The New York Times
BHADRA SHARMA and NIDA NAJAR
September 28, 2015
KATHMANDU, Nepal — Nepal began rationing fuel on Monday to cope with a worsening shortage brought on by continuing unrest over the country’s new Constitution and a dispute with neighboring India.
The country imports all of its fuel from India, but tanker trucks carrying fresh supplies have been blocked from crossing the border since late last week. “Things are completely out of order,” said Deepak Baral, a spokesman for the state-run Nepal Oil Corporation. “What we are doing now is just to continue emergency-only services.”
Mr. Baral said strict limits would be imposed on the sale of fuel to taxis, school buses, private cars, motorcycles and scooters. “Despite all these austerity measures, we will run out of fuel within the next 10 days,” he said.
Nepali officials blamed India for the shortage, saying it had ordered its border officials not to let the fuel trucks cross. But Indian officials said the disruption had been caused by mass protests in Nepal against the Constitution.
“It is an economic blockade of Nepal,” said Mahesh Basnet, Nepal’s industry minister. “India imposed it after some of its suggestions raised internally regarding the new Constitution were not addressed.” He added that the move was igniting “anti-India sentiment” in the country.
Demonstrators in Kathmandu shouted anti-India slogans on Monday to protest the fuel shortage.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs denied ordering any blockade, and Indian officials said sit-ins on the Nepalese side of the border by members of the Madhesi ethnic group, who have been protesting the Constitution for more than a month, were disrupting trade across the border.
“There is no blockade from our side,” Vikas Swarup, the spokesman for the ministry, wrote in an email on Monday.
India has expressed concern several times over the protests and violence in Nepal related to the new Constitution, which was adopted on Sept. 20. Concern has been met with anger in Kathmandu, where there is resistance to what is perceived to be Indian interference in Nepalese affairs.
More than 40 people were killed in western Nepal and its southern plains, home to the Madhesi and ethnic Tharu communities, during constitution-related protests this year. The groups have said the Constitution curtails their rights, and they demanded that Nepal’s political subdivisions be redrawn to afford them more political power.
Though the violence has ebbed, the protests appeared to have taken on a new form through sit-ins at border posts.
The impasse has underscored Nepal’s profound economic reliance on India, particularly after April’s devastating earthquake destroyed Nepal’s land trade routes with China.
About 1,000 trucks have been waiting on the Indian side of the border since Thursday, according to Kamlesh Kumar, an Indian customs official in Raxaul in Bihar State.
Hundreds of Madhesi protesters have staged sit-ins at border crossings that have lasted for days, said A. K. Singh, a senior official of the Sashastra Seema Bal, an Indian security force that oversees the India-Nepal border. Mr. Singh said it was impossible for India to intervene because the demonstrations were in Nepal.
Abhay Kumar, a spokesman for the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, said truckers were afraid to enter Nepal because of security concerns. “A political solution has to be found to this issue,” Mr. Kumar said.
Nepali officials counter that the sit-ins took place in a “no man’s land” between Indian and Nepalese border posts and that Nepal needed the help of Indian border forces to clear them away.
Mr. Basnet, Nepal’s industry minister, said Indian customs officials had kept fuel trucks from crossing into Nepal even in areas unaffected by the protests and sit-ins, like the country’s far west.
The controversy comes after more than a year of friendly relations between Nepal and India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India visited Nepal in 2014, and India pledged $1 billion for reconstruction after the earthquake.
On Friday, Nepali officials summoned India’s ambassador, Ranjit Rae, to the Foreign Ministry over the fuel crisis, and Nepal’s commerce and supplies minister went to Delhi on Monday to meet with officials.
Prime Minister Sushil Koirala of Nepal visited Tharu and Madhesi areas over the weekend to meet with local leaders and security officials, a step many in Nepal had urged him to take during the violent protests. Nepali lawmakers have said concerns over the boundaries of provinces can be addressed through amendments to the Constitution.
In Kathmandu, far fewer cars than usual were on the roads. Drivers waited in long lines hoping to buy fuel, and many filling stations posted signs saying they were sold out.
“I have been waiting for fuel since yesterday morning, and still, 150 vehicles are ahead of me,” said Shukraraj Thing, a Kathmandu taxi driver waiting on Monday at a fuel pump.
“India always objects when Nepal tries to move ahead on its own,” he said. “Nepal should clear its roads connecting to China, instead of relying fully on India.”
