KG Suresh
The Pioneer
May 4, 2015
Strategic experts have sought to project India’s response to the tragedy in Nepal as an effort to contain China’s growing clout in the Himalayan nation. They forget that there is a human bonding between India and Nepal, which is beyond all strategic thinking.
The devastating earthquake in Nepal, and India’s spontaneous response to it has been widely depicted and discussed. Yet, it has thrown up many facets that merit our attention. To begin with, undoubtedly, India’s overwhelming response to the earthquake was but natural. Though strategic experts sought to project it as a strategy to contain China’s growing clout in our Himalayan neighbour, the fact remains that any Indian reaction, short of what was done, would have distressed Indians more than the Nepalese.
What the strategic analysts and think tanks tend to forget is the human bonding which is beyond all strategic thinking. Indians and Nepalese are one people — culturally, ethnically, religiously, civilisationally — though they reside in two sovereign countries. That is, perhaps, one reason, India shares an open border of hundreds of kilometers with only one country in all its neighborhood, notwithstanding occasional concerns over security implications, including enemy countries using Nepal as a transit to carry out anti-India activities.
In India, Nepalese people have never been seen as foreigners. There has never been hesitation by Indian firms in employing Nepalese nationals. The very fact that lakhs of Nepalese continue to serve in the Indian Army, is a testimony to the trust that the Indians have in the Nepalese people — that the latter will never turn against India, irrespective of the flip flops in the relations between Governments in both the countries.
Unlike the case with Bangladesh, Indians have never been concerned about the large-scale immigration of the Nepalese people into India in search of employment opportunities. The Nepalese royal family has always shared close blood relations with Indian royal families. The civilisational bonds are so strong that centuries after the advent of Adi Shankara, the Prophet of modern Hinduism, Nambudiri Brahmins from the southern-most Indian State of Kerala continue to enjoy privileged positions as priests at the world famous Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu.
From Sita to Buddha and beyond, an umbilical cord connects the people of the two countries, which cannot be comprehended in terms of strategy or foreign policy. The very fact that the Nepalese relief personnel feel more at home with Indian teams more than any other foreign missions, reflects this natural bonding. No wonder, Indians never complained that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s gesture of extending all assistance to our Nepalese brethren under ‘Operation Maitri’ in their hour of need was extravagant by any means. The massive relief work being carried out by Indian voluntary organisations in Nepal is only indicative of the popular mood of the country.
Yet, it is important to ensure that our enthusiasm and eagerness to help should not be perceived as any interference in Nepal’s internal affairs. Over the past few decades, with the emergence of the Maoists and increasing activities of Islamists, there has been a tendency to project India as a bully, a big brother who wants to ‘gobble up’ and ‘Sikkimise’ Nepal. As an outcome, the Nepalese, particularly the intelligentsia and sections of the media, have become hyper sensitive to even innocent Indian remarks and observations. They smell in them, a conspiracy to undermine their sovereignty. In fact, one may feel that, other than catering to its development needs, the growing proximity between Nepal and China is to send a categorical message to India not to treat Nepal as its fiefdom. Even an innocuous remark by Mr Modi regarding the ongoing Constitution-making process, during his otherwise successful visit to Nepal, drew flak from sections of Nepalese intelligentsia, including pro-India groups who felt the Indian leader could have avoided the comment.
In this context, the patronising comments being made by sections of the Indian media, who have flooded Nepal along with relief supplies, deserve a detailed study. The Indian media is considered nationalistic by its counterparts when it comes to foreign relations but that should not turn into jingoism. Many reports, particularly television coverage, gave an impression that India was doing a great favour to a small country, with correspondents making references such as ‘bada bhai’ (elder brother) and ‘chota bhai’ (younger brother). Our reporters, some of them being sent out on foreign reporting for the first time, must realise that despite all similarities and affinity, Nepal is an independent country and an equal partner in the comity of nations.
Second, apart from India, there are many others who have rushed relief to the quake-hit country. Maybe in the long run, countries such as China and the US may invest much more in reconstruction of the devastated country than India. India, as the largest country in the South Asian region and as a friend for all seasons, provided whatever humanitarian assistance it could extend, but rebuilding Nepal is going to be a major challenge where other developed countries too have to play a significant role.
And the Nepalese too are courageous and resilient people who have weathered harsher storms in the past and come out with flying colours. At best, they require a helping hand and certainly not a perennial life support system. Untrained and uninitiated Indian media personnel have unknowingly erred in this regard in the past too after the royal palace massacre and evoked the displeasure of the neighbouring country. They must be cautious this time around.
They are not reporting from any Indian State capital and they cannot be over-critical of the Nepalese Government’s response given the fact that most Government employees there too have been badly hit and it is not practical to reach out to every nook and corner of the country, which has a difficult terrain, within a short span. They must appreciate the concerns and the constraints. There are no quick fix solutions given the magnitude of the crisis.
We cannot be insensitive as the Pakistanis, who deliberately or otherwise, dispatched food packets containing beef masala, which instead of earning the goodwill of the people of Nepal, turned into a fiasco. Blowing one’s own trumpet after doing a good work has never been part of Indian culture. It would rather look good if the beneficiaries talk about it. As they say, neki kar, dariya mein daal (Virtue is its own reward).
The strong people-to-people relation between the two countries is reflected not only in the Government’s response but also that of civil society organisations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, Baba Ramdev and other philanthropic groups who have flown in men and material to the aid of the neighbouring country. In fact, notwithstanding its negative projection in sections of the media, the fact remains that RSS volunteers are among the first to reach and offer assistance in times of any man-made or natural tragedy.
One vividly remembers how these khaki-clad volunteers picked up body parts and prepared wooden coffins for the mostly Muslim victims of the Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision near Delhi on November 12, 1996. Similarly, in the aftermath of the 2001 Gujarat quake, when even close family members avoided touching the bodies of their near and dear ones due to the stink, RSS volunteers extricated the dead from the rubbles and gave them a dignified funeral. The RSS mission in Nepal, in association with the local Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh, was led by none other than its Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale.
One sincerely hopes that India’s fraternal response would serve to iron out any misunderstanding our brethren in Nepal have about New Delhi’s intentions. Both countries should work shoulder to shoulder in providing succour to the quake-affected people.
(The writer is a senior journalist based in New Delhi).
