“Balendra Shah may not be the conventional Nepali politician and India should not expect him to come running to Delhi within months of winning the election, nor for that matter should Beijing,” warned Maj.Gen. Binoj Basnyat, a retired Nepal Army officer and commentator on strategic issues.
He was talking to SNG in Kathmandu just ahead of voting day when it was pretty clear which way the electorate was moving. He did accept that “being from the Madhesh province bordering the Indian state of Bihar, he maybe more open about India.”
But it is also a fact that Balendra Shah had a map of Nepal’s new border (claiming Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh) put up on his office when he was mayor of Kathmandu. This was when KP Oli was prime minister. So it will be interesting to see how he approaches the border issue.
The sense is he may not see India with the same or similar degree of insecurity with which the traditional run of Nepali leaders did. He knows that geography ties Nepal to India in ways in which China is not.
Culturally too, the two peoples are joined at the hip but has the time come to jettison the “roti-beti ka rishta” for something more modern and in keeping with Nepali thinking?
“We need to see each other in more mature terms,” argued a former official who did not wish to be named. “Nepalis are not just going to India for education or work, they are spread all over the world, their experience has been different and they may not look to India for inspiration or ideas.”
Gen Basnyat believes the two countries should be more like partners. But it has to be a special relationship because of civilisational ties and geography.
“Country to country ties that are guided by certain agreed upon principles,” he argued adding that “there could be a national consensus on the key issues before the country, this is something the political parties could work out sitting together.”
In his view, Nepal also needs to cultivate “strategic space” in Delhi by reaching out not only to government ministries, but also political parties, thinktanks, social and cultural groups to build awareness about the Himalayan state and its importance for India.
Gen Basnyat called for restarting recruitment of Nepali Gurkhas into the Indian Army. The government of KP Sharma Oli had stopped this in August 2022 after India introduced the Agnipath scheme that limited the tenure of soldiers to four years with no pension benefits.
“While India is waiting for the go-ahead from Nepal, perhaps we could do something by organising the recruitment rallies in border districts like Gorakhpur,” Basnyat argued, pointing out that “A bilateral group can be set up for this purpose. We must ensure that traditions are preserved.”
Some of these ideas may have already been conveyed to Balendra Shah by the Nepal Army top brass. While the new leader’s priorities will be domestic, the recruitment of Nepali Gurkhas is an issue that has wide acceptance in Nepal notwithstanding some voices to the contrary.
India will be closely watching the new leader settle in. Delhi has largely supported the rise of the younger generation of leaders in Nepal, hopeful it could shut the door on a certain kind of politics the Kathmandu elite targeted this country with in the past.
