No 'pro-active' role for India in Nepal

By Harish Khare

NEW DELHI, JUNE 4. The Indian Government is watching the ``tense and confusing'' developments in Nepal but has no intention whatsoever of playing a ``pro-active'' role in the Hindu Kingdom. Delhi prefers to let Nepal's traditional political institutions recover their equilibrium.

The inclination among the senior policy-makers seems to be that India (as well as non-official Indians) should not be seen as doing or saying things which could be misconstrued. The idea is to let the Palace, political parties and others personalities have ``the space'' to come to terms with the unprecedented development and its difficult consequences. The Nepali Ambassador in New Delhi visited the Foreign Office today, and probably heard for himself this note of restraint in the official thinking.

Foreign Office officials are unhappy that a section of the Indian media (print and electronic) has been less than restrained in giving credence to all kinds of baazar ``gossip'' about various members of the Nepali royalty. Even if there is a realisation that there is very little that the Government can do to interfere in the media's performance, there is no denying that the forces not-so-well disposed towards India are always willing to depict the reports in the media as inspired by the official thinking.

For now, the official inclination is to treat the developments in Nepal as the Hindu Kingdom's internal matter. Rather assiduously, the Foreign Office officials are not even prepared to make any assessment of the happenings in Nepal. In fact, the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, (in a press conference in Bhuj), refused to subscribe to the ``conspiracy'' theory.

The Foreign Office spokesman dismissed out-of-hand a report in a Pakistani newspaper that the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, had something to do with the palace killings in Nepal. ``Ravings of an unhinged mind,'' was the precise comment.

Nonetheless, the official Indian inclination is to distance New Delhi from any suggestion that the new King was less-than- friendly to India. Apart from the fact that the monarch, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, has some business links with India, very little is known about his preferences and proclivities. The official inclination is to wait before judging the attitude of the new royal order towards India.

A message of felicitation from Mr. Vajpayee to the new King was being drafted.

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