Basanta Bhujel
The soul of the state is sovereignty. According to the scholars of political science, to be a state, three elements are required – ‘certain territory, population, government, i.e. sovereignty.’ According to this definition, the territory is the body, the population is the breath, and sovereignty is the soul. Just as pan supporter has three legs, if one leg becomes weak, pan supporter collapses due to loss of balance, so if one of the organs of geography, population, and sovereignty becomes weak, the state will not exist. These three organs are very important. That is, the state is the organized unit of geography and population whose governance is under a certain government.
The definition of the state, which has been maintained for thousands of years, was broadened by the philosopher Chanakya about two thousand years ago. He has formulated ‘Saptang Siddhanta’ for the state. This The Saptang principle focuses on sovereignty. In other words, Chanakya considers sovereignty to be important. According to Chanakya’s Saptang doctrine, the state is the definite geography of ‘king, amatya or minister, pur fort, fund, punishment, friend’. In the case of Nepal too, the weakened state was called ‘Garkha’. For example, Chepe and Marsyangdi were baise, chaubise and Sen states to the west. To the east of Budhigandaki was the state of Nepal. There was a definite territory surrounded by Chepe, Marsyangdi, Trishuli, and Budhigandaki. In that territory, there was the state of Nepal, the state of Sen, and the baise and chaubise state. None of these three were subordinate, nor sovereign, so this state was called Garkha. In time, Garkha was taken over by Prince Dravya Shah of Lamjung, one of the 24th kingdoms. He established separate sovereignty. After that, there was no Gurkha, there was Gurkha. Nepal has become one under the leadership of King Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha. It was Shah who led the construction of a sovereign modern Nepal.
Sovereignty means – ‘Government’s decision-making capacity.’ But since the time of Prithvi Narayan Shah’s third generation, Ran Bahadur Shah, Nepal’s decision-making capacity has been weakening. After the Sugauli Treaty, the British continued to dominate the policy-making and decisions of the Government of Nepal. As mentioned in Baburam Acharya’s book ‘Never Like This Again’, who will be made the Prime Minister of Nepal after the Sugauli Treaty? The British started interfering till that. An undeclared strategy was formulated to prevent Nepal from establishing diplomatic relations with anyone other than the British. The British ambassador to Nepal continued the game of escalating the conflict between the brothers of the court and dominating the conflict. This game continued till the time of Jung Bahadur, no Prime Minister was killed in his time, all the Prime Ministers were assassinated. Chatur Jung Bahadur, on the other hand, continued to rule according to the British intention. His successors continued to adopt the same strategy. Due to their favorable rulers, the British also recognized the Rana. When the British were driven out of India, the Rana regime was also in crisis. The Rana rulers could not stay in power for long. Democracy was established in Nepal with the help of the elected leaders of independent India. But this democracy further weakened Nepal’s sovereignty. Made it even weaker than the Rana and the British. In Rana’s tent, there was only direct British intervention, not direct intervention, but after 2007, there was the direct intervention.
The rights exercised by the Rana were handed over to the king by the Indian leaders in the name of democracy. Not only that, as the king’s secretary, but Delhi also began to appoint two staff directly from its foreign ministry. The two employees would sit at the Narayanhiti palace and give instructions to the king, while the Indian ambassador would attend the cabinet meeting. On the one hand, the meeting of the Council of Ministers would not have taken place without the presence of the Indian Ambassador, and on the other hand, the appointment of the secretaries of the king, who had taken the reins of power, by India, was a great challenge to sovereignty. Not only that, in the name of enabling the Nepal Army, the barracks of the Indian Army started living in Kathmandu. Stating that China was likely to impose communist rule, India set up military checkpoints at 18 border points with China. Of which, the military check post of Kalapani is still standing.
In this way, Dravya Shah made Nepal from ‘Garkha’ and Prithvi Narayan Shah made Nepal from Gorkha. Has this country turned into ‘Garkha’ again? The question is alive. From the outside, Indian direct intervention in Nepal is not as visible as it was in 2007, but indirectly it is getting more and more intense. Not only in sovereignty but also in geography and population, there is an Indian conspiracy to prevent Nepal from remaining as a separate state. The border has been crossed. India is all set to get citizenship certificates for its people in Nepal. If this is the case, the Indian people will have a majority in Nepal in a few years. In this case, Nepal will not exist.
However, India has not been the only eye on Nepal in recent days. China, the country’s northern neighbor, is also keeping an eye on it. The Nepali people seem to be aware of Indian intervention. But there is no public awareness against Chinese intervention. Can Chinese card be used against India instead? There is a Nepali public opinion. The idea of interfering in Indian activities and supporting Chinese activities is seen among the communists in Nepal. Some communists in Nepal are even ready to merge Nepal with China. The current MCC protests in Nepal are a result of this. The communists have been saying that if the US presence in Nepal is strengthened, Chinese influence will be reduced. This is a dangerous understanding.
It is the conscious people who strengthen the sovereignty of the state. Sovereignty is strengthened only if the people participate in the ruling power. Sovereignty will not be strong unless the people think, “This country is ours, we are ruling for ourselves.” After the establishment of the republic, the Nepali people were expected to think, “We are ruling for ourselves.” But things got worse and worse. There were reports that the Chinese ambassador met with the prime minister and the president to give instructions and that the government was forced to implement those instructions. Who gave instructions to Hinjo Raja, how much did those kings follow those instructions? That did not come to the surface. Due to the lack of such information, the people were not in a state of panic, but today the access to communication and information technology has reached almost all the people. The people are aware of the momentary foreign intervention in our sovereignty.
In this context, the vision of the visionary politician VP Koirala is very relevant. He presented two formulas to save a country like Nepal, which is a big neighbor and interested in world powers. One monarchy, another democracy. He said that Nepal’s sovereignty could be saved only if the monarchy and democracy were promoted together. He said, “The king wakes up the country for the sake of himself and his descendants. When he thinks that he is a participant in the ruling power, the people take the initiative to save the country.” The monarchy came to an end due to the extreme ambitions of the king. The people also got only the right to vote. Leaders who came to rule by popular vote began to act under the direction of foreigners and not according to the sentiments of the people. Due to which, the people could not feel that they were ruling for themselves.
(Bhujel is a retired engineer in the British Army)
