Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli, who earlier had accused India of breaking international law for supporting the blockade against his country, has acquired a more diplomatic attitude to New Delhi.
In an interview with The Hindu in the office of the Parliamentary Party of CPN (UML) in Singha Durbar neighbourhood, Prime Minister Oli who is known to be a leading orthodox figure in Nepal’s communist movement said, “I extend my greetings of Vijaya Dashami to the Indian people and the Indian government. We have to work together. Our challenges are the same.”
It was the second time in less than five days that Prime Minister Oli departed from his hard line ideological image, which is often cited by his detractors who paint him as unreliable for India.
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Earlier, soon after being sworn in, he visited a prominent shrine in Kathmandu city to strike a chord with Nepal’s Hindu community.
Prime Minister Oli said a time for consensus and rebuilding had come and it should not be missed by Nepal, which was devastated by the April 25 earthquake and has been weathering a crushing two-month long economic blockade in the Terai region.
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He spoke to The Hindu soon after maiden speech as Prime Minister to the Parliament. He had earlier postponed the meeting with The Hindu by a day as he wanted his first public statement to be made to the Nepal’s Parliament.
The season of festivities is in Nepal but the blockade has hit normal life and restoring normalcy is the biggest challenge ( chunauti ) before him, said Prime Minister Oli.
“My Foreign Minister will visit India shortly,” he said, exuding confidence that a solution would be soon found to the blockade on the Nepal-India border.
Mr. Oli’s confidence has boosted the morale of his party’s younger lot, who are eager to convey that the hardship owing to the blockade has become much bigger than the issues the blockade wanted to highlight.
However, during his speech in Parliament, Mr. Oli’s reference to the blockade created a stir in the briefing of the Official Spokesperson in Delhi.
Surendra Pandey, the charismatic former finance minister of Nepal, told The Hindu that the Indian spokesperson himself confirmed that the blockade right now is at Birganj which hurts the heart of Nepal’s economic activity in Kathmandu.
“Fifty-two per cent of Nepal’s energy consumption takes place in Kathmandu valley. But the blockade at Birganj has killed the energy links of Kathmandu.”
He said the blockade was now a much bigger issue and it needed to be resolved at the earliest through diplomatic means.
Dialogue beginsThough Mr. Oli and his party have begun a process of dialogue with the Madhesis and the Tharu communities, the real and more immediate issue, they say, is to help ensure the damage caused by the blockade does not lead to a larger civil disturbance.
The CPN-UML leaders are already suggesting that Nepal’s pahari people have been considerate that they have not turned the rage against the blockade to spill onto the streets of Kathmandu.
“The blockade of fuel has hurt the agriculture, banking and telecom sector and Nepal needs the space to look at how to recover from the after-effects of the blockade,” Mr. Pandey said.
“The government will be further troubled when the banks start demanding help in the loan recovery process.”
The blockade was called to highlight the issues of rights and territory of the Madhesis of Nepal. But it has overtaken the cause of the Madhesis as it has overhwhelmed Nepal financially.
“Our government’s first priority is to seek help so that Nepal can recover from this blockade,” said Mr. Pandey while agreeing with Prime Minister Oli that the blockade would end soon.
But while it is obvious that the new government led by Mr. Oli will have to address the fallout of the economic and fuel blockade, the issue of civil and territorial rights of the Madhesis, Tharu and the indigenous tribes of Nepal are also waiting to be looked into.