Nepal spurns 'big brother' India for China's embrace, but dragon's smother will suffocate Kathmandu

Few Indians will recall with clarity how swiftly and easily the Chinese annexed Tibet and set up a puppet government under the Dalai Lama. With India and Nepal sharing tradition, culture, language, religion and even blood, one would imagine that would slow down the Nepalese embrace of China’s mandarins. The recent snub by the Nepal army chief General Purna Chandra Thapa declining India’s invitation to the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation military exercise and its decision to stay away from the conclave of army chiefs, which is designed to collectively tackle terrorism, could have been explained away as pressure from the exigencies of a new appointment. The change in priorities is tangible and deliberate and New Delhi must pump the brakes on Prime Minister KP Oli’s little two-step with China before it turns into a whirling dervish and Nepal goes the way of Tibet. The plan to create a rail link from Kathmandu to Gyirong in Tibet and then use the transmodal option to mainland China is not seen as commercially viable for goods, but it certainly adds a major stitch to the buying up of Nepal: pretty much like what happened in Sri Lanka.