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Dhan Bahadur Roka, 69, has been suffering from a nerve impairment for the past 10 years. His limbs don’t function well if he doesn’t take medicine every day. He needs help moving around. His wife Lilamati Roka, 64, suffers from hypertension and gastritis. But these physical ailments of this couple from Malika rural municipality in the western hill district of Myagdi pale in comparison to another pain they have had to endure for the past 12 years.

Of their four sons, three have died abroad— two in Malaysia and one in Qatar. On March 24, the youngest, Dharma Lal, was found dead in his room in Malaysia, where he worked as a security guard. The second son, Bhakta Bahadur, had died 12 years ago in Qatar. Two years after that, the eldest son, Sama Bahadur, died in Malaysia. None of them had any serious illness.

Dhan Bahadur couldn’t control his emotions when he saw his youngest son’s body in a coffin last week. Lalamati is barely conscious with grief.

Their third son, Tham Bahadur, had come home from Malaysia on March 22, just two days before Dharma Lal breathed his last. He and Dharma Lal had gone to Malaysia within a span of seven months.

“My elder brother Bhakta Bahadur died 21 months after he went to Qatar. He had recently been married and his wife was pregnant. He couldn’t see his child. Then my eldest brother went to Malaysia. He died there,” says Tham Bahadur. “For a few years, my youngest brother, Dharma Lal, and I tried to work here in Nepal. But we eventually chose foreign employment because of the lack of decent job prospects here.”

Although Tham Bahadur and Dharma Lal worked for different companies, they saw each other every month. “Dharma Lal asked me to go home first and said he would come for Dashain. He was planning on getting married then,” laments Tham Bahadur. “I’m worried. How will I manage family expenses all by myself now?”

Dhan Bahadur and Lilamati require medication worth Rs 5,000 every month. Of their two married daughters, the younger one, Shashikala, helps with the expenses. But Tham Bahadur has the added responsibil­ity of taking care of his elder brothers’ three young children. “Sometimes I wonder why I’m alive,” he rues.

“Dharma Lal told me that he’d bring gold necklaces for his two sisters when he would come for Dashain. But he’s come home in a coffin,” says Shashikala, weeping disconsolately.

The loss of yet another son has plunged the Roka family into dire financial straits. Sri Prasad Roka, head of the Malika rural munici­pality, pledged financial help, both for the last rites and for the children’s education. Various organizations and individuals handed over Rs 30,000 to the Roka family last week to help with Dharma Lal’s last rites expenses.  

By Gopal Chhantyal | Beni

By limiting his India trip to three days, Prime Minister KP Oli has broken with the tradition of new Nepali prime ministers coming here at least for a week. Oli has tried to make the visit businesslike by wrapping up official duties in a single day. Previous visits of Nepali prime ministers generally included such ancillary tasks as observation of development projects in other parts of India, visits to religious sites, acceptance of an honorary degree from a university, etc. In fact, even Oli’s last trip to New Delhi as prime minister—from February 19-24, 2018—was twice as long as his current visit. In New Delhi, Oli and Modi will remotely inaugurate the integrated check point at Birgunj as well as lay the foundation of the Arun III hydroelectric project. There had been considerable diplomatic effort to credit the inaugurations of these projects to Sher Bahadur Deuba while he was heading the previous Nepali Congress-Maoist Center gov­ernment. Former Nepali ambassa­dor to India, Deep Kumar Upadhyay, had even tried to persuade Modi to go to Nepal, but New Delhi con­sidered such a visit inappropriate at a time when Nepal was caught up in election fever. As a result, Oli will get the credit for inaugurating these projects. Some view this as an expression of Delhi’s commitment to carry out major projects even when there is a communist govern­ment in Nepal.

Besides these, Oli and his Indian counterpart will discuss many old bilateral issues. Still, says a high-lev­el officer at the Nepali Embassy, the visit will focus exclusively on economic and development issues. Agreements are likely on, among other things, agriculture modern­ization, water transport, integrated check posts and new air routes. According to the acting ambassa­dor to India, Bharat Kumar Regmi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made preparations to make the visit ‘substantial’. He says discussions between the two prime ministers will center on issues of mutual inter­est, including implementation of past agreements.

Only a formality?

But according to Nihar R. Nayak, a research fellow at the Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, over the past few decades, there has hardly been any difference between the numerous high-level visits of Nepali prime min­isters to India. “It’s the second visit of a Nepali prime minister in just seven months. Sher Bahadur Deu­ba had come here in August. Such frequent visits suggest they are no more than a formality,” says Nayak.

But, he adds, New Delhi’s ‘course correction’ is an encouraging sign. “It was during Oli’s previous term as prime minister that ties between India and Nepal had soured. This visit will re-orient bilateral relations in a positive direction.”

