NaMo in Nepal

The NDA government’s neighbourhood outreach got another fillip with PM Narendra Modi announcing a $1 billion line of credit for Nepal while addressing the country’s Constituent Assembly. During his speech, Modi also sought to allay concerns in Nepal about New Delhi’s alleged interference in the country’s internal politics.“India has decided to provide Nepal with NRs.10,000 crore ($1 billion) as concessional line of credit for various development purposes,” he said.Apart from the fresh credit line, which is over and above the earlier assistance provided by India, Modi also exhorted Nepalese leaders to prepare for an Indian ‘HIT’.
Elaborating on his strategy, Modi said HIT in his lexicon implies ‘Highways, I-ways and Transways’.
He said these three would pave the way for rapid development of the country and India wants to “give this gift at the earliest”. This was only the second time a foreign leader was addressing the Nepalese Constituent Assembly. In 1990, the then German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had delivered a keynote speech to the Constituent Assembly.
Earlier, India had provided $250 million line of credit to Nepal through the Exim Bank of India. Addressing the Constituent Assembly, Modi assured Nepal that India had no desire to interfere in Nepal’s internal matters. “We have always believed that it is not our work to interfere in what you do but to support you in the path you decide to take,” he said to a thunderous applause.

India has told Nepal it is ready to revise the 1950 India-Nepal friendship treaty. PM Narendra Modi, in what is the first bilateral visit by an Indian PM to Nepal in 17 years, told his counterpart Sushil Koirala that he wanted to see it completed in his tenure. Nepal has been asked to send a team to negotiate this with India as soon as possible.
By putting this out on the table at the start of his engagement with Nepal, Modi has made it clear he will not accept the popular Nepali gripe about this treaty . Nepal has used the “unequalness“ of the treaty as a stick against India over the years. But despite repeated Indian requests for revision, Nepal has shied away from the actual negotiations. “The India-Nepal treaty is unequal in its treatment of Indian citizens in Nepal, which India has never complained about,” said Jayant Prasad, former ambassador to Nepal. While Nepali citizens get national treatment here, it is not reciprocated in Nepal.
Equally, the clause that Nepal should consult with India on defence policies has been inoperable for decades, said sources who have dealt with Nepal for years. It was after the 1962 India-China war that Nepal decided to open relations, even defence relations, with China. Therefore, India has little to lose by removing this aspect of the treaty. After India and Bhutan rewrote their bilateral treaty in 2007, Nepal was offered the chance, but they did not take it. During the first NDA government, former Nepali PM Sher Bahadur Deuba told then foreign minister Jaswant Singh that the 1950 treaty was a “thorn in our flesh”.Singh replied, “Then the thorn must be removed.” The foreign secretaries of both countries were asked to meet to take it forward. Only one meeting was held as Nepal was unwilling to open up the entire treaty. In subsequent years, Nepal preferred to say it had “raised the issue” with India without actually sitting down for negotiations. After a while, India refused to include such a line in joint statements because the Nepali side, officials said, did not want to go so far as to actually renegotiate the treaty.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Nepal ended on a perfect note on Monday with Maoist leader and a rabid critic of India in the past, Prachanda, describing the trip as the beginning of a new chapter in Indo-Nepal ties. “Aapne na kewal Nepaliyon ke man ko chua hai, balki unke dilon ko bhi jeeta hai (you did not just touch the lives of the people of Nepal but have also won their hearts),“ Prachanda told Modi.
The meeting was one of the highlights of Modi's second day in Nepal, another being his visit to the Pashupatinath temple where he offered special prayers to Lord Shiva. Modi had consciously chosen to visit the temple on a `sawan somvar' (Monday), considered auspicious. As chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, Prachanda holds the key to the framing of the new Constitution which is needed for Nepal's transition into a multi-party democracy . “Modiji committed his support to the Constitution. He is clear about supporting Nepal's prosperity and stability,“ he said. Nepal Maoist leader Prachanda on Monday hailed PM Narendra Modi's visit to the country as historic, saying a new chapter had begun in bilateral ties.
That Modi's speech in the Nepal House was an outstanding success was perhaps nowhere as evident as in the way Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kumar Dahal, reacted to it. He described the speech as touching and said Modi understood the “ups and downs“ of Nepal. Another Maoist leader, Baburam Bhattarai, said he was fully satisfied with the outcome of the talks with Modi.
Prachanda also enquired about Modi's visit to the Pashupatinath temple earlier in the day as he observed that ties between the two countries dated back to ancient times.
Modi donated 2,500 kg of sandalwood to the temple and also Rs 25 crore for building a dharamshala. He seemed to have used religion to the hilt during his stay in the largely Hindu country . In fact, as senior MEA officials said earlier, the dates for the visit were chosen to coincide with “sawan somvar“. Modi, who was dressed in a saffron robe, was accompanied only by his security officials. He also met President Ram Baran Yadav, who too complimented Modi for winning the hearts of the people, and chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) K P Sharma Oli.
The two countries issued a joint statement in which they , among other things, welcomed the decision of the joint commission last week to direct the foreign secretaries of the two countries to meet and discuss specific proposal to revise the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950.