How not to do a South Asian Treaty…

The initialling of the treaty, the circumstances that preceded, attended and followed it, its ratification followed by nearly immediate descent into disgrace and the limbo it has since lapsed into are part of a larger saga that has its roots in history. This saga spans several regime changes in Nepal, beginning with the Rana dispensation, followed by the brief democratic interlude that gave way to monarchic control through the Panchayat institutions and culminating eventually in multi-party democracy. It has ramifications that extend beyond hydraulic technicalities. It embraces political economy, diplomatic relations between India and Nepal, as well as larger questions of  governance in South Asia. It concerns a riparian border and is therefore enmeshed as much in the skewed 'bilateral geo-politics' of India and Nepal as it is in the calculus of the hydro-technological establishments of both countries.

This being so, the ratification process of the Mahakali Treaty inevitably raises questions about the sociology of political and technical decision-making. It touches on the paradigms of development that dominate in both countries. It also points to the infirmities of the political arena, the subversion of stated principles and instituted protocols. In the case of Nepal, it draws attention to the gap between Parliament as the putative repository and guardian of the sovereign will, and Parliament as the venue for the final surrender of the sovereign will, through a forced consensus achieved by institutionalised corruption. It is above all a saga of gross dereliction by those invested with responsible office and a capitulation to the pressures of a more powerful neighbour.