Oli will need economic aid from both India and China in order to implement federalism. His relations with China are already cordial. Now he is in search of better rela­tions with India. At the same time, China also wants to push trilateral relationship with India and Nepal. But it cannot make those lucrative inroads into the big Indian markets if Nepal-India ties remain patchy. China, in other words, needs Nepal’s help for the success of its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Nayak speculates that Oli could have made India his first foreign destination after taking China into confidence. “It’s possi­ble that Oli will raise the issue of trilateral cooperation.”

You first

Modi had invited Oli even before Oli became the prime minister. “You first,” Oli had responded. Indeed there had been diplomatic efforts to get Modi to visit Nepal first. But with­out a plenipotentiary ambassador in India, this was always going to be a tall order. In contrast, many in New Delhi praise the active and incisive role being played by Manjeev Singh Puri, the Indian ambassador to Nepal. Puri, who enjoys special rap­port with Modi, is generally credited for salvaging New Delhi’s relations with Oli. But many here also view the left unity and Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi’s abrupt visit to Nepal as evidence of Puri’s shortcomings.

Modi last visited Nepal in 2014. There has not been a high-level visit from India to Nepal after the then Indian president Pranab Mukher­jee’s November 2016 trip. The Nepali side, as such, was eager to get Modi to Nepal first, but to no avail.

On the other hand, Modi has been successful in getting Oli to visit India before Chinese President Xi Jinping visits Nepal, and before the Nepali prime minister has had a chance to go to China. Modi rolling out the red carpet for Oli and Oli making India his maiden foreign trip show that the two prime ministers see each other as indispensable.

New dimensions

Ashok Mehta, a retired major gen­eral in the Indian Army and an old Nepal hand, reckons India will find it easy to work with the current Nepali government that is guaran­teed to survive at least the next two years. Mehta, who is wary of the practical aspects of the left unity in Nepal, also thinks Oli’s pro-China tilt will make him view Nepal-India ties differently. “Oli, nonetheless, understands Nepal’s geopolitical situation and the indispensabili­ty of India. So he’s continuing the tradition of Nepali prime ministers making India their first foreign trip”.

During every India visit of a Nepali prime minister, there is talk of strengthen­ing the historical, economic and socio-cultural ties between the two neighbors. Over the past four years, the visits of previous Prime Ministers Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and Sher Bahadur Deuba as well as that of President Bidya Devi Bhandari all revolved around the cli­chéd ‘new dimension in Nepal-India relations’.

But the Indian intelli­gentsia and media persons have consistently pointed out the necessity of acknowledging the practical challenges inherent in Nepal-India relations. SD Muni, a professor emeritus of international relations at Jawaharlal Nehru Uni­versity, New Delhi, has repeatedly stressed the importance of timely implementation of Indian projects in Nepal.

In a recent talk-show, Muni said that although India cannot compete against China in financial terms, it should still adopt a policy of com­pleting and handing over such proj­ects on time. In the same show, Suhasini Haidar, an Indian journalist and foreign policy analyst, argued that relations between India and Nepal soured after India tried to flex its muscles.

By organizing this visit, the Indian side wants to convey that India’s relationship with PM Oli is normal. But others argue that India is once again continuing with its flawed pol­icy of providing patronage to indi­vidual leaders rather than improv­ing institutional ties.

Mutually beneficial

Whatever the case, strained ties with neighbors could pose problems for the ruling BJP in the general elections next year. As the main opposition, the Indian National Con­gress, has ramped up its criticism of Modi’s mishandling of South Asia policy, the BJP appears intent on improving neighborhood ties. For one, it does not want to be seen as ‘losing Nepal to China’.

Oli for his part seems to understand that Nepal has no option but to maintain good relations with India, so he too has embraced India’s forget-past-bitterness-and-move-ahead strategy.

In the lead up to the visit, the common feeling here in New Delhi was that ‘pro-China’ Oli may be hard to turn around, but he has certainly made the right start by making India his first foreign stop.

 BY ASHA THAPALIYA | New Delhi

What difference a couple of years make in diplomacy! Two years ago, India had imposed a crippling economic block­ade on Nepal to express its dissatisfac­tion with our new constitution. The understanding in New Delhi was that while its concerns were neglect­ed in the new charter, the statute had the blessings of Beijing. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his henchmen seemed determined to teach a harsh lesson in geopolitics to the ‘China-hugging commies’ of Nepal, with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli at their vanguard.

