Tibet and big power politics
In May, two federal lawmakers—Pradeep Yadav of the Samajbadi Party (SP) and Iqbal Miya of the Rastriya Janata Party-Nepal (RJP-N)—took part in a program jointly organized by the Latvian Parliamentary Support Group for Tibet and the International Network of Parliamentarians in Latvia’s capital Riga.
The news of their participation drew the attention of the federal parliament and Speaker Krishna Bahadur Mahara as the two had attended the program without the parliament’s consent. Participation in such a program by Nepali legislators was deemed to be against the country’s ‘One-China policy’. Later, both the lawmakers pleaded ignorance about the program’s significance and said they left Riga as soon as they discovered the program’s real nature.
The SP still initiated an internal investigation and suspended Yadav from the party’s primary membership for six months. (He remains suspended.) The SP is a new party formed after the unification between the Federal Socialist Party led by Upendra Yadav and Naya Shakti Nepal Party led by Baburam Bhattarai. The RJPN is mum on Miya’s participation in the program.
This episode demonstrates the seriousness with which Nepali political parties treat Tibet-related issues. Almost all parties profess full commitment to the ‘One-China policy’; they are either in favor of controlling anti-China activities on Nepali soil or they do not speak against it. Irrespective of who leads the home ministry, the security forces are instructed to take strict measures against anti-China activities by Tibetan refugees in Nepal.
In recent times, there has been a sort of consistency in Nepal’s policy on the Tibetan community. In the past two and half decades, no government in Nepal has issued any document that would recognize Tibetans as refugees.
After the formation of the two-third majority government led by KP Sharma Oli, the Ministry of Home Affairs has been stricter still on the activities of Tibetans residing in Nepal. This year, for example, public celebration of the Dalai Lama’s birthday was banned.
Anxious US, besieged China
Officials from the United States and several European Union member states frequently bring up the issue of Tibetan refugees’ human rights with their Nepali counterparts. They voice their concern over the suppression of the rights of Tibetan refugees in Nepal, citing the informal arrangements reached three decades ago between the Nepal government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee on allowing Tibetans to travel to India via Nepali territory. They complain that the agreements are not being honored. The annual human-rights report of the US State Department always discusses at length the situation of Tibetan refugees in Nepal.
“In July the government attempted to limit freedom of expression for the members of Kathmandu’s Tibetan community by initially rejecting requests from the Tibetan Buddhist community to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday publicly. Tibetan Buddhists eventually were allowed to hold an event in the largest settlement in Kathmandu,” the 2018 US State Department’s human-rights report states.
Particularly after 2008, when Nepal’s monarchy was abolished, China started taking the activities of Tibetan refugees here seriously. Given the fragile political situation in Nepal back then, Beijing was worried that anti-China activities could increase. As such, China took up the Tibetan refugee issue with Nepali political parties and started cultivating deeper ties with them.
That was the year in which, during the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics when the world’s attention was trained on China, Tibetans staged several protests in Kathmandu—in front of the Chinese Embassy in Bhatbhateni, in front of the UN headquarters in Pulchowk, and in Boudha where a significant number of Tibetans reside. Hundreds of demonstrators were arrested. The protests were followed by a series of high-level visits by Chinese officials to Nepal. China also beefed up security along its border with Nepal and imposed stronger restrictions on cross-border movements. A WikiLeaks entry from 2010 says, “Beijing has asked Kathmandu to step up patrols… and make it more difficult for Tibetans to enter Nepal.”
Tightening noose
Although the US and some European countries continued to urge the Nepal government to ensure the human rights of the Tibetans living here, their activities have been further constricted in recent years. In the past five years, there haven’t been any public protests against China and security forces have been instructed to curb any activity that might have an anti-China whiff.
Soon after the 2015 earthquake, China closed the Tatopani checkpoint and moved the settlement on the Tibetan side elsewhere. This was done to control the movement of Tibetans to Nepal.
Similarly, China has provided Nepal with a list of Tibetans who it believes are engaged in anti-China activities. In the third week of June, Nepali immigration officials at the TIA deported an American national who had the same name as someone on the list. The American Embassy in Kathmandu took the issue seriously and questioned Nepal on the deportation of its citizen. Whether or how Nepal responded to the inquiry remains unknown.
