Are certain Nepali politicians  shallow ambitions helping India’ to subjugate Nepal in the same way it swallowed Sikkim ? Conspiracy theory?  Well, this is a theme being played by a section of media in Nepal.

The Nepalese feel that India is giving more than just tacit support to the unrest in the Terai region that borders Bihar, and is in fact abetting the blockades.

Ever since India imposed an unofficial blockade of Nepal, life has gone back two decades for the people, with most households returning to firewood and dung cakes for their kitchen fuel. Prices of fuel and essential commodities have soared. People in Kathmandu are paying up to Rs 8,000 for a gas cylinder (more than five times the normal price) and Rs 300-400 for a litre of petrol (three to four times the usual price).

Prices of fruits and vegetables as well as other goods of everyday consumption have also gone up alarmingly. The electricity supply is another problem. In the Capital, for example, the power supply is mostly absent as there is load-shedding 86 hours a week. And if there is power, the voltage is so low that it is only good for charging your cell phone or laptop.

Nepal-bound goods halted

Now, India’s Calcutta Port authority has halted loading of Nepal-bound railway containers since Friday, citing congestion, importers have said.

The port authority has said it will resume the work from Monday, according to Vijay Kumar Sarawagi, chairman of Supply Committee at the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI).

“Kolkata (Calcutta) Port management has been halting the loading service time and again when the port is overcrowded,” he said. “We are we hopeful the work will resume from Monday.”

However, Animesh Kumar, accounts officer at Himalayan Terminal Private Limited, the operator of Birgunj’s Sirsiya Dry Port, said Indian port authority has not informed them about halting of the service.

“Railway racks left for the Dry Port from Kolkata even on Friday,” he said.

Importers said about 2,000 Nepal-bound loaded containers have been stuck at Calcutta port.

Despite the Indian trade embargo and Tarai unrest, the Dry Port has largely remained operational lately. So export-import activities through the Dry Port have grown compared to other customs points.

Chief of the Dry Port Customs Office Devi Prasad Bhandari said imports of bulk cargo, especially rice, paddy, wheat, MS billet, soya bean and oil cakes, have increased.

He said as many as 17 railway racks were on their way to the Dry Port from Calcutta. “However, transactions could be affected if the goods are stuck in Calcutta for a long,” Bhandari said.

Central vice-president of Customs Agents Federation Shyam Babu Patel said there should be strong lobbying from the Nepal government to solve problems that emerge time and again while bringing in goods through railway.

Nepal going the Sikkim way?

The Kathmandu Post says:

The root of the crisis gripping Nepal today lies in the sheer recklessness on the part of our political stalwarts. They have played a role similar to that of Kazi Lhendup Dorjee of Sikkim — a tool to third-party hegemony. In the early 1960s, Lhendup Dorjee, a one-time confidante to Sikkim’s monarch, had formed the Sikkim National Congress to promote democracy in the country. Inspired as he was by an “exotic” interest rather than the interest of Sikkim as a country, he ultimately became instrumental in its ‘merger’ with India; and his party, too, merged with the Indian National Congress in 1975. In return for his role in Sikkim’s accession to the Indian Union, he was made the state’s first chief minister.

Allegorically, the Lhendup Dorjee analogy is relevant in the context of Nepal’s political stalwarts, who have played, or have appeared to play, similar roles in various situations. Over the years, various leaders of left-wing political parties have compromised their party principles to grab power and, in the distant and recent past, even pro-monarchy forces have changed colour overnight.

  Nepal