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The Prime Minister of Nepal and the leader of the Nepalese Communist Party recently took jibes at India’s ruling party by saying that the popular Hindu god, Rama was born in Nepal. Experts said this is an attack on the people-to-people connections of the two nations, and the Chinese are using the Nepalese Communist Party to attack India.
Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli said in a cultural event at Kathmandu on July 13 that Rama who is followed by millions of Hindus across the world and is believed to be born in India was actually born in Nepal. At issue are two towns, one in India and one in Nepal, with the name Ayodhya.
Rama whose story is told in the famous Hindu epic, “Ramayana” is generally believed to be born in Ayodhya, in today’s state of Uttar Pradesh and his wife Sita is believed to be born in either in Bihar in central India or in Janakpur in Nepal. But Oli believes both were born in Nepal.
“We still believe we gave Sita to Prince Ram but we gave the prince too, from Ayodhya, not India. Ayodhya is a village a little west (of) Birgunj (a district in Nepal that is around 135 km from capital Kathmandu),” Prime Minister Oli said, according聽to Setopati.com, a Nepalese digital newspaper.
The story of “Ramayana” has influenced the cultural values in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Thailand and has various adaptations in these countries.
India’s ruling party, Bhartiya Janta Party has a three-decade-long tryst with Rama as a religious icon as it has fought many elections on the issue of building a temple at Ayodhya.
The resulting Ram Janambhoomi (Rama’s birthplace) Movement reached its culmination after the Supreme Court of India last year passed a verdict that paved the way for the construction of the temple at the site. Experts believe behind raking up the issue of Rama’s birthplace, Oli has political intentions.
A model of the temple at Ayodhya, the birthplace of popular Hindu god, Rama. (SANJAY KANOJIA/AFP via Getty Images)“Oli is just trying to strike at the heart of Indo-Nepal ties, which is a religious and cultural convergence. By making these ludicrous remarks he is trying to appropriate an icon which is widely revered in India and can potentially lead to India responding strongly,” Harsh Pant, a political analyst with the Observers Research Foundation told The Epoch Times over the phone.
Girish Kant Pandey, a political analyst and an associate professor at the Department of Defence Studies from Gorakhpur University told The Epoch Times over the phone that Oli didn’t consider geography when he made comments about Rama’s birthplace.
“Oli made comments about Rama to instigate anti-India sentiment in Nepal. But he went back on it when Nepalese protested against his statement. People started to ask him that if Rama was born in Nepal, then the Saryu River should also be flowing in Nepal because the actual Ayodhya (as mentioned in the epic) is on the banks of the Saryu. That’s why Oli is silent now,” said Pandey.
The Saryu River mentioned in the Indian ancient scriptures, including the “Ramayana,” flows through the modern-day state of Uttar Pradesh in India.
Infighting in Nepalese Community Party
Oli comments come in the wake of political infighting inside the Nepalese Communist Party, an alliance between聽Nepal’s Maoist former rebels and the liberal Communist UML (Unified-Marxist-Leninist) that came to power in May 2018 after defeating pro-India Nepali Congress Party鈥攁 first majority government in 19 years in a nation plagued by unstable coalitions.
Problems appeared in the Nepalese government due to a stalemate between the co-chairman of the ruling alliance, Nepalese Communist Party, P.K. Dahal, and Oli, and Dahal wanted Oli to step down from power.
In the first week of July, almost 31 of the 45 members of the Communist Party’s standing committee had asked Oli to step down.
Aparna Pande, director of the Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia at the Hudson Institute, told The Epoch Times over a chat platform that the internal political crisis propelled Oli to make such statements.
“It is easy to use identity politics and fear of a big brother when some fear exists,” said Pande. By big brother, she here refers to India.
Pant said the statement would have lead to a wider public backlash if India would have responded to Oli’s comments. “Fortunate New Delhi decided to ignore his remarks,” he said.
India-Nepal relations have not been going smoothly recently with both the nations embroiled over a long-pending border dispute. The Nepalese Parliament recently passed a resolution including three territories in its map that India currently administers.
Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli (center R) reviews a military honor guard with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on June 21, 2018. (GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)China Gains
Experts said the Nepalese Communist Party is connected more with the Chinese Communist Party, while India and Nepal relations are more people-centric with about 6 million Nepalese living and working in India, according to government sources.
Pant said the Chinese ambassador in Nepal intervened and helped to save Oli’s office as well as his government as Chinese Communist Party wants the communist regime to survive in Nepal for the CCP’s own benefit.
“China is using its leverage with the communist party of Nepal to target India via Nepal,” he said.
Pande said in an Op-ed earlier that while India and China were involved in a border dispute that escalated into the killing of 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese soldiers, the Chinese were breeding insecurity in Nepal against the Indian establishment.
“As China beefs up its aggressiveness along the Line of Actual Control, India must also focus on Chinese attempts to make its immediate neighborhood insecure for New Delhi. China’s strategy usually involves multiple simultaneous moves,” said Pande adding that the deterioration of India’s relationships with Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have happened at Beijing’s encouragement.
Pande said the problem also lies in India using a civilizational approach in its relationships in the neighborhood, which is India’s historic and civilizational sphere of influence.
“The wrinkle in the India-Nepal relationship points to the problem India seems to be having with some of its other neighbors, something that China is actively taking advantage of in pursuit of strategic advantage,” said Pande.
“India accepts the sovereignty of all its neighbors but its emphasis on ancient history creates fear that New Delhi’s goal might be to diminish the separate identities of its smaller neighbors,” she said adding that such an approach is helping Nepalese politicians produce an “ultra-nationalist” sentiment.
Focus News: Nepalese Communist Leader Takes Aim at India’s Ruling Party With Attacks on Religious Icon