It is not uncommon to read almost every day how both our neighbors, in fact the whole world, want Nepal to have political stability and economic growth, and that it’s our lead­ers who are hell-bent on doing the exact opposite. And it is also not uncommon to read how our neighbors have decided to pursue a common policy on Nepal after the Xi-Modi Wuhan Summit. (How our analysts came to know about what was dis­cussed there remains a mystery. As is our wont, we have decided not to question the analysts about the source of their information, and to talk of the Wuhan Summit as if we were there when the two leaders were talking.)We have read these things so many times that most of us actu­ally start believing this humbug.

To make sense of what is hap­pening here, we need to personify Nepal, her neighbors and whoso­ever we believe has interests here. Believe me, this makes it easi­er to understand things. There’s absolutely no need to use jargons such as geopolitics, geostrategic and trickle down effect, and what not, to describe what’s happening here. It can be done in a much simpler and plainer way.

Imagine your neighbor’s house, a small house with a small gar­den. The neighbor (read: Nepal) is always drunk. The boundary walls have collapsed. The front gate is broken. The lawn is a total mess and it’s a mess inside as well.

Then you buy a car and decide to park in your neighbor’s driveway, not because you lack parking space. You do it just for the heck of it, just like the Nike ad—‘Just do it’. The neighbor says nothing. Then you decide to park it in his lawn, the neighbor says nothing. Then you start using his kitchen, the neighbor says noth­ing. Then you sleep in his bed, again nothing.

Seeing you do all this, others in the block start doing the same. They too start parking their cars there, and using the drunk neigh­bor’s kitchen and bedroom. In essence, everybody in the block now owns the house. You have problems with the others when you come home from work and that somebody has already parked his/her car there, or has slept in the neighbor’s bedroom that you have come to think of very much as your own.

The next day you come a lit­tle earlier from work and park your car in your neighbor’s house and maybe park your wife’s car as well, before the others do it, and maybe have your dog guard the bedroom. But others aren’t as stupid as you make them out to be, and the next day when you and your wife go to work and you have the dog guarding your own premises, they take control of the driveway, kitchen and the bedroom of the “com­mon” house.

Now, what do you do? Since your neighbor is always drunk and doesn’t seem to mind any intrusion, you lure your neigh­bor’s children with candies: hey, take these, they are good and if you want more you need to make sure that nobody except me uses your house and driveway. The malnourished little children hap­pily oblige.

They shout and protest in vain when others come and park their cars and use the bedroom. The others also employ the same trick as you so the children don’t create a scene the next time: lure the children with candies. But since the children are taking candies from all and promising everyone the same thing, they shout in uni­son when you park your car in their driveway. Then you come up with another ingenious idea. Of the five children, you only start giving candies, much more than before, to three and promise them more candies.

But, again, the others aren’t stupid as well. They do the same to those three children. Then you think of another smart idea: have the children carve out their own “territory” by teach­ing them about ownership and property rights. Divide and rule, so to speak. You will pamper the three chosen ones with candies and have them do what you want. The other two would then have no option but come to you for candies. Then you have the loyalty of everyone and they will shout in unison for your interests. Brilliant, you reckon you are no less than Chanakya or his shrewder version, Kautilya, or Machiavelli.

But again others aren’t stupid as you make them out to be. They too have read their Arthashastra and the Prince and maybe Kissing­er as well, and they do the same. And you are left thinking what to do next.

The neighbor is still drunk and in his own world, oblivious to things around him or pretending to be so because he knows he is too weak to do anything