Tectonic Shift

In the face of a trust deficit with India, China is the only alternative for Nepal.

- Rekha Dixit

The road outside Thamel, Kathmandu’s happening tourist district, is so dusty that it could be mistaken for a dirt track in a village, were it not for the ceaseless traffic. It was dug up for a drinking water pipeline a few months ago, the patch-up job was slapdash. Locals say no amount of complaining to the authorities will make a difference. They need Modiji to visit the city. “Overnight, the area will become first class,” they say.

There is buzz in Kathmandu that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is planning another visit. This has the city agog, but not all in the same way. While some are excited, others are suspicious about the frequency of his visits (four so far). In this Himalayan capital, Modi is both knight-in-shining-armour and villain of the piece. He is the hero who brought in reciprocity in bilateral relations, being the first Indian prime minister in 17 years to visit Kathmandu. But he is also that fairytale ogre who snuffed out kitchen fires during the bleak winter of 2015, leaving children to starve in the cold.

Madhav Nepal, former prime minister and senior member of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), blames Modi for having first got the pulse of Nepalis, and then, hurting their sentiments. “To deal with Nepal, you have to understand the Nepali mindset, and Modiji did that initially, when he visited in 2015 and said exactly what Nepalis wanted to hear. That we are a sovereign state,” he says. “Then, India did just the opposite when the issue of the constitution came up, and even blockaded supplies. There is bound to be trust deficit.”

There is a funny paradox we see in Nepal. It aspires to style itself on the Indian template—from buying a Bollywood-style