ANTI-INDIA

CHINA CARD

QUIET BORDER

BIRGUNJ, Nepal: It’s called the Maitri Bridge. But “maitri (friendship)” is the last thing on everyone’s mind here.Linking Nepal’s Birgunj with India’s Raxaul is a dusty connector overrun with motorcycles, tongas, rickshaws and cycles. Since September, a bamboo-and-plastic shelter has partially covered it, protestors camping inside imposing a blockade on themselves, refusing food, fuel and essentials supplies from India to get in.There are no police lines here or agitators visible, just people hurrying to Raxaul to pick up supplies. Any police force should have broken the protest. But for three months, the stir has continued. How? “Thousands converge here within minutes to take on the police,” Aslam, an agitator, says. Policemen have beaten up protestors. But only one day they managed to clear the bridge for stranded Indian trucks to return.Birgunj is the nerve centre of the Madhesi protests against Kathmandu and its elite. Although the border has about 20 transit points, over 60% of trade is through Birgunj. That’s been closed for three months.Factories in and around Birgunj are shut. Last week, schools opened for a few hours every day. No cars ply here, motorbikes are the only way to get around quickly. Petrol and diesel sell in plastic bottles, dirt cheap.“We have strong roti-beti ties with Indians. My wife is Indian, now I don’t know if my daughter will be a Nepalese citizen by birth or naturalization,” says Om Prakash Sikariya a businessman. The new Nepal constitution says children born to a Nepalese women marrying foreigners would be naturalized citizens, not by descent. They’ll be denied employment in certain government positions.This is believed to be against the Terai people who marry Indians.“We won’t budge,” says Ram Sahay, a protest leader. “Yeh aar-paar ki ladaai hai,” Munni Srivastava, who heads the Mahila Morcha cuts in. “The Terai people are with us,” Sahay adds.The protestor’s rallying cry has so far been: “ek Madhes, ek pradesh.” None wants it to morph into: “ek Madhes, ek Desh.” That’s what Indian officials, both in Delhi and Nepal, fear. “We don’t want Birgunj to be the next Jaffna,” an Indian official says.India’s official presence in Birgunj is led by a feisty foreign service official, Anju Ranjan. Anju has ensured that Indian trucks and interests aren’t harmed, stressing that the blockade isn’t India’s doing.“The dry port (where goods from third countries come in) is working.If we wanted a blockade, why would we allow it to function? Indian trucks don’t want to come because of the agitation,” Ranjan reasons.But everyone in Nepal is convinced India is imposing a version of economic sanctions. Last week, India was for the first time criticized in the Nepal parliament. Protests are common outside the Indian embassy in Kathmandu. But Ambassador Ranjit Rae insists: “India’s on the right side of history.” That may be the case, but, for now, every Nepalese news channel has a single bugbear: India. This has enabled the Nepali leadership maintain the fiction in Kathmandu that the problem is being created by India, not a section of their own people.The anger in Kathmandu centres on Indian “interference” in Nepal’s internal matters. Kathmandu residents feel the blockade pinch most. There are queues outside filling stations, sometimes the wait is for two days. Everything is expensive.In the Terai, the anti-India resentment remains equally strong. The blockade has impacted the livelihoods of the business community. Community members, generally Marwaris, are somewhat unsure of the Madhesis.They have a relationship with the hill people, but Madhesis are unknown. Madhesis often look at India as a close relative. But some concede: they want India to be proactive.India has been wary of being upstaged by China in Nepal. This time too, Kathmandu turned to Beijing for fuel supplies. After an agreement with China, on October 28 for 1,000 metric tons of fuel came through its border post at Rasuwagadi. Until the protests, India supplied 1.3 million tonnes of petroleum products worth Rs 9,000 crore annually.But now more trucks aren’t taking the quake-hit highway from China.Negotiations with Beijing on a longterm fuel deal have slowed after differences over whether China should waive taxes on the supplies.Many trucks have returned from Birgunj. But this town has learnt to live with the “blockade” – it’s now a thriving centre of a parallel black economy. Fuel slips in, so do other supplies. At evening shops are lit up, shelves stocked. In fact, all over Nepal a parallel economy has sprung up and many are benefiting from the socalled blockade.After refusing to mediate between Madhesis and Kathmandu, India capitulated, hosting Kamal Thapa, Nepal’s foreign minister. He came with a written assurance that key Madhes demands would be met.