Given the strict steps taken by the Nepal government, the number of Tibetans entering Nepal has decreased. According to the UNHCR, 53 Tibetans transited the country in 2017, and only 31 from January through September 2018. The government had issued UNHCR-facilitated exit permits for recent arrivals from Tibet who were transiting while traveling to India. The number of such arrivals has gone down of late, as Nepal has adopted a policy of preventing Tibetans from entering the country.
There is no official record of the number of Tibetan refugees in Nepal. Various reports suggest that around 20,000 Tibetans, who came to Nepal after 1959, live here. From 1959 to 1989, Nepal recognized and registered Tibetans crossing the border as refugees. But since the 1990s Nepal has stopped allowing Tibetan refugees to live in Nepal permanently.
Informal obligation
For Tibetans who want to escape China, Nepal is their temporary shelter. From Nepal, they head for Dharamsala in northern India where the Dalai Lama lives with around 80,000 Tibetan refugees. But after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, the Indian government seemed intent on limiting the cross-border activities of Tibetan refugees. In any case, as Nepal is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, officials say it is not obliged to grant refugee rights to Tibetans.
China is of the view that the Tibetans who cross the border illegally are not refugees and request for the immediate return of those apprehended in Nepal. China often accuses western countries of fomenting troubles in Tibet by using Tibetans in Nepal and India. The US provides funds for the NGOs working for the cause of Tibetan communities in Nepal. No high-level US official on a visit to Nepal fails to raise the issue of their human rights. Since 2012, the US has been supporting the Tibetan communities in India and Nepal through USAID.
Most recently, the American Asia Reassurance Initiative Act (ARIA) authorized $210 million a year between 2019 and 2013, to go to the NGOs helping with “preserving cultural tradition and promoting sustainable development, education, and environmental conservation in Tibetan communities in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in other Tibetan Communities in China, India and Nepal.”
The US and some other western countries say that basic rights, such as freedom of speech, assembly, movement and other rights of refugees, should be granted to the Tibetan community in Nepal. While Tibetans living in Nepal enjoy these rights to a certain degree, the Nepal government remains fully committed to a ‘One-China policy’ and to curbing any anti-China activity on Nepali soil.
Maiden meeting at midnight
After directly ruling the country for seven months, King Mahendra formed a government under Congress leader Subarna Shumsher on 15 May 1958. That cabinet consisted of Bhupal Man Singh Karki, a loyalist of Mahendra, as well as members of Gorkha Parishad, National Congress and Praja Parishad. Following the handover of power to Subarna Shumsher, Mahendra embarked on a two-month trip to Europe and Africa.
After coming back, he went on a nation-wide tour to assess the strength of the political parties. Based on all reliable sources, Mahendra came to believe that no political party was in a position to win a majority. Minister Karki even assured him that no party could win more than 40 seats in the 109-seat assembly. When the Congress ended up getting a two-third majority, Mahendra
dismissed him from his post.
King Mahendra believed the palace’s power would wane if a single party won a majority. He had been put under the impression that the Congress could garner anywhere between 30 to 40 seats. Only then had he allowed the election to go ahead. If he had assessed that the Congress could win a majority, he would once again have found some pretext to put off the polls.
The parliamentary election took place on the set date. Its result, however, turned out to be very different than what Mahendra had expected. The Congress won 74 seats in the House of Representatives. Such an impressive victory proved to be a headache for Mahendra and he dilly-dallied to announce a prime minister. BP then met him and said, “What is this, your majesty? It’s been so many days since the election took place. You don’t want me to be the prime minister. I will elect whoever you want as the party leader. If you like Subarna Shumsher, then it’ll be him.” (Bishweshwar Prasad Koiralako atmabritanta).
But Mahendra replied that since he liked “dynamic” people, he wanted to work with BP. Such a response excited the Congress leader. A party meeting was called, which unanimously elected him as its parliamentary leader. As the head of the party winning a majority, BP was constitutionally declared prime minister on 27 May 1959.
The constitution had a provision that the king would call the first meeting of the parliament. It did not specify a date though, only that the king would call it ‘as soon as possible’.
