Although bold, writes SANJAY UPADHYA, India’s 2005 bet in Nepal contained two mutually fortifying flaws: the emaciation of the monarchy and the empowerment of the Maoist rebels. Despite regular turbulence, the world’s only Hindu monarch was bound to India in a special relationship that neither country needed to define or assert.
Nepalese Maoists, being communists first, were trained to denounce Indian ‘expansionism’ before American ‘imperialism’. Experience may have impelled the senior leadership to make practical compromises. It was a leap of faith for New Delhi to trust the leadership to rein in their cadres’ radicalism.
Backfire in Nepal: How India Lost the Plot to China
By Sanjay Upadhya
New Delhi: Vitasta, 2021 (forthcoming), Rs. 495
