indigenously available. In May 2019, Nepal awarded contract for developing radio access network and installing 4G network to China’s ZTE. Similarly, overturning former Prime Minister Sher Prasad Deuba’s decision, Oli granted the contract for $2.42 billion 1200 MW Budhigandhaki Hydropower project to Chinese state-owned company Gezhouba Group. In all these cases, Oli awarded the contracts, without competitive bidding to Nepali businessmen close to Oli who are reliably learnt to have received huge kickbacks from Chinese companies.

Even the threatening Corona pandemic failed to shake Oli’s loyalty towards China. Despite reports of over-priced China’s defective medical supplies, Oli routed all essential medical equipment imports from China’s OMNI group, which has close links to Prime Minister’s secretariat. In 2017 elections, OMNI has supplied defective printing machines to Nepal election commission. Demanding accounts for the Nepali Rs 10 billion spent to fight the COVID-19, Nepali youth are now protesting against Oli and growing Chinese interference in Kathmandu’s domestic affairs.

The Global Watch report has come as a final blow to Oli’s sinking public propriety and reputation. Stating that Oli’s personal finances has increased manifold in the recent years it disclosed details of Oli’s joint account with his wife Radhika Sakhya in Geneva Branch of Mirabaud Bank which is holding $ 5.5 million long term deposits and yielding yearly returns of half a million dollars. Disclosures made by Global watch sounded a death knell for Oli’s plummeting political career. The report busted China’s standard diplomatic bluff of– “non-interference in the domestic affairs of foreign countries” and debunked the touted “win-win” situation of BRI. BRI has been Dragon’s neo-imperialistic strategic tool designed to advance Chinese interests. Clearly, China’s ensnarement of Nepal is complete and irrevocable.

Even as Nepal’s foreign ministry is firefighting Oli’s irresponsible statement with clarification saying, “the remarks made by the Prime Minister are not linked to any political subject and have no intention to hurt the feeling and sentiment of anyone. As there have been several myths and references about Shri Ram and the places associated with him, the Prime Minister was simply highlighting the importance of further studies and research of the vast cultural geography the Ramayana represents to obtain facts about Shri Ram, Ramayana and the various places linked to this rich civilisation. The remarks are not meant to debase the significance of Ayodhya and the cultural value it bears”³. While Oli’s remarks caused wide-spread public consternation in India, New Delhi resisted the temptation of bristling at his repeated anti-India jibes.

Nepal is victim of Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) encroachment and Oli’s anti-India tirades are a manifestation of the Dragon’s ensnarement, hell-bent on damaging the India-Nepal ties beyond repair. India is closely monitoring China’s tightening vise-like grip on Nepal and its nefarious tactics of using Kathmandu as launch pad to attack New Delhi.

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