Curiously, Mahendra called the meeting in the middle of the night. The first meeting of the first directly elected parliament since the overthrow of the totalitarian Rana regime should have taken place in an exuberant mood in the middle of the day. But 11 days prior to the meeting, the palace issued a statement: “The first assembly of the House of Representatives has been called at 11:45pm on Tuesday, 30 June 1959, at the Gallery Hall
in Kathmandu.”
It was exactly midnight when the meeting commenced. Some speculated that the king chose a particularly inauspicious day and moment because of his dislike for the parliamentary system. The palace had a tradition of picking auspicious moments for itself and inauspicious ones for others. Others surmised the timing was meant to signal that it was the palace, not the parliament, which called all the shots.
Summoning the meeting at midnight was considered part of the palace’s machinations. At the time, the lawmakers did not really question the timing; they meekly went to the venue and took the oath of office. The first parliamentary meeting ended at 2:10 am.
Next week’s ‘Vault of history’ column will discuss how King Mahendra set the stage for a coup against the elected government
Brothers in arms?
chinese President Xi Jinping’s much-anticipated visit to Nepal hangs in the balance. Yet there is no doubt in the minds of the Americans that China’s footprint in Nepal is increasing dangerously, with or without the visit. Partly to curb China’s growing strategic ambitions, which are reflected in Xi’s mammoth BRI project, the US is also increasing its military cooperation in South Asia, including with Nepal. It is now doing so under the Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS). The US is already Nepal’s second biggest defense partner after India. The Indo-Pacific Strategy Report, unveiled by the US Department of Defense on 1 June 2019, talks about further enhancing defense partnerships in the region. “Within South Asia, we are working to operationalize our Major Defense Partnership with India, while pursuing emerging partnerships with Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and Nepal,” the document says.
In the view of retired Major General of Nepal Army Binoj Basnyat, who is now a political and security analyst, “Nepal-US relationship has been cordial for many decades. It received prominence after the 2019 IPS report, which mentions China as a competitor to the US.” Interestingly, Nepal-US military cooperation began even before the official signing of an agreement on economic cooperation. While the first economic cooperation agreement between the two countries was signed in 1951, it was in 1949 that the US gave military equipment to the Nepal Army for the first time.
In the early 2000s, two major developments—the escalating Maoist conflict and the 9/11 terrorist attacks—prompted the US to increase its military help to Nepal. The US Mission Nepal Security Cooperation Office officially opened in June 2001 and a military attaché was appointed at its Kathmandu mission. Earlier, security cooperation between the US and Nepal was handled by the US Embassy in Delhi.
Coming to the present day, for 2019-2020, the US has increased Nepal’s training and equipment budget by nearly $65 million. It has supported disaster response in various provinces as well. The US has been offering an increasing array of courses, not only to Nepali security personnel but also to its civil servants. In recent years, mainly after the promulgation of the constitution and China’s assertive inroads into Nepal, American military collaboration with the small Himalayan country has grown in spades....
Military ties destined to grow on the face of an assertive China
The US is Nepal’s second biggest defense partner after India. The two of them had a monopoly on Nepal’s defense sector for a long time—until China started collaborating with Nepal from the mid-1980s. Now, China has emerged as a major defense partner of the Nepal Army as well. The three powerhouses are already in a race to deepen their engagement with Nepal’s security forces. In this part of the APEX series on Nepal-US relations, we explore the various dimensions of defense cooperation between the two countries. (Earlier, APEX had done a detailed story on Nepal’s defense ties with China.)
The US, with its Indo-Pacific Strategy (IPS), has already given a clear message that it would increase its military influence in Nepal. The Indo-Pacific Strategy Report, unveiled by the US Department of Defense on 1 June 2019, clearly talks about enhancing defense partnership with South Asian countries, including Nepal. “Within South Asia, we are working to operationalize our Major Defense Partnership with India, while pursuing emerging partnerships with Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and Nepal,” the document says.
“The United States seeks to expand our defense relationship with Nepal, focused on HA/DR [humanitarian assistance/disaster relief], peacekeeping operations, defense professionalization, ground force capacity, and counter-terrorism. Our growing defense partnership can be seen in the establishment of the US Army Pacific-led Land Forces Talks in June 2018, our senior most military dialogue with Nepal,” the document further says.
