Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) on Saturday flew to China to participate in the concluding ceremony of the Beijing Olympics 2008.
He was invited by the Chinese government on the eve of the Olympics. But Nepal’s political deadlock and the existing controversies, no head of the state or the government executive was able to join Beijing authorities on the inaugural session of the Olympics ceremony.
The then caretaker Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala went to Colombo to take part in the 15th SAARC Summit when the Beijing Olympics commenced.
Indian media have taken Maoist Prime Minister Prachanda’ visit to China differently. Due to Nepal’s geopolitical sensitivity, a newly appointed prime minister’s first visit to India or China is understood from different perspectives.
Most usually, Nepal’s previous prime ministers, as soon as they were appointed, used to be invited by India for an official visit. Past prime ministers would not start any work unless they visited India first after being appointed the head of the government.
Maoist Prime Minster Prachanda was also expected to visit India first because the Indian Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh had already informally invited him. But the concluding session of the Beijing Olympics compelled Prachanda to change the tradition. Many countries’ heads of governments or states have already attended the mega-events of the Beijing Olympics.
Perhaps Indian critics and analysts might be calculating this issue from their own traditionalist perspectives.
However, the Nepalis long-suffering from oil crisis and imbalanced neighborly relations (Nepal is 99% tilted towards India, losing the opportunity to trade with China’s huge market), are eager to taste some new turns in foreign policy.
Should Prime Minister Prachanda be able to develop some key outlines for balanced neighborly relations with both China and India, the Nepalis will be able to have a better long-term future.
Although the newly formed government is under the leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the Communist Party of China is not likely to approve of what the Nepali counterpart proposes. There are vast differences between the Chinese and Nepali communists.
China subtly and somewhat directly adopted the capitalist path immediately after the demise of Chairman Mao of the Communist Party of China in 1976. Anti-Maoist leader Deng Xiao Ping jailed all followers of Maoism after Mao’s demise.
Under the leadership of Deng Xiao Ping, China joined the mainstream US-led market economy, thus capitalist principles.
Modernization of China has been mainly attributed to Deng’s path. Yet, the widespread poverty and corruption cultivated by individualism and commercialism in China have truly proved that disguised socialists have betrayed Maoist vision in China.
Contrarily, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has said that they still are in the revolutionary process. They have termed the ongoing peace process as a component of the ongoing revolution.
Counter to this argument, ordinary Nepalis complain that their daily life is becoming more regressive and counter-revolutionary despite declarations of republic and federalism in the country.
Despite confusions and frustrations among people, Prime Minister’s China visit will be fruitful as far the negative impact of Nepal’s one-sided neighborly relations is concerned.
The 11-member visiting team also includes Prime Minister Prachanda’s wife Sita Poudel, Media Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara and Foreign Secretary Gyan Chandra Acharya.
Dahal will meet his counterpart Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jin Tao during his China visit. He will be back home on 27 August.