Spin In Nepal

The India-Nepal diplomatic battle over the Madhes crisis—the southern plains of Nepal adjoining India— has now spilled over to a contest between the two sides to dominate the mind space of Indian journalists.

After weeks of sparring with each other, India and Nepal have both realised the power of the Indian media. As a result, both sides are now busy organising a series of sponsored trips of the Indian media to Kathmandu.

The agitation in Terai region of Nepal or the southern part of the country, where people are demanding significant amendments to the "discriminatory constitution" and revision of the recently announced federal boundaries, has been going on for weeks. This has led to a face-off between the government in Kathmandu and people in Madhes. The agitation has led to violence and a blockade that has prevented movement of trucks and other vehicles carrying oil and other essential items from India into Nepal.

There is a growing feeling in Kathmandu that India is actively supporting the agitators in Terai. They feel that since most of the people in Terai are of Indian origin Delhi is using the blockade to pressurise Nepal into amending its constitution.

India is now desperate to change this perception and wants the media to visit Nepal so that they can reflect the true picture and ground reality. India has denied any role in the blockade and has argued that it is because of the ongoing agitation in the Madhes. It has also pointed out that despite the difficulties India has managed to send in over 400 trucks carrying medicines and maintained oil and petroleum supplies in Nepal. But for normal service to resume the law and order situation within Nepal will have to improve.

South Block has already dispatched a few batches of journalists to Nepal. The Nepalese Embassy in New Delhi, which got into the act a little late, is now gearing up to send their guests from the Indian media to Kathmandu and other cities of Nepal. Indication suggests that soon the Nepalese capital will be teeming with Indian journalists eager to cover the crisis in the neighbouring country, even though it has been going on for weeks now. But it remains to be seen which of the two contending versions, get highlighted in Indian press reports.

MEA officials point out that the decision to send Indian journalists to Nepal stemmed from the realization that in the "perception game" India was losing out. Since the crisis erupted in Nepal in August, and deepened after the country's new constitution was adopted, Delhi's stand has come under severe criticism. The attempt on South Block's part is now to try and see how the perception can be changed in India through media reports.

Nepalese officials in New Delhi also acknowledge the importance of the Indian media to highlight the ground reality in Nepal. "India and Nepal are two friendly countries and there should be more interaction between the media of the two countries," says a Nepalese diplomat to explain the decision to invite journalists to visit Nepal.

So it should not come as a surprise if in the coming days there is a flurry of reports from Kathmandu in the Indian media highlighting the ongoing crisis in the neighbouring country.

The new constitution in Nepal was promulgated in Nepal on September 20 but failed to satisfy the Madhesis and the Tharus who constitute 70 percent of the population in the Terai region. Their disappointment and anger stemmed from the fact that the formation of seven federal provinces as per the constitution's provision only ends up marginalising the people of Terai. The provinces have been formed in a manner, they allege, so that the hill-elite continue to maintain their domination in the Nepalese parliament. This in effect means that the Madhesis and the Tharus will continue to be under-represented in government jobs and the country's development and will be treated as "second class citizen" in Nepal.

But the logic of sending Indian journalists to Nepal by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) is being met with scepticism in various quarters. If the attempt is to change the perception about Modi government's handling of the Nepal crisis in India, then the reports of Indian journalists from the South Block sponsored trip may at best yield mixed results. While some of the readers may understand the developments in Nepal better, others will continue to be sceptical about their analysis and regard them as propaganda pieces of the Indian government. At least, that could well be the perception in Nepal.

On the other hand, the Nepalese side's decision to woo the Indian media can be seen as an attempt to ensure their version of the developments in Nepal are not totally ignored in India.

But irrespective of the media and propaganda war between the two sides, most observers believe that there is an urgent need to resolve the crisis within Nepal politically. At the same time, India and Nepal should find ways to remove the strains that had crept into bilateral relations in the past weeks.

As part of the re-engagement between the two sides, Nepalese deputy prime minister, Kamal Thapa, who also holds the foreign minister's portfolio, was in Delhi earlier this week and talked to Indian leaders on ways to diffuse the ongoing crisis.

The Madhesi agitation has been going on for over four months and with hardening of position of both the agitationists in the plains of Nepal and the hill-elite in Kathmandu, an early resolution seems unlikely.

Indian officials feel that there is no other option but to wait out for the situation to improve. They argue that apart from offering sage advice to the contending parties India has a limited role in the Nepal crisis. While it is blamed for the crisis, any attempt on its part to play a bigger role in resolving it will be interpreted by people in Nepal as interference in their internal affairs.

But India is also caught in a bind as it fears that if the situation deteriorates further it can have wide-ranging implications for both India and Nepal. South Block officials say if the situation in Madhes is allowed to fester for long than Nepal may soon be faced with a "Sri Lanka like situation" and get embroiled in a long phase of ethnic strife dividing the society. With a more than 1750 km open border that it shares with Nepal, India is worried that the violence and instability in the neighbouring country could spill over into the Indian side and adversely affect its people.

India wishes that good sense prevails among all the parties in Nepal and a dialogue between the government and the aggrieved people of Terai is held at the earliest to find a resolution to this long crisis.