Foreign policy experts and security analysts expect the defense collaboration between the two countries to increase, and argue that such collaboration should be within the framework of Nepal’s foreign policy. “Nepal-US relationship has been cordial for many decades. It received prominence after the 2019 IPS report, which clearly mentions China as a competitor to the US,” says retired Major General of Nepal Army Binoj Basnyat, who is now a political and security analyst.
Early start
Nepal’s location plays an important role in shaping the dynamics between India and China, he adds, and strategic connectivity through the BRI will alter big powers interests. Basnyat reckons various factors will make the Nepal Army play a bigger role in shaping the strategic dynamic; therefore, the defense relationship between the armies of Nepal and the US will increase, which in turn will have both political and security implications. “Nepal must refrain from being part of any strategic initiative that goes against the spirit of its foreign policy,” says Basnyat.
Interestingly, Nepal-US military and defense cooperation began even before the official signing of an agreement on economic cooperation between them. While the first economic cooperation agreement between the two countries was signed in 1951, it was in 1949 that the US government gave military equipment to the Nepal Army for the first time. There are no official records of US military assistance to Nepal in the 1950s, but it seems to have increased after China occupied Tibet in 1951 and King Mahendra imposed the Panchayat regime in 1960.
In 1959, US Ambassador to Nepal Henry E. Stebbins gave a meaningful message. He announced that Nepal, to paraphrase SD Muni, was in the US defense radar, “as a protection against communist imperialism”. Following the 1962 India-China war, Nepal sought more military assistance from western countries. King Mahendra also wanted to strengthen the capacity of Nepal’s security forces in order to curb the anti-Panchayat movement.
During his visit to the US in 1963, Foreign Minister Tulsi Giri discussed the prospect of military assistance with American officials. The US agreed to give Nepal light weapons, military equipment and medical supplies. Agreement to this end was signed in 1964 and all support was provided in the form of aid.
The following year, the American military experts consisting of nine Signals Corps and eight Vehicles Maintenance Corps arrived in Nepal. In 1965-66, the US provided military assistance worth $1.8 million. In this period, the US also provided some support to the Tibetan rebels based in Khampa. Throughout the Cold War, the US continued its military assistance to Nepal.
Turning point
In the early 2000s, two major developments—the escalating Maoist conflict and the 9/11 terrorist attacks—prompted the US to increase its military assistance to Nepal. The US Mission Nepal Security Cooperation Office officially opened in June 2001 and a military attaché was appointed at its Kathmandu mission. Earlier, security cooperation between the US and Nepal was handled by the US Embassy in Delhi.
From 2001 to 2004, the US supported the then Royal Nepal Army with M16 and M4 rifles, helmets, parachutes and load bearing equipment. It also helped the RNA with the creation of the Mahabir Battalion, which is now a regiment. In this period, the two countries also began Joint Combined Exercise Training (JCETs) with special operations.
Between 2005 and 2014, the US supported the RNA in its transition to the Nepal Army and assisted with the integration of the Maoist combatants. Additionally, the US helped train and equip the Nepali peacekeeping missions abroad. It was also the start of the US support for disaster response, which is considered a major reason behind Nepal’s increased success in such operations.
American military cooperation and assistance to Nepal has grown further since 2015. Since that year, the US increased support to the Birendra Peacekeeping Operations Training Center (BPOTC) in Kavre district. After the earthquake in April 2015, a Disaster Response Station was opened at the Tribhuwan International Airport. Projects worth nearly $9 million were launched. During the earthquake, the US Army conducted various disaster response operations.
A blood bank at the Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj came into operation soon after the earthquake. In 2015, the first ever airport disaster response plan for TIA was launched, which was written by CAAN with the US military support.
The US military also completed the construction of the BPOTC headquarters and medical facility. According to information provided by the US Embassy in Kathmandu, the building was designed and constructed by an entirely Nepali crew, and built to international safety and earthquake resistance standards.
In 2017, the US completed construction of the Hetauda Storage Warehouse for the storage of disaster response supplies. The same year it completed the Regional Crisis Management Center in Chhauni, Kathmandu.
