Nepal Must Stop Preaching to India

India and Pakistan's cross-border military operations have ceased for the moment, but the conflict continues to crystallize the nature of Nepal-India relations.

- AJAYA BHADRA KHANAL

Over the last two weeks, India's official position and voices inside Nepal have diverged, creating inherent differences. Three features are remarkable. First, despite denouncing terrorism, Nepal has appeared willing to preach to India about peace, de-escalation, and dialogue. Second, as the chair of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Nepal has adopted an unrealistic and idealistic view about regional cooperation that jars with the current reality. The third is that Nepal, as a whole, has failed to empathize with India's positions.

In the immediate aftermath of the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, which killed 26 people including a Nepali from Butwal, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli held a telephonic conversation with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Posting to X after his conversation, PM Oli wrote that he spoke with PM Modi and conveyed his "deepest condolences on the loss of lives in the Pahalgam terrorist attack" and "reiterated Nepal's firm solidarity with India against such heinous acts."

In the aftermath of the incident, Nepal reiterated its commitment to India that it wouldn't allow its territory to be used against neighbors and has also stepped up security measures along the southern border. But so far, no one has visited the family of the victim in Butwal killed by the terrorists, indicating a lack of understanding about India's feelings.

It appears as if Nepal has failed to understand the gravity with which India approached the terrorist attack or to empathize more deeply.

On May 8, Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a second statement expressing concerns about the "escalating tensions between India and Pakistan." Then, during an event organized to mark Buddha Purnima, PM Oli recalled how Nepal wished for de-escalation and also talked with India and Pakistan. "As if on cue, they expressed commitment not to go to war," Oli said.