Two years later, the same Modi is rolling out the red carpet for Oli as he prepares to welcome perhaps the strongest prime minister in Nepal’s democratic histo­ry. Having badly bungled its relations with Nepal—sup­posedly one of its closest friends in terms of cultural similarities and people-to-people ties—and pushing the Himalayan country into ‘China’s open arms’, New Delhi, we now hear, is in a mood for a ‘course correc­tion’. Hence the lavish reception for Oli and India’s new-found interest in reviewing bilateral relations, including a rewriting of the infamous 1950 treaty.

Oli, with his new-found strength, could argu­ably have broken the outdated tradition of a Nepali prime minister always making New Delhi his first foreign stop, as if on a solemn pilgrimage to please the holy deities due south. But Oli perhaps thought it unwise to rock the geopolitical boat this early in his tenure. He did however commit not to sign any agree­ment in India that “goes against national interest and disgraces our country”. We hope the prime minister honors his words.

Reportedly, he will leave for China not long after returning to Nepal on April 8. He is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping at the sidelines of the Boao Forum in Hainan. After inking multiple pacts with India, PM Oli, in his subsequent visit to China, is expected to sign another slew of agreements to operationalize the land­mark trade and transit agreement of 2016. He has to be extremely careful though. His ability (or lack there­of) to balance India and China will define not just his government leadership-Round Two but also his larger political legacy—long after he is gone from the scene.

At this early stage, he deserves our benefit of the doubt, as we have argued before. It would be wise to wait for a while before we judge his tenure, including his foreign policy. A single India or China trip does not a long-term strategic vision make.

POEMS

The Sun and Her Flowers

Rupi Kaur

Published: October 3, 2017

Pages : 256 (paperback)

 Rupi Kaur has achieved a rare feat for a mod­ern poet: mainstream popularity. Part of a new generation of instapoets—young poets publishing verse primarily on social media—Kaur, 25, pairs her dreamy, aphoristic poems with doodles reminiscent of those found in the margins of old school books. Now comes her long-awaited second collection of poetry: a vibrant and transcendent journey about growth and healing. Ancestry and honor­ing one’s roots. Expatriation and rising up to find a home within yourself.

Divided into five chapters and illustrated by Kaur, the sun and her flowers is a journey of wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. A celebration of love in all its forms.

this is the recipe of life
said my mother
as she held me in her arms as i wept
think of those flowers you plant
in the garden each year
they will teach you
that people too
must wilt
fall
root
rise
in order to bloom
***
what is stronger
than the human heart
which shatters over and over
and still lives
***
you left
and i wanted you still
yet i deserved someone
who was willing to stay

 Adapted from reviews in The Guardian and Amazon

BHAKTAPUR: The photos of Kathmandu valley and its sur­roundings taken during 1950s by renowned Swiss geologist Dr Toni Hagen is being exhib­ited in Bhaktapur. His daugh­ter, Katryn Hagen, inaugurated the exhibition in Ganchhe of Bhaktapur Municipality.

Conservationist Rabindra Puri informed that the 50 photographs taken by Toni Hagen would be exhibited till April 1, adding that the exhibit was being organized to encourage people to conserve heritage. RSS

Momo Karma claims to be the “Taste of Darjeeling in Nepal,” serving the most famous—momos, alu dum, chop and other delectable delicacies from the Hills of Love. Housed in the Onward Nepal Building, Nag Pokhari Marg, this eatery promises a ‘farm-to-table’ food, with its use of only locally sourced organic products.

Besides the tasty food and a selection of coffee and other refreshing drinks, Momo Karma also hosts small events, mainly art exhibitions and concerts, inside its cozy premises.  

 THE MENU

Chef’s Special:

Darjeeling Style Chinese Pork Sausages, Pork Momos, Aloo Dum

Opening hours

9 am (Coffee), 11 am (lunch)

Closing Time: 9 pm

For reservations

986-9222988

Cards

Not Accepted  

Laxmi Intercontinental, the authorized dis­tributor for Hyundai automobiles in Nepal, has launched the ‘Hyundai New Year Delight’ scheme for the upcoming Nepali New Year 2075.

Under this scheme, customers can get New Year benefits worth up to Rs 713,000. The scheme also offers exchange facilities with the best valuation and an attractive easy finance facility. All Hyundai automobiles come with four years free service and three years warranty.  

NIC Asia Bank has introduced ‘Agreem Bhuktani Muddati Khata,’ a New Year scheme under which the bank will issue interest to its fixed depositors for their deposits in advance.

Fixed depositors at the bank for different periods—three months, six months, nine months and one year—will get the interest on their fixed deposits on the very day the customer opens the account. Cus­tomers will get interest in advance amounting to 11 percent annual rate of deposits. The fixed depos­itors can also withdraw up to 80 percent of their deposit as ‘loan’ under the scheme.