Mister Terminator created a political whirlwind, if not a havoc, inside the parliament by declaring “Nepal, too, has encroached India’s land”. Saving India, I suppose, no one seems to be happy with his impromptu response, akin to a rap battle mode, coming from a person at the highest level of authority, that too, in the parliament and, to add insult to the injury, on the eve of his president visiting India. An online news portal equated the statement with “suicidal goal”.
How many of us remember school days when a character seeking to play smart, ignoring home works, coming late to attend class sessions, and, at the same time, seek to outfox others by entering into a frivolous Q and A sessions? We know these “know-all” characters act, probably, to impress some ladies in the classroom or outsmart their competitors.
He made further mistake by seeking to invite Britain, a third party, to the problem. I really don’t know whether England to be sovereign country in Britain. However, what is amazing is to find his die hard fans believe the statement as a part of carefully designed negotiation strategy to lure India to a bargaining table talk. Some genius termed it as a “reverse diplomacy” or a new approach in thinking. Others praise for making a bold statement - a move towards a concept of “Greater Nepal”. His foreign ministry, including the spokesman, sought to control damages by referring to “cross-boarder holdings and occupations”. No one is listening to them. There is a Nepali saying, “do not expect a bullet fired from a gun or a word released from your mouth to return.”
Hated and humiliated opposition found a big dose of masala to stall House sessions. Students and youth wings, on the streets, are calling for his resignation. When it comes to nationalism, we Nepalese have an inflated ego. That is for sure.
The needless comment has come at a time, when India, or any other country in the world, has ever claimed Nepal encroaching land of other countries. It is almost like Putin claiming land encroachment in Ukraine. It is rare or next to impossible. It is rare to find even a legitimate encroacher admitting he or she encroached other country’s land or property. The statement may provide an edge to India and may reduce Nepal to a defensive mode. What this scribe read is; seeking to divert, distract or diffuse the attention of opposition, he was simply making, careless, an off-the-cuff comment. It could even be a faux pas. But there is a price to pay. More delays in correcting the statement means more trouble in the days to come. This is not going to fizzle out so easily.
Earlier, his own party members and the opposition were put on awkward situation by his eccentricities - of not attending the parliamentary sessions or of him keeping in mute position. Now, people are asking it is better he kept his mouth shut than babbling non-sense like Nepal encroaching other country’s land.
The rational solution will be to take back his words. But his inflated ego will not allow him to do this. Ignoring the demands of the opposition or further delays in responding the problem only complicate the situation. His unsolicited advisor Dr Babu Ram Bhattarai has a liner from Mahabharat: Even truth need to be spoken with sugar coated words. But the fact is that he spoke false with a loud mouth.
