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Countries like Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka dont really have a future as independent nations. These are countries that top the chart on Failed State Index. The more Nepal’s politicians, monarchy and ruling elites (of whatever political denominations) fails them the more they will use India as a scapegoat. Their media and blog sites are rife with accusations against India. Their young people are brainwashed into believing that India is actually conspiring to annex Nepal. (In fact if they actually get over their emotional rhetoricing and hollow nationalism they would see its actually a good thing.)

And yet these countries can do as much as nothing without help from India. Even the bill for the hydro power projects in Nepal has to be pocketed by India through long term purchase agreements and by private Indian investors. Nepal has enormous surplus potential for hydro power export. But it just cant do without India. Its only market is India, its only investor is India. And it needs India for technology and construction. And yet none of these can go forward without political stability. What many Nepalese dont know is that Nepal get more Indian governmental aid then what states like Bihar and Orissa gets from the center. What they would rather have India do is get the necessary financial and developmental help from India then tell them to f***off and not meddle in their affairs.

The irony of Nepal is that all sides are desperate to get India’s recognition and favour but in public they want to appear as though they are defying India and standing up to “Indian hegemony” (an oft repeated word in Nepali polity). And they compete among themselves on it. They hurl the favourite “India tool” label on their opponents whenever a side is seen to be too friendly to India. Its not that India has anything to do with it but an indication of how much India is dominating their psyche and how strong a projection of defiance is required to overcome such a psyche. Their projection of India in their minds and the fear thereof is far bigger then the reality of how much Indians are really interested in conquering and dominating over Nepal.

Its not that India is dying to conquer another Bihar like state but very soon there maybe a situation where Nepal will collapse and will have to join Indian union for survival. Each year more people come into India from Nepal then the other way round. The choice would be to either fence them off like we did with B’desh or absorb them. I would prefer India absorbing Nepal. After all they are just the same as India in every way. Absolutely nothing is different about them.