Is Nepal in the fools' paradise over the Kashmir crisis?

What's happening in Jannat, (one of the) heavens on Planet Earth after India invoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, depriving Jammu and Kashmir of special status without taking local political parties into confidence, bifurcating amid a curfew like situation the erstwhile Muslim-majority independent state with a Hindu monarch that had to sign into the instrument of accession with India in the wake of looming threats from Pakistan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instrument_of_Accession_(Jammu_and_Kashmir)? 

The crisis in the Jannat has some of our political analysts overworked, but this is nothing compared to the punditry of some of the seasoned analysts across the southern border. Amazingly, some among our crop of analysts are consigning it as a purely domestic (The link is in Nepali. Yours truly is posting this, with the belief that learning a bit of Nepali will do you guys no harm) matter of India, pointing that we do not need to rack our brains over it (For one, do our best minds not know that Nepali youths have been serving in the Indian Army and are often the first casualties in any conflict with Pakistan?) Yours truly takes this input with a little bit of scepticism given that nothing in this interconnected world is purely domestic anymore. Anyway, if the matter was unlikely to affect Nepal, would the emerging global power like India bother to talk with Nepal about it

Indeed, when the promulgation of a Constitution through a popularly-elected Constituent Assembly of a sovereign country becomes a serious matter of neighbourly and international concern with such heavyweights as the southern neighbour and the European Union expressing concerns, what else can be domestic in this day and age?  

The evolving Kashmir crisis has further stressed India's relations with Pakistan and China, with Union Home Minister making it loud and clear that Aksai Chin (now with China) and Gilgit Baluchistan are also part of Jammu and Kashmir. The crisis seems to have already started polarising global giants with Russia siding with India on the Kashmir dispute and giving China, most probably, a rude shock. So, even if it were a purely domestic matter, it has already crossed the borders, giving all the more reason to try every bit to resolve every crisis within the national boundaries by taking all actors on board, including the opposition, local political parties and local peoples, instead of cutting off telephone lines, the internet, shutting the streets and driving away tourists from the Jannat. 

Worryingly, the ruling BJP, buoyed by a strong majority in the Parliament, is unlikely to stop at this (mis)adventure. If things worsen, it may tweak with the special status given to other states like Sikkim, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal, deepening the brewing political crisis further and contributing to instability in the immediate neighbourhood. 

Yours truly does not even want to think about the crisis that may grip this subcontinent if the BJP chooses to implement the vision of Akhand Bharat. 

Already, there are apprehensions about BJP plans to implement the National Citizens Register with several quarters fearing that it will render a huge number of peoples stateless. Brewing crises across the open border give no comfort for Nepal as it is often at the receiving end, despite assessments from some of the 'finest crop' of political pundits writing for the 'largest selling dailies' that Nepal will not be affected. Noteworthy is the fact that Nepal, despite dealing with political instability and unemployment, has been hosting refugees from as far as Syria, Bhutan and Myanmar, countries with which it has no land border, thanks to a little help from neighbours and friends.

Text: Devendra Gautam

Pic: Google Map