Nepal has been up in flames recently. Although international media has given the news short shrift, things appear to have been really bad there. News about Nepal made me cast my mind back to my United Nations deployment in Sierra Leone. The guns had fallen silent. Peace-keeping was practically over. A very small group of us were engaged in what was called “capacity building” – the deaf leading the blind? Since it was a small group, we interacted with each other continuously and extensively. One Nepalese officer used to spend much of his time in my office room. One day, while discussing someone else, he just burst out saying, “Who toh Indians se bhi gandaa hai!” [“He is even dirtier than Indians!”] before realising that he was actually talking to an Indian. I was furious and threatened to report him for a racist comment like that and he panicked and apologised profusely. I let it go; however, it made me think how hated we are amongst our neighbours.
The next time I came face to face with the hatred was nearly a full-blown diplomatic crisis with me at the centre of it. I was working with Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), the security regulator for all things aviation in India. The previous hijacking of an Indian aeroplane (IC 814) had been orchestrated after the plane took off from Kathmandu and we were concerned about the security arrangements at Kathmandu airport. I was leading a team of officials from different organisations and ministries for an audit of Kathmandu airport as far as it pertained to our operations there.
Actually, this is a routine matter and within international obligations under the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) mandate. Any ICAO signatory country is obliged to allow inspection of their aviation security arrangements by officials of any other signatory country having aviation operation to and from the former. We were inspecting airports in many countries and officials of other countries used to inspect our arrangements too. I never expected how big a problem my visit was going to be.
Just a day or two before our trip, the Indian High Commission’s office informed me that there was a glitch and that the Nepal government was not willing to permit us. I told them we were coming anyway because we could always travel to Nepal under the existing agreements and if they permitted the audit, fine; else, we’d come back. Later I heard from my IPS colleague at the High Commission that the High Commissioner was not-a-little amused, aghast, and, somewhat admiring – he chuckled, “I like these guys’ attitude!” He worked hard to facilitate the trip and the audit.
When we landed, I was shocked by some of the headlines in the Nepalese newspapers. “India is sending people to destroy our sovereignty.” “Now Indian arms will land in Nepal.” “We are an independent nation.” And, so on. I was also told that the matter of issuing Airport Entry Permits for us was raging in their legislative body (I think, it was called a legislature then) because a Minister had raised strong objections to our proposed audit.
Something funny happened though. A very senior police officer of Nepal (different from the previous mentioned) who had served in the team headed by me in Sierra Leone heard that I was in town, visited me in his personal capacity and took me around the airport and its facilities and discussed a lot of the details, apart from discussing the (good?) old days. The next day, partly because the particular minister realised that I was able to access things without the permit and partly due to the efforts of the Indian High Commission, we were “formally” granted the permits and rest of the audit went smoothly.
I was appalled by the incident. However, I was even more appalled by the attitude of some of the officials in my delegation. The moment we “officially” entered the airport, the guys in my delegation started “directing” the Nepalese officials and “dictating” what they should or shouldn’t do. I called a time-out, gathered them in and told them to strictly follow protocol; their job was not to “oversee” but to observe and ask questions after asking for permission; any observations would be communicated between the governments on govt-to-govt basis through proper channels and any “directions” to the Indian aviation agencies would be communicated during a closed-door de-brief meeting. Believe me, my delegation officials were sputtering and straining at the leash so I had to be even harsher than the previous words suggest.
Even though this was a small incident, it does mirror how we, as a country, have managed to gather so many enemies and so
much hatred in our backyard. We are big and that is our privilege but that is
also our burden. We need not be overbearing. Also, we could be a little more
gracious, and sensitive. Sensitive, above all.
