Nepal PM ticks the right boxes during India visit

Manjeev Singh Puri

Former Ambassador to Nepal

NEPAL’S Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ was on a four-day official visit to India from May 31 to June 3. This was his first foreign trip after taking over as PM in January. Six months, though, to undertake the first overseas visit is a bit unusual for Nepali PMs, but the circumstances under which he became Prime Minister appear to have kept him engaged.

The December 2022 elections had thrown up a fractured verdict in the 275-member House of Representatives. Former PM Sher Bahadur Deuba’s Nepali Congress, which had an electoral understanding with Prachanda’s Maoist Centre, won 88 seats, while the Communist Party

of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist or UML) of ex-PM KP Sharma Oli won 79 seats. Prachanda’s party got only 32 seats; with the support of some smaller parties, Deuba appeared to be in the driving seat till Prachanda pipped him to the PM’s post in January with the support of the UML. Shrewdly, he kept a door open with Deuba and switched alliances in March, when the election was held for the President of Nepal, and he chose to back the Nepali Congress candidate and not the one put up by the UML.

In an interesting twist of fate, Ram Chandra Paudel, who was consistently bested by Deuba in the quest for leadership of their party, became Nepal’s Head of State! Prachanda’s government is now essentially a coalition of the Nepali Congress, his Maoist Centre and the Madhesi parties, who by themselves emerged splintered after the election. The presence of the Nepali Congress in the government and its candidate as the country’s President are usually comforting signs for India.

Receiving Prachanda at Hyderabad House, Prime Minister Modi envisioned taking the India-Nepal ties to Himalayan heights. To this end, three major completed infrastructure projects were inaugurated virtually and three more were launched, including integrated checkposts that facilitate trade, new electricity transmission lines and the extension of the oil pipeline system to include eastern Nepal and extend the existing pipeline to Chitwan. Storage facilities for these pipelines would also be constructed in Nepal. Discussions have also started on building a fertiliser plant in Nepal, something that would be of critical usefulness for Nepali agriculture.

Hydropower is Nepal’s foremost economic asset. Tapping it and wheeling the power to India has game-changing economic benefits to Nepal and helps meet India’s massively growing demand for electricity, even more important in today’s times of climate change where the imperative is to eschew fossil fuel-based energy generation. Till a few years back, Nepal was importing power from India, but is today exporting 450 MW to India. With work on the 900-MW Arun III project proceeding apace (being developed by Shimla headquartered SJVNL), the visit saw matters finalised for the 700-MW Lower Arun project too. All of this would make Nepal a major producer of hydropower in the coming years; a landmark agreement was reached for importing 10,000 MW from Nepal in the coming 10 years.

India is by far Nepal’s biggest trading partner and continues to remain the critical partner for its economy, which has taken a severe hit from Covid and its fallout. Building economic ties, facilitating trade and boosting connectivity are imperatives for Nepal and have rightly been the main stay of substantive action during the visit. Prachanda, while congratulating PM Modi on his government’s achievements in the past nine years, was appreciative of India’s leadership and willingness to give voice to the Global South during its G20 presidency. It was good that he noted that India and Nepal would work through diplomatic channels on the contentious issue of territorial claims by Nepal. This was important as the eve of the visit saw an attempt to rekindle the row by referring to a mural about Ashoka’s empire in the new Parliament building by his one-time comrade and now possibly bete noire, ex-PM Baburam Bhattarai.

Prachanda was in India for the fourth time as PM, but, interestingly, the first time in the traditional dress daura suruwal. His communist upbringing ensured his eschewing this dress, associated with the monarchy, during his previous two terms as PM, in 2008-09 and 2016-17. However, Nepali politics is not one of hardcore adherence to ideology and Prachanda appears to have decided that this makeover is the need of the hour. Not surprisingly, projects related to the Ramayana circuit were agreed upon and his trip included temple visits to Indore and Ujjain. In 2016, he had visited the hydropower project in Nathpa Jhakri and Patanjali’s herbal unit in Haridwar. As someone who knows India well, including from his longish incognito sojourn during the days of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal, Prachanda is certainly signalling India too.

This signal is also reinforced by India being the first port of call this time, unlike his previous stints as PM when he made China the destination of his first overseas trip. Perceptions about him in India would certainly be known to him. Significantly, on the eve of the visit, the President of Nepal signed a Bill into law that would facilitate grant of Nepali citizenship to Indian women married to Nepali men, a longstanding demand of the Madhesh. This Bill had been opposed by the Chinese, who fear easy grant of Nepali citizenship to Tibetans. Of course, the prominent presence of his daughter with him throughout the trip was another signal that mustn’t be missed.

Prachanda’s India visit appears by various measures to have gone well. He has hopefully re-established chemistry with India’s leadership through bilateral moves on development issues that should bring benefits to the people of Nepal and its economy. Given the ‘aaya ram gaya ram’ approach of Nepali politics, the question uppermost on people’s mind is about the longevity of his government. In this, while he may be able to manage external factors, the numbers in the House of Representative are such that the appetites of both Deuba and Oli will continue to remain whetted, and Prachanda must remain the master juggler. 

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