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Data indicate that India’s annual demand for gold stands at 1,400 tons, whereas imports amount to 900 tons. It is necessary to understand that 400-500 tons of gold is being sourced from Nepal.

Although the Department of Revenue Investigation asserted initially that it has the capability to handle an independent probe into the 100-kg gold smuggling case, the government later decided to involve police. This move has raised legitimate concerns.

A high-level committee can bring all suspects under investigation, whereas CIB may not be able to probe top government officials. So, it will be prudent to consider the CPN-UML’s demand for a high-level panel. Such a panel is necessary if we are to stop Nepal from becoming a smugglers’ haven. 

Furthermore, the detention of our party leader in the wake of his demand for the resignation of the Home Minister and Finance Minister appears to be a retaliatory move.

The author is a senior Nepali Congress leader 

In 2014, when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized on the effective implementation of Neighborhood First Policy. Over the past 10 years, it has emerged as a central pillar of India’s overall policy when dealing with its neighbors including Nepal. 

The Indian parliament’s external affairs committee has conducted an in-depth study on the implementation of the policy after consultations with the Ministry of External Affairs and experts, and its report highlights immediate neighbors as “the first circle of priority” in India’s relation with the world. The report also recommends all ministries and departments to approach their engagements with the neighboring countries with a proactive perspective.

According to the committee, the Neighborhood First Policy over the years has achieved benefits like greater regional connectivity, improved infrastructures, stronger development cooperation in various sectors. It has also urged the Ministry of External Affairs to ensure that development projects undertaken in the neighborhood are executed on time by strengthening the joint project monitoring committees and oversight mechanism for monitoring the progress of various development assistance projects.

Only successful implementation of the policy, the report says, requires concerted efforts such as timely execution of development projects and enhancing mutually beneficial cooperation.

The committee has also pointed out the lack of parliamentary exchanges between India and its neighboring countries, which is the key to effective implementation of the Neighborhood First Policy. On open borders, the committee says that anyone who has crossed the border between India’s Uttar Pradesh and Nepal or Bihar and Nepal knows that the cross-border movement is extremely difficult due to the absence of basic infrastructure.  The committee is of the view that India needs to invest massively in upgrading infrastructure—from roads to rail, from land waterways to ports, from energy and telecommunication to digital customs.

Regarding the regional organizations, the committee says that India’s engagement with its neighbors under regional frameworks— such as South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC); Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC); and Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal Motor Vehicle Agreement BBIN— is an important element of India’s Neighborhood First Policy.  

The committee has suggested the Indian government to play a more proactive role both in SAARC and BIMSTEC, and formulate a fresh strategy to keep them active and utilize them whenever the occasion arises. The Modi government, however, is not so keen to revive the SAARC process.

According to the committee’s report, SAARC has a strategic importance, so no member country should be allowed to impede its effective functioning, and that collective efforts need to be made by other member countries to thwart any attempts to destabilize it.

The Indian committee has suggested that the Indian government coordinate among the majority of the member countries ignoring one (Pakistan), so that regional cooperation under SAARC is not hampered due to the lack of the response from one country. 

Addressing the parliament, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Raj Kumar Ranjan Singh recently informed the Indian parliament that India accorded utmost importance to expanding connectivity in its neighborhood and beyond, encompassing all elements of physical, cultural economic and people-to-people linkages. 

India’s Act East Policy, Neighborhood First Policy, Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) and BIMSTEC have strengthened connectivity in the region, he added.

Singh said some of the key connectivity initiatives between India and its neighbors include the BBIN; the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway Initiative; Chabahar Agreement between India, Iran and Afghanistan;, and Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor. 

Through Neighborhood First Policy, connectivity, commerce, culture and people-to-people, Singh claimed that linkages with India’s neighbors have been improved.

The Indian parliamentary committee has observed that India’s relations with Nepal have expanded to new initiatives in agriculture, inland waterways, and power sector cooperation.  The Inland waterways between two countries with multi-modal transportation routes via Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh was announced in 2019. Two of the terminals at Varanasi and Sahibgunj have already been completed and work is underway to complete the remaining terminals.

Highlights of the report

• India’s bilateral relations with Nepal have expanded to new initiatives in agriculture, inland waterways, and power sector cooperation. The ‘India Nepal New Partnership’ in Agriculture, which focuses on collaborative projects in agriculture education and R&D, was launched in April 2018.

• The Inland waterways connectivity between India and Nepal with four multi-modal transportation routes via Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh was announced in 2019. Two of the terminals at Varanasi and Sahibgunj have already been completed