The sudden spurt of anti-Indian sentiment can be seen as the result of the opinions that our political leader made before and after the on-going fuel crisis. The common reply on the street is “India did it” for everything from the fuel crisis to the turmoil in Terai. The common opinion is that India is behind all of this, pulling strings.
Although the perpetrator is still in question, there is no doubt that due to the conflicting dialogues that each of the parties involved are spouting in the ongoing turmoil, it has forced people to reach to their own conclusions. A particularly nasty punch to the gut was delivered when Upendra Yadav stated that it was his party that was responsible for the on-going blockade and not India. However, countless reports have shown that it the Indian border officials who have been unresponsive towards Nepali officials and have introduced strict rules for the goods-bearing trucks to enter Nepal, which in turn has forced people all over Nepal to be literally on their knees.
To state that the India-sourced fuel was and is the very lifeblood of the nation would be an understatement. Due to various clichéd reasons, which have been repeated to us over and over again, Nepal is dependent upon diesel-gushing trucks to provide it with food, shelter, water, clothes etc. No matter the party responsible, tampering with the fuel supply was a cruel master-stroke, effectively halting the whole nation. Fuel seems to be the main issue and the hundreds of deaths in Terai and 100 days long strike taking a back seat in the media in place of the woes of city-dwellers in the throes of a fuel crisis.
Although the current media has been focusing on only the cities, I think that it is far-flung VDC’s that have been hit the hardest. A few months ago, I had been to Libang, Rolpa as part of a college tour. There I had observed that daily 3-4 trucks would enter the market which were the only sources of sustenance for the district headquarters and the outlying villages. That observation made me really appreciate the thousands of trucks that ply all over the nation’s roads delivering goods and sustenance.
Although I haven’t been to the remote areas lately, I am sure that villages which rely on a daily supply of goods will be reeling under the current crisis. As we look at all these consequences, we try to think of someone to blame. Speculations abound, some allege that Indian groups have been supporting the Terai based parties as demands of the both the agitating parties and India are similar. Still others allege that although not supporting the parties, India has used the unrest as an excuse to put political pressure on the Nepal government to state its unhappiness over the new constitution. Another such allegation is that India is trying to restore Monarchy in Nepal.
A particularly fitting phrase comes to mind when I surf through the social media these days. “You are either with us or against us.” The growing anti-India sentiment has taken over large portions of Nepali social media, the blame guy on the street is India and various student unions are fueling this anti trend by various protest and burning of flags and effigies. Our new generation of students and young leaders took to the street in forms of rallies and protests with the highlight being a banner in a cycle rally which read “No petrol, No problem”.
The longer the blockade will go on, the anti-Indian sentiment will grow much stronger. But it seemsuncalled for, doesn’t it? If you had a shop, would you stop selling goods to your major customer, just because you aren’t satisfied with him or her? This is exactly what’s happening, but being at the receiving end of the crisis the why of this situation is still far away. Now it’s only how as in “how to eke out a living amid a fuel crisis” that is on people’s mind. Common sense tells us that a blockade imposed by India would be redundant. But if common sense entered politics then we would be in a different world.
Although it is clear that a blockade is in fact taking place, petrol pumps all over the valley closed immediately even before the news of theblockade had reached many people, leaving only the government run pumps to supply fuel. A gnawing suspicion that traders are using this crisis to increase their profits looms over the manyof us.
Although India is citing “security reasons” for the blockade, border trade has screeched to a halt in unaffected areas too, especially the far western region of Nepal. But, what with the open and blunt effort of India sending a diplomat S. Jaishanker just before the promulgation of our constitution shows that yes, India is interested but for its own agendas. Nepali politicians jumped onto the chance and started braying nationalist sentiments to cover up that in fact they were the ones responsible for inviting the crisis months beforehand.
When all things are said and done, politicians of both the hills and the Terai will use the crisis as a ladder for their own political agenda. But those who bear the brunt of the crisis, the common people of Terai, has anyone thought about what they actually want?
Mr. Gnawali can be reached at [email protected]