For 2019-2020, the US has increased funding for training and equipment, the budget raised by nearly $65 million. It has supported disaster response in various provinces as well. In Gandaki Province, for example, it is building five new deep tube wells. In Province 7, it is constructing a blood bank. Similarly, it has supported the creation of the first regional airport disaster response plan at Pokhara Airport.
The US has also been offering an increasing array of courses, not only to Nepali security personnel but also to its civil servants.
In recent years, mainly after the promulgation of the constitution and China’s assertive inroads into Nepal, the US has enhanced military collaboration with the small Himalayan country. The frequency of high-level visits has gone up too .
Mahendra’s machinations
To project himself as a progressive ruler, King Mahendra on 2 Sept 1955 announced a land policy, with a number of provisions that were deemed very popular during an era when peasants were in dire straits. It was also during Mahendra’s direct rule that Nepal established diplomatic ties with China (on 1 August 1955). Two months later, he embarked on a 14-day tour of India, handing over the reins of power to his brother Himalaya while he was away. Before leaving Nepal, he had also intensified consultations with political parties and had conveyed a message that he was committed to ‘letting democracy flourish’.
During his 11-month-long direct rule, Mahendra repeatedly spoke of the formation of a democratic government ‘suitable for the country.’ He relieved the royal advisors of their duties on 27 January 1955 and reiterated the statement: “Our faith in a democratic system remains steadfast.”
But instead of handing over power to the Congress, he appointed Tanka Prasad Acharya as the prime minister. Acharya had fought against the Ranas and was considered a ‘living martyr’. This king’s move partly fulfilled the political parties’ demands, one of which was the formation of a single-party government. But the Acharya government was mostly packed with royal loyalists. In other words, King Mahendra made sure that the government was dominated by ‘reactionaries’. Still, the parties considered it a positive step in that it had brought the king’s direct rule to an end.
Soon after the formation of the new government, Mahendra embarked on several tours across the country so as to feel the country’s pulse. Kings were confined within the four walls of the palace throughout the Rana rule; common citizens had never seem them and believed they were Lord Vishnu’s incarnation. But King Tribhuwan had not toured the country after he was released from the Ranas’ ‘cage’. The primary goal of Mahendra’s visits was to introduce himself to the citizens and to size up political parties.
Nepal’s foreign relations expanded during Tanka Prasad Acharya’s term. It became a member of the United Nations and entered into diplomatic relations with Russia and China, in addition to India, the UK and the US.
King Mahendra was a past master at using people to further his interests. Soon, he not only unseated Acharya, but also branded him as ‘the prime minister who was unable to conduct elections’. Acharya had expressed his inability to hold polls. Mahendra cited that failure and the Acharya government’s lackluster performance as the reason for dissolving it on 14 July 1957. The monarch once again used the occasion to reprimand political parties for their differences and mutual resentment.
After unseating Acharya, Mahendra had asked BP to be prime minister. But BP, citing that he had to work on party organization, recommended Subarna Shumsher for the post. That was the theoretical agreement, but the palace appointed KI Singh as the prime minister instead.
Singh’s government was formed 15 days after the dissolution of Acharya’s government. But it was also dissolved within three months, on which occasion Mahendra said: “Although I did not want to run the government, I have been compelled to.” He never failed to convey that he was tired of having to dissolve governments repeatedly.
The democratic coalition under the Congress announced a civil-disobedience movement starting 7 Dec 1957. In the political conference organized a day before in the palace in order to derail the movement, King Mahendra said, “I’m more worried than you about delaying elections.”
A week after the conference, he announced that parliamentary polls would take place after 14 months, on 18 February 1959. Breaking his father Tribhuwan’s promise for an election to a constituent assembly, Mahendra successfully oriented the country toward parliamentary elections. He formed a five-member committee on 16 March 1958 to come up with a draft constitution. Sir Ivor Jennings, a legal expert from Britain, who had written the constitution of Sri Lanka, was drafted to help the committee. He made two drafts and submitted them to the palace but, frustratingly for him, Mahendra rejected both. Only the third draft was accepted. Nepal’s first parliamentary election was held under the aegis of that constitution.
Next week’s ‘Vault of history’ column will discuss how BP Koirala came to be Nepal’s first elected prime minister
