India-Nepal relations are moving forward, on several tracks at the speed of knots. A high level delegation of the ruling Nepali Congress led by former Foreign Minister and head of party's international department Prakash Sharan Mahat arrived in India on Thursday.
This visit is significant as the forging of party-to-party links between the Nepali Congress and the BJP will further concretise ties, which will no longer depend only on government-to government dealings.
A new track of engagement has been opened to recharter bilateral relations by enhancing party to party dialogues.
Also read: India steps up high voltage engagement with Nepal after senior official's visit to Kathmandu
A BJP delegation can now be expected to be present at the Nepali Congress session slated for November. After its New Delhi-leg, the Nepali delegation is expected to visit Uttar Pradesh, before heading home. It will meet Vijay Chauthaiwale who heads the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is also possible. An insider told India Narrative, that the Nepali Congress, which has traditionally bonded with Indian National Congress, has taken a bold step of reaching out to the BJP.
"By sending a party delegation, and not one from the government, the Nepali congress has preempted any criticism from China, that Kathmandu was once again not balancing its ties between New Delhi and Beijing," the official said.
Among other things, sources said that the issue of resumption of exports of Covid 19 vaccines could come up in the meetings. “India is aware of this issue and once the exports of the vaccines start, focus would be on the neighbouring countries including Nepal and Bangladesh,” another insider told India Narrative.
Also read: Is China blocking cabinet expansion under Deuba in Nepal?
When Chauthaiwale, paid a visit to Kathmandu in August just after Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur took charge, it failed to make headlines. But insiders said that this was aimed at kickstarting the dialogue process between the neighbours through a different track.
Chauthaiwale held meetings with senior leaders and dignitaries, including Deuba, former Prime Minister and Nepal Communist Party—UML chief K.P. Sharma Oli and Mahantha Thakur, a senior Madhesi leader.
The International Business Times—an American online publication noted that Chauthaiwale’s recent visit to Kathmandu and meetings with the top leaders might go unnoticed by the masses, but it is a crucial step in the direction of jump-starting the bilateral ties between India and Nepal.
“While there are government to government dialogues already underway, India wants to open all tracts of communications and engagements with Nepal. For India, Nepal is an extremely important ally,” the insider who wished to remain anonymous said.
“Nepal, under this government will be interested in maintaining good relations with all its neighbours. Nepal needs Beijing and China has been a good neighbour to us but India will remain special, China cannot replace India,” Udaya Shumsher Rana, former minister of state for finance and a member of Nepali Congress, who is also part of the delegation earlier said.
In an exclusive interview to India Narrative earlier, Rana said that though there have been “hiccups and problems” between the two neighbours, these were due to “misunderstandings” and “miscalculations.”
Also read: Have India and Nepal quietly started rechartering their bilateral ties?
“These intermittent hiccups typically take a bigger shape due to miscalculations and misunderstandings. Both countries need to be sensitive to each other and resolve issues amicably,” Rana added.
Underlining that India and Nepal have many commonalities in terms of geography, culture and religion besides an open border, Rana said that the two countries must continue to have honest and clear dialogues to ensure that such misunderstandings do not arise.
Notably, Anurag Srivastava, joint secretary Ministry of External Affairs, also looking after Nepal and Bhutan was also in Kathmandu recently. Srivastava held a series of meetings with Commerce Secretary Dinesh Bhattarai and Finance Secretary Madhu Kumar Maraseni.
“Discussions were held on progressing mutual co-operation in commerce, development and economic sectors,” the Indian Embassy in Nepal said in a tweet.
