In the aftermath of the Covid-19 situation, Nepal is now facing challenges which are causing instability in their political system and public administration. In addition, political conflicts with their border neighboring nations, India and China need addressing.
Having a population of 30 million people, Nepal is a landlocked country located in South Asia. It is a beautiful country, home to the Himalayas and Mt. Everest. In 2015, Nepal faced a massive earthquake that took the lives of 9000 people, and it almost crippled their economy. They have made progressive recovery since then but now they are facing multiple challenges. Alongside the pandemic, global economic crisis and devastating floods and landslides, this Himalayan nation has been in political and diplomatic turmoil over its disputed border with large neighbors like China and India.
The Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF South Asia), organised an online seminar, ‘Nepal: Himalayan Country in Crisis?’ on 29 June 2021. The programme addressed the current pandemic and political crisis, which Nepal is facing and presented a solution through collaboration.
Panelists of this online seminar were Suhasini Haider, Diplomatic Affairs (Editor of The Hindu), Dhawal Shamsher Rana, Mayor of Nepalgunj, and Gagan Thapa, Member of Parliament. Bhishal Bhakal, a social entrepreneur, moderated the event. Special guest and keynote speaker was Bettina Stark-Watzinger, German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Member of German Bundestag.
Bhishal Bhakal started this programme by presenting a pandemic related question towards the panelists. He wanted to know how the first wave of the pandemic has affected the Nepal community and what effective measureswere takento counter it.
Dhawal Shamsher Rana mentioned that the first wave of the pandemic hit them “really bad”. “We in Nepal thought that this Covid-19 virus wouldn’t even touch us because it came late into our country. It all started from my city Nepalgunj. One person was affected, and the next day it was 23. Then rapidly it started to spread and my city became a hotspot for this virus. At the beginning people weren’t even willing to take tests.”
As for the counter measures, Gagan Thapa said, “Throughout the first wave I lobbied extensively within and outside the parliament to pressurize the government on Covid-19 management. We had to supply equipment to the local hospitals as we didn’t even have basic PPE’s. Also I used social media to provide and fight against misinformation regarding Covid-19 virus.”
After listening to the Nepal perspectives, Bhishal Bhakal asked Suhasini Haider to share some positive aspects from Indian perspective in relation to Covid-19.
Suhasini Haider began to explain in numbers how many people are getting affected daily in India. She also admitted there was a huge shortage of oxygen supply, blood plasma therapy, virus containment issues and many flaws from the government in terms of their decision making in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. Coming to the positive side, she said, “One of the great initiatives which I saw is regular people and the authorities working together. For example, one of our places had a combined central control room where through the help of local people, they would gain information and pass it onto the next person who needed that information through instant texts. Another thing I saw was workers working 24/7 nonstop without a break.”
Coming to the topic of bilateral and multilateral relations, the moderator asked Dhawal Shamsher Rana, “Since Nepal is a landlocked country, how regional and border multilateralism worked for them in terms of Covid-19 vaccination?”
“Everything collapsed actually”, Dhawal Shamsher Rana answered. “India decided to stop the supply of vaccines after giving us our first doses. Then suddenly, there is hunger among our people for the second dose of vaccine. We bought a certain amount from China and we are going to buy from them again. However, we all know there is a shortage in vaccine supply, and all the politics that goes around with it. At first, there was no mask supply in the world, then oxygen and now vaccines. Our people are waiting for the vaccine and our government has failed to deliver it to them. As of now, we are not getting any help from China, nor India.”
Moderator Bhishal Bhakal wanted to know Gagan Thapa’s opinion.
Gagan Thapa mentioned that at this point they are “not proud” to be in between India and China since they are not being able to supply the vaccines. He strongly pointed out that Nepal is in dire need of the vaccines. “We are getting promises from our friends, which is good and comforting but in this current crisis we don’t need anything but vaccines. Speaking about the regional structures SAARC and BIMSTEC, they are not to be trusted since they could not even help us in times of normal crisis. There are no strong regional structures, of which we can expect help from South Asia region as a whole. So we have to rely on help from our neighbors.”
Indicating the situation of the regional structures, Bhishal Bhakal asked Suhasini Haider how Nepal could pitch in its voice to get help for this current crisis.
“Last year in March, India chaired the SAARC committee. India began the idea of discussing Covid-19 situation in South Asia by SAARC format. Nevertheless, after that we did not do our homework. And I’m not just blaming India for this,” said Suhasini Haider. She also added, “The truth is India thrives itself for being the biggest vaccine manufacturer in the world, but because of miscalculations, there were errors. To be honest, even countries across south Asia did not make any proper plans. Instead of delivering vaccines to 95 countries around the world because of political alliances and everything, if we delivered it only amongst ourselves in South Asia then the situation would’ve been much better.”
The seminar agreed that regional leaders of South Asia must come upon a solution to save Nepal from the crisis that they are facing and ensure that they get proper support from their neighboring countries, especially India and China.