BASIL EDWARD TEO
MONSOON SKY: Visitors admire the view of the Bagmati River, Taudaha and an emerald Valley from Kirtipur.
As Kathmandu prepares for a slew of high-level visits by senior figures in the new BJP-led government in India, there are expectations of a breakthrough in harnessing Nepal’s enormous hydropower wealth. This time, there is an expectation in Kathmandu that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be more sympathetic to our cause, and that asymmetrical negotiations will be a thing of the past.
Nepal-India relations need not be mired in perennial paranoia. Cooperation is only possible with mutual trust based on fairness. Successive rulers in Kathmandu have kept up a level of suspicion about India to gain political advantage, defining nationalism as India-bashing. Indian agencies in Nepal, on the other hand, often feed that perception with high-handedness.
Nepal and India have to decide what is in their mutual best interest. Nepal can reduce its overwhelming trade gap with India by partnering in water resources, and New Delhi must see that a more benevolent policy towards Nepal would be in its own long-term national interest.