When Nepal army chief Chhatraman
Singh Gurung was being feted with the honorary rank of general in the Indian
Army here last week, his deputy was quietly signing a deal with a visiting
Chinese military delegation in Kathmandu.
To analysts in Kathmandu, the two
developments will inevitably evoke a familiar description of Nepal -- that of
“a yam stuck between two boulders”. The boulders, of course, are India and
China.
But in New Delhi, the military
establishment is concerned that India’s army and government are risking losing
a space they have traditionally held on to.
General Torun Jung Bahadur Singh,
who was acting as army chief in Kathmandu in the absence of Gurung, signed a
deal with Major General Jia Jialing, deputy director in the foreign relations
cell of the Chinese Peoples’ Liberation Army. The Chinese pledged 20.8 million
yuan (Rs 14.2 crore approximately) as aid for “non lethal” military equipment.
Nepal’s ammunition-starved army
is looking for newer and surer sources of supply since India began turning off
the tap of military aid in 2001 and then almost brought it to a halt in 2005.
To the defence establishment in
New Delhi, the signs are unmistakable: China is stepping-in in Nepal just as it
had in Sri Lanka and before that in Myanmar because India has been chary of
continuing with military aid to neighbours beset by domestic troubles.
Sri Lanka has all but moved on
after brutally crushing the three-decade LTTE insurgency with military might in
May this year. Sri Lanka’s army was using Chinese weaponry and ammunition apart
from the outdated Indian equipment it had in its arsenal.
In Myanmar, where India was shy
of courting the military junta because of Delhi’s political support to the
democracy movement of Aung San Suu Kyi and the fear of international criticism,
it has stepped up visits and exchanges. Three years ago, India even supplied
field guns and a maritime surveillance aircraft to Myanmar.
But by then the Chinese were
everywhere, investing in Myanmar’s ports, highways and industries and helping
prop up its army militarily.
For the military establishment in
India, the waning of goodwill in Sri Lanka and Myanmar is a loss that it is now
trying to make up. In Nepal, senior Indian Army officers say, there cannot be a
waiting period.
Nepal is vastly different for
India from the island nation or from Myanmar. With neither of those countries
does India have an open border. The unique India-Nepal relationship grants
reciprocal citizenship rights (minus voting rights) to the residents of each
country. Nepalese Gorkhas serve in the Indian Army in large numbers.
The move to fete General Gurung
and resume arms supplies to Nepal’s army, sources argue, should be seen in this
context — and not merely from the point of view of touching off sensitivities
among the Himalayan nation’s Maoists.
One officer said that when
Prachanda headed the government before being forced to quit over the
reinstatement of the former Nepal army chief, General Rukmangad Katawal, there
were moves by Kathmandu to get closer to China.
Prachanda’s defence minister and
former chief of the Nepal Maoists’ militia, Ram Bahadur Thapa (Badal), visited
Beijing in September 2008. The Chinese army’s deputy chief, Lt Gen Ma Ziaotian,
who also oversees India-China military relations and was in charge of their two
joint drills, met Prachanda in December last year.
Now, Prachanda’s successor and
Nepal’s current Prime Minister, Madhav Nepal, is scheduled to visit China on
December 26.
The Chinese have expressed concern
over the Tibetan protests in Nepal at a time Kathmandu is reported to have
sought Indian military help to build an airstrip for its army’s air wing in
Surkhet near Nepal’s border with Tibet. The Nepal Maoists have been quick to
allege that India intends to use such an airstrip as a base for operations
against China in the event of hostilities.
After being given his honorary
rank and hosting General Deepak Kapoor at a lavish reception in the Nepalese
embassy in Delhi last week, General Gurung is understood to have invited the
Indian Army chief to Kathmandu.
Traditionally, a new Indian Army
chief’s first visit has been to Nepal where he, too, is given the honorary
rank. Kapoor’s predecessor, General J.J. Singh, now governor of Arunachal
Pradesh, was twice advised against visiting Nepal for the ceremony. Kapoor has
visited many countries and is now in the last leg of his tenure.
Whether Kapoor will accept the
invitation and visit Kathmandu before he retires early next year will be a
demonstration of the Indian government’s diplomatic intent in the face of the
resurgent Maoists in Nepal.
The resumption of arms supplies —
armoured personnel carriers, Insas rifles, ammunition and possibly even tanks —
to Nepal’s army and a visit by Kapoor will demonstrate not only New Delhi’s
resolve in encouraging an “apolitical and professional” military in Nepal but
also its determination to maintain its strategic and political space in the
Himalayan country that China is nibbling into.
No comments:
Post a Comment