India Shows its Hand

Every now and then, we get a little glimpse.....

We all fervently believe that India loves a somewhat unstable Nepal as it reinforces Nepal's dependence on India, but we rarely get a chance to confirm such conspiracy musings.  The last time we felt any sense of validation along these lines was when Indian officials were caught on tape admitting to supplying arms to the Maoists.  "Aha!, see?" we all collectively clucked.

But just yesterday, we hit the jackpot:  Indian Consular, SD Mehta, apparently was feeling a bit imperious and boldly called for a "Madhesi storm" of protests against Nepal's Federalism ideas.  He went on to say that India would give full support to such protests.  Immediately, Nepal's anti-India conspiracy theorists swooned and achieved Nirvana.

The rest of Nepal was furious.

Despite appearances, things are NOT looking up for SD Mehta

India immediately issued a statement denying Mehta's statements. What else could they do?  It was an unbelievably stupid blunder of the type from which there is no easy extrication. India knows it. A denial is the only way out at this point. Any acknowledgement of truth here would be a tacit acknowledgement of India's strategy towards Nepal. How else could a person like Mehta be allowed to carry such beliefs with him into a Consular position? Such strongly held Madhes passions would be tough to conceal over the course of a diplomatic career, wouldn't one think?

So, let's see if blogdai has all this straight:
Indian Consular invites representatives from all Nepal's political parties to a dinner function.
Indian Consular calls for Madhes protest and pledges India's backing.
Indian Consular does this openly, as a diplomat on Nepali soil.

So, basically, a representative of a foreign country has just used his diplomatic position of trust to call for open rebellion against another sovereign nation's government.  No problem there....

The Epic Flip-Flop
Prachanda calls foul, hauls the Indian ambassador to his residence and tells him how awful he is for allowing an Indian diplomat to call for ethnic protests against Federalism:  exactly three days after Prachanda himself called for ethnic protests against Federalism in the far West.  Those Indians, always trying to steal our good ideas.

The Upside
You could not have asked for better timing.  Anytime India says anything about Nepal, good or bad, we circle the national-unity wagons, come together as one people, and immediately start destroying parked cars and infrastructure.  This is the big break our inert politicians were looking for.  We can now credibly fabricate the idea that the entire Madhesi autonomy movement was an Indian scheme to de-legitimize Nepal as a sovereign nation (!)  Ok, maybe only The Telegraph would do that, but you get the point.  We now have a rallying point that should galvanize support for the current Federalism package.  No self-aggrandizing Nepali politician would dare vote against saving Nepal from Indian treachery!

How convenient.

-=blogdai