I usually avoid participating in Sajha discussions because I am tired of seeing we Nepalese criticizing each other. But I came across an email sent to me on about three years ago. I just wanted to share it with the users. I am not asking for any comment or feedback because I have seen that most of the time the comments are destructive/negative. Just like you all, I am also a Nepali and care about my country, and this is the reason I am sharing this email with you. My friend XYZ (name is not important) forwarded this email to me and here it is:

Dear all,

 

Here is a thought on the
political situation written by a general Nepali analyzing the situation which I
think people should be aware of. So I am passing it on to the people I know and
I can. The term "I" quoted from here refers to the man who wrote it
"Mr. Rajman Shrestha".

 

I thought I can share my understanding of the crisis to my
friends and then forward it to maximum Nepalese as far as possible. There might
be various view points on that between us. This is one amongst them. PLEASE READ IT ONCE.
GIVE A SECOND THOUGHT ON THAT. AND IF YOU DONT AGREE, IT'S YOUR RIGHT NOT TO.
BUT I BELEIVE MANY OF YOU WHO WILL READ THIS MAIL WILL CERTAINLY GET CLEAR ABOUT
MANY THINGS. And in due course, I'd be grateful to get your opinions
as well. This way we can interact and start to think about the country more seriously.
UNTIL AND UNLESS WE START A STEP, NO THING BIG WOULD BE ACHIEVABLE. Believing on
this, I am sharing my opinion. "As we see the situation in Nepal, anyone
would think that the problem lies between the King, seven Political parties,
and Maoists. And why? What each of them wants? We'd find answers for that also.
One may say political parties want full-fledged democracy. Similarly Maoists
want the communism, and King wants to reestablish Panchayat or something like
that in other form. It may sound weird to you at first, but I see this crisis
incompletely other way. This is not any kind of conflict between Nepalese themselves.
This is something between India
and Nepal.
It's a grand and interesting game. At the same time, highly challenging for
both the states.

 

Every one of us knows the
Indian approach of trying to dominate others, especially the neighboring
countries. Defense and foreign affairs related decisions of Bhutan are directly handled by India. Nothing
new about it, right? Which country in the SAARC except Bhutan is happy with India? Forget SAARC, what about
other neighbors? China?
Burma?
Mentioning these issues just to rethink on India's foreign policies! Now let
us go to what's there between India
and Nepal?
Care to see it through big brother's side. India 's average economic growth
rate has reached around 7.5% which is one of the best in world today. India is second
largest market in the world in terms of population. Foreigners are seeing China and India as the new markets of this
age and investing here rapidly. Bottom line is- India is developing. But how long
people will invest in India
if basic infrastructure is not there? How much investments would be there in agricultural
industry if outsiders don't see basic irrigation facilities in the field? In
other way, when other area is developing, what about the large Indian farmer population?
When will they prosper if irrigation is not there? And most importantly, energy
is vital for all development- industries, technology and everything. India is not
capable of producing the required amount. India
has successfully taken control over Bhutan's energy resources and
already started to have the benefit. Bhutan is also getting something
out of it but at the cost of its sovereignty.

 

Now comes Nepal's part. Nepal is second
richest in water resource having potential of large amount of energy. Enough
energy to cater India's energy
need for industrialization and irrigation and clean drinking water for eastern India (perhaps
more than that). For that, India
can have straight business deals with Nepal. Take it if you want, but
please pay. But no! India wants
all those in the way they got from Bhutan. They want to have total control
in any hydro projects that will be built in Nepal. They want to give us
something out of it- lot less value than what we deserve. Since history India has been
trying for this and as it was obvious for them to get refusal. In the mean
time, foreigners wanted to invest in Hydro projects in Nepal. But India always fumed and fretted for any
manipulation in rivers will lead to flood in India. So, all the big projects
were cancelled. India
didn't stop. They wanted to get the resources according to their desire. When Nepal refused,
they came into games with long vision. What I interpret the game could possibly
be as such- change the non-cooperative government of Nepal. Keep people in power that will
be ready to sell the resources of the country for some money. And if required,
will be ready to sell the whole country. India knew that it's not possible until
the royal family is in power. This is because for the royals, Nepal is the
only place in the world where they will get highest degree of respects and they
would never sell the country. For that, India played the key role to
instill democracy in 2046 and implanted corrupted people in the government.
According to the plan, some leaders of ours sold out rivers and lands during
the 15 years. That we all know.

Now India could not depend only on
those dogs. For that, how to make Nepal completely helpless in
shortest period? So that Nepal
will come down on the ground with knees. There won't be any other option
remaining for Nepal and finally
turn towards India
and beg them to utilize our own resources, and give some riots to feed Nepalese
twice a day. Attack on the source of economy was the simplest route towards bringing
Nepal
down. And then something happened out of blues. The Maoists were born in
western Nepal which is the
hub of ayurvedic medicine and one of Nepal's major exports. The area is still
under Maoists control and no one knows how much of “Yartsa gunbu” (Caterpillar fungus) is smuggled from
there every year. Country's revenue is going in vain. And let us recall, it was
Girija's tenure and whole Nepal
knows how Maoists flourished in no time. Besides that, major objective of
giving birth to Maoists was to attack the spinal of Nepal's economy- tourism. And
things happened accordingly. Nepal
broke and got trapped into the crisis we are seeing today.

 

Now please don't doubt on who
gave birth to Maoists. India
was the first to call Maoists as terrorists when Nepal government was still calling
it as insurgents. After that, US hit-listed Maoists of Nepal in top ten among the
world terrorists. Nepal
government never called them terrorists those days. And in many cases, we have
seen Maoists leader making rounds to Delhi
in the same fashion as Girija and his daughter. The recent meeting between the parties
and Maoists leaders occurred in Delhi.
How could India
arrange the facility when Maoists are terrorists? Do they want to send a
message that Lashkar-e-taiba should be entertained by governments of various
nations? And surprisingly, nowadays Indian media do not write the word "terrorists"
for Nepalese Maoists. The respected word given by them these days is " Nepal rebel".

 

This is all happening because
of the “slavery” mentality India
possesses due to nearly 200 years of British rule.

 

Anyways, now let us come to the
major issue. After knowing all these, I am not in a condition to agree that the
dispute in Nepal
is for democracy. What I believe is it is for nationality. It is for saving the
nation. It is for raising the nation with what we have. It is for replying back
to all those who try to play with us. Now, it's up to your intellect to
identify who is working for what. What the King is doing, parties are doing,
and Maoists are doing. It'll be a very appreciable opinion if you say what
those pancheys are doing again here? We should not forget that democracy is
nature's law. When you are born, you come along with your freedom. No force can
stop you for that. Let's see the cause and what's happening around. Democracy
within the boundary is so important? Or democracy in a country will be there
when a country will be there? Let all Nepalese get together and stop the
external force for some time when Nepal will try to lift up in a
position from where no force would be able to bring it down. Democracy is
always there. When the Nepalese can change the government in 2046, the same
Nepalese can change the government again in 2066. And if required, forever free
Nepalese could change the system around the world. We don't have to doubt in
our capability. But the current need is not "restore democracy" as India is saying.
Current need for each and every Nepali is to "save and raise the nation".

 

When US
envoy to India made one
statement related to India's
internal politics last week, whole India shouted back to the
ambassador.  This is something good we
need to learn from Indians. When India, and other far away nations
are repeatedly trying to interfere our internal matter, our corrupted media (do
I have to name the media which have bosses of Non-Nepalese origins? Or you find
it yourself) is not tired of singing their songs everyday. The media is responsible
for creating a pessimistic environment in the nation. People are not protesting
those external interferences which are vital in present. Restoring democracy is
not the issue as far as I understand. What if democracy is restored tomorrow immediately?
Same old faces who tried to help the neighbor more than own country itself will
be back to power. And the process of losing the nation's independency which has
been stopped temporarily through king's move will get momentum again.

 

But if Nepal and the Nepalese succeed to
pause that external force for some more time, its strength will be minimized.
Many things can happen within few years. Zest is- country first! Now, If you
don't agree on this, I m open to have your opinion. If you feel that there is
some logic in what I have said, please forward it to as many Nepalese as
possible. There is nothing good happening to you within 24 hours or 3 days or 1
week or so forth. But only God knows, long term benefits could be there.

 

Thank you

Rajman Shrestha

great article...evryone should forward to their friends emails

Well said Rajman JI,