EELUM DIXIT
From runway blockage to Indian blockade, it has been a horrible year. In March, the country’s only international airport was closed for four days by an airliner obstructing the runway.
That happened at the beginning of spring, dislocating the tourism industry. And at the peak of the trekking season on 25 April central Nepal was shaken by a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 people.
Then came the political disaster in the aftermath of a fast-track constitution that set the Tarai on fire. The violence has killed more than 60 people since August, and ended up being a border blockade supported by
New Delhi.
As 2015 comes to a close there are slight stirrings of hope that Nepal, India and the agitating parties all need a safe landing. India needs to show that it wasn’t imposing a blockade, the Madhesi parties are under pressure from hardliners in the field and the Nepal government is being blamed for not sorting this out earlier.
Nepal is reeling under a humanitarian disaster that is surprisingly being ignored by the rest of the world. Nepal’s 28 million people are affected, but the plight of two million homeless earthquake survivors is much worse.
There is hope that 2016 will be better, but the impact of the blockade on Nepal’s economy and development process will take much longer than that to heal.