Time to regulate and ultimately shut the open border
Are we a free country, where anyone is welcome? You see, with the thick cover of forest no more there in the southern plains of Nepal and thin presence of Nepali security personnel along the border, there’s virtually no restriction on the free movement of peoples from Indian territories to Nepal, while the movement of peoples from Nepal to the other side of the border remains severely restricted with progressively increased presence of security personnel on the Indian side . For a smaller country like Nepal, it will be impossible to match India's border security presence in terms of number of troops, weapons and surveillance equipment. So, in the long run, we will have to shut the border altogether by desisting from opening one border point after the other for cross-border trade and transit with around two dozen trade points already in operation. What of the historic, people-to-people ties, one may ask? Well, our giant neighbour has such relations with virtually every count...