Kathmandu: The Sangam Institute for Policy Analysis and Strategic Studies August 21, 2009, organized a daylong seminar on the topic, “National Interest and National Security of Nepal”.

The seminar saw the active participation of Nepal’s noted academicians, media men, retired military men, and former diplomats of the country.

Welcoming the attending participants, the Executive Director of the Institute, Dr. Pushpa Adhikari said that “national interest covered different strategies of desires on the part of the sovereign states that may vary from one State to the other and thus could be different, and in case of Nepal, than during the time of its unification and what it stands today”.

Dr. Adhikari opined that, “there is an irreducible core of any nation-state at any time and that such a core consisted of the nation’s vital interests, those for which a state is normally willing to fight immediately or ultimately”.

According to Dr. Adhikari, “such vital interests include the very protection of their territory and the preservation of their prestige of the concerned nation-state”.

In an implied manner Dr. Adhikari was hinting at the SUSTA Bara, and Dang land encroachment by India and the stoic silence observed by the Nepali government. His message went well among the participants. The message was loud and clear.

The seminar had two sessions.

Initiating the proceedings of the first session, the Chair, Mr. Kamal Thapa lauded the efforts of the seminar organizers and said that the timing of this event/seminar has come at a time when Nepal as a nation-state was experiencing great threat to its very existence.

“Since Nepal’s territorial integrity, national sovereignty and national unity are under threat and thus it was high time to devise a sort of effective mechanism on how to bring Nepal out completely unscathed from the current political hotchpotches which have contributed much to invite such dangerous threats to the nation-state as it stood today”, said Kamal Thapa.

Mr. Thapa opined that political system may change as per the wishes of the people, however, issues such as that of the preservation of national security and national interests remain intact which thus demanded immediate attention from all the responsible quarters of the society.

“National security and national interests can’t be compromised”, Thapa continued. 

“Even demands of secession from the nation-state have begun surfacing from certain political quarters which bodes ill for the country”, Thapa added.

Nepal’s academia, members of the civil society, media men and political leaders must converge at a point and act in consonance in order to protect Nepal’s national interests and national security under any circumstances, Thapa maintained.

“The threat is real”, Thapa concluded.

Thapa depicted the current Nepali politics to have been in a very chaotic situation apparently indicating that the revival of the royal institution could save the country from going to the dogs. However, he later clarified that he just wanted to say whether Nepal could exist in the world map as a nation-state without the institution of the monarchy?

The first session had three papers from three eminent Nepali scholars. Professor Dr. Sushil Raj Pandey made his presentation on “National Interest and national Security: Theory and Practice in Nepal”.

Mr. Pandey says, “all nations practice their own mode of national security and no two nations have identical structures and functions and that the approach to national security study can’t be static given the changing nature of the world we live in and every nation is specific in its designs of security strategy which is crafted according to its national needs and environment”.

According to Professor Pandey, the foreign policy of Nepal was in essence crafted by the unifier of the nation, King P.N. Shah-the Great long time back who had said that Nepal was like a yam in between two boulders.

Says Professor Pandey in an implied manner that the policy crafted by late unifier of the nation was the best and thus advised the Nepalese leaders to stick to that policy as it was still relevant.

“The Nepali political leaders in different phases since the evolution of the Nepali nation have carefully charted this road and whenever wayward steps were taken mistakes were made and heavy price had to be occurred”, claims Pandey.

Professor Pandey very much saw the need for the publication of a “white paper with national security doctrine” by the government which will enable, adds Dr. Pandey, a New Nepal to enter the twenty-first century and travel safely on the strategic highway of global security with proper confidence”.

He, however, questioned as to why the November 22, 2005, 12 point agreement was signed in New Delhi by the agitating parties with the Maoists?

Why Delhi but not Nepal’s ROLPA? Dr. Pandey questioned wherein the implying message was that the signing of the said agreement in an alien land may plague the nation for long time to come in one way or the other.

To recall, it was Girija Prasad Koirala who pressed Prachanda to come to Delhi from Rolpa as the captain of the rebels was then loitering around Rolpa jungles.

If then should we presume that had the 12 point agreement been signed in Rolpa would have distanced New Delhi’s role in the politics that emerged thereafter signing of the said agreement?

Keep on guessing.

The second paper was presented by senior journalist Professor P. Kharel.

Kharel opened his remarks by stating that “elected governments not necessarily promote press freedom”.

According to Prof. Kharel, manipulation of the media, subtly or otherwise, is extensive even in democratic countries and thus Nepal could not be an exception”.

He claims that even in widely recognized world’s democracies, the media men were seduced or for that matter the media organization twisted and made to speak the government version.

The third paper was from Dr. Shankar Sharma who has already been awarded an Ambassadorial post in the United States for his leaning towards the Nepali Congress.

Dr. Sharma made his presentation on “National Interest and Development Paradigm of Nepal”.

The veteran economist mainly focused on the prevailing income disparity in the country and stressed the need for devising a mechanism that could ensure and secure economic security to keep the development process going.

“In the current process of development in Nepal, 20% contribution to this development came from Human resources and the rest 80% from the Capital assets”, revealed Dr. Sharma.

Dr. Sharma cited the example of China.

Dwelling on the question of exclusion, Dr. Sharma opines that 74% of the problem of exclusion can be at best addressed by the government through the effective use of policy strategies/measures and the rest through remittance.

Problems of human dimension such as exclusion should be properly addressed by political leaders which demanded their strong commitment in this regard, adds Dr. Sharma.

Remittance has contributed 20% of growth in Gross national income by earning 200 billion each year, claims Dr. Sharma.

The second session was chaired by Ambassador Keshav Raj Jha.

The fourth paper was presented by Brigadier General (Retd) Keshar Bahadur Bhandari on “Civil Military Relations in Democratic Transition of Nepal”.

Mr. Bhandari says, “we all boast today of being a Nepali because of King P.N. Shah’s sole vision and effort to unify Nepal as one single entity and to be more rational and for the greater interest of our identity it will be wise to set aside petty differences that may have raised today over the incident that might have taken place during the unification campaign”.

Mr. Bhandari further goes on to say, “civilian supremacy will prevail only when the new constitution is drafted on time and the law and order and stability prevail and thus all the parties need to understand “civilian supremacy” in a wider and deeper context and given Nepal’s specific political history, the leaders need to question themselves as to how their action assists civilian supremacy or undermine it?.

The last paper was from Dr. Saubhagya Shah, department of Conflict, Peace and development, T.U.

Security sector reform contributes to conflict resolution, says Dr. Shah.

According to this Conflict management expert, the presence of para-military forces in the country doesn’t enhance the prestige of the country.

Dr. Shah opines that the national Army should be used to safeguard the country’s frontiers but not engaged in building infrastructure as is being given to understand to the population by some high flying political leaders.

There should be a perfect balance in between development and security, maintains Dr. Shah.

“Democracy, promotion of Human Rights, civilian control must go together in institutionalizing harmonious civil-military relations.

Ambassador Jha from the Chair thanked the Sangam Institute for having organized a seminar of national importance. He also thanked the paper presenters for their hard work and hoped that the message of the seminar proceedings will be well taken care of by the concerned authorities while drafting a national security policy.

The telegraphnepal.com too congratulates the Sangam Institute for having organized a timely seminar on a vibrant topic.

Comments (2)

i agree with ranjan. but they have talked of security as well. any way it is their view. you may not agree. your choice.

Commented by seminar expert - August 26, 2009 @ 9:03 AM

the conclusion of this seminar is we need king in nepal .

Commented by ranjan - August 26, 2009 @ 7:14 AM

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