Nepal Must Introspect on Ties With India

After the fall of the Panchayat regime in the 1990s, Nepal's political landscape was dominated by competing aspirations of parties that had mobilized for decades to end the autocracy.

- ANURAG ACHARYA

After the fall of the Panchayat regime in the 1990s, Nepal's political landscape was dominated by competing aspirations of parties that had mobilized for decades to end the autocracy. However, the legacy of charismatic leader BP Koirala—who had been incarcerated by the Panchayat regime—established the Nepali Congress (NC) as the largest party in the first general elections.

Despite their popularity, the communist parties were divided and had to contend with the opposition role for much of the next decade. The relationship between leaders of the NC and the Indian National Congress, forged during the exiled life of NC leaders in cities of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, became instrumental in Nepal securing international support for economic reforms.

The communist parties were ideologically opposed to the idea of economic liberalization and the market reform that the NC had initiated. However, in the post-Soviet era, where even communist China had embraced capitalism, mere opposition to the government's economic policies would not have proved tenable for long. With the feudal monarchy contained by the new constitution, the next revolution needed a new enemy. A nuclear neighbor, surrounding the country on three sides, flexing its foreign policy muscles in the region, was a more appealing foe. Add to it India's growing soft power influence through aid, trade and cultural export, and it perfectly sums the genesis of what has come to be known as 'anti-India' sentiments in Nepal.

As India became more ambitious globally over the past four decades, it consolidated its influence in South Asia. The rise of China and deteriorating relations with Pakistan pushed New Delhi to adopt a more hawkish posturing in its immediate neighborhood. In Nepal, this has provided a nationalist juice that has sustained mobilization by different communist factions.