March 26, 2005 ☼ Foreign Affairs
This is an archived blog post from The Acorn.
A guest author on United We Blog lays to rest some myths that have gained currency in recent years — that Nepal’s decade of democracy failed, and that King Gyanendra’s use of the China card will actually work.
It is a fact that today there are 22 official transit routes from India to Nepal which allows Nepal to import commodities like salt and other important daily usage items. Currently, China has 2 “trade†routes with Nepal but no transit routes. Which means goods from countries other than China are simply not allowed into Nepal based on the 1961 treaty signed by B.P. Koirala (democratically elected leader) in Beijing…
I come from a Terai village where there is no problem of constructing roads, bringing electricity, irrigation etc, but during the Panchayat kaal nothing was done for years and years even if there was everything available only 3 kilometers away in the district capital. After democracy was restored in 1990, our village and most other neighboring villages did in fact see electricity, new roads, irrigation facilities etc. Poor farmers started earning more money and eventually we started to see cable TV, mobile phones with people in our village. There are thousands of villages in Nepal that share this testimony so it is complete hoax and propaganda on the part of the King to say that nothing was done during the 12 years of parliamentary democracy. It is true that there were corrupt politicians, but it was the same parliament that created an independent commission for investigation abuse of authority that did in fact prosecute number of corrupt politicians… [UWB]Blogdai, that mysterious blogger from Nepal, shares the same view on Nepal-China relations.
China couldn’t care less about Nepal and their worthless trade deficit. China has no use for anything in Nepal that doesn’t have to do with either buffering against India or harrassing Tibetans. China built, and is building roads up to the Nepal border at precisely the points where tibetans are known to cross on their way to India, not where any major Nepali commerce centers are located. Nepal lauded this as a free trade victory; bringing prosperity and commerce from China, through Nepal and into India. Sorry, when China wanted to trade with India, they mended fences near Yatung and re-opened that direct crossing into Sikkim. Some trade partner, Nepal…[Nepal Now]
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