Jogg Mehar Dahal Case Study

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Jog Mehar Shrestha was an accomplished politician of the panchayat days. When he was living in Kupandole, I bumped into him while visiting my friend who lived next door to Shrestha, and greeted him. I was a mere student and he a former minister.
He asked me how I was doing, how my family was, and how my father was, as if he knew me for ages. I had never met him before, and he did not know my father. But he asked all those questions in a fake familiarity that is often typical of politicians. While the first two questions were innocuous in which you could not go wrong, the last one was sensitive. Thank god, my father was alive. Otherwise, how would I have answered him?
Like Jog Mehar Shrestha, India seems to have prepared the joint statement …show more content…

A joint statement does not always indicate the success of a high-level visit. It could be just the opposite. Not issuing a statement does not always mean the visit was unsuccessful. It only indicates that there were some fundamental differences between the two sides.
In principle, Dahal 's visit has been wanting in many respects. One, you usually do not include anything in the joint statement on which there are differences between the sides. Two, you should respect each other in form and substance, Three, you try to strike a balance and reflect each side 's views equally if there are differences. Four, you do not commit something that is not in your national interest. Five, you only commit something if you can deliver.
Dahal 's India visit has failed all these four tests, and more. It was stupidity on Nepal 's part to include the issue of its constitution in the statement if India was not prepared to welcome the statute. India has been successful this time to establish that its position on the statute has been endorsed no less than Nepal 's prime minister …show more content…

There were also glaring weaknesses on the part of logistics. Leaving the minor ones, let me point out one diplomatic faux pas. When Sita Dahal, the prime minister 's wife, was sitting with Jolly, her one foot was on the sofa and the other on the ground that also outside her sandal.
Did not the Foreign Ministry and New Delhi embassy officials brief Dahal and his wife about diplomatic etiquette? Or Dahal and Mrs. Dahal disregarded what they were told?
However much the poor Prakash Mahat burnish Dahal 's India visit, it was a sort of disaster from the national interest perspective. Dahal and Mahat scored a few personal points as New Delhi loyalists, but the country has lost.
Nepal would have been better off without Dahal 's hasty, unprepared visit to India. To be kind to Dahal, Modi-Dahal meeting was a meeting between the unequals like Jog Mehar Shrestha and me. India premier Modi, who had received a lot of adulation in the recent G-20 summit, and his timid Nepali counterpart cast aside for occasional anti-Indian sins.
And the visit was not meant to advance Nepal 's interest. It was meant to expiate Dahal 's anti-India sins and reinstate him as New Delhi 's loyal poodle. The visit was an enormous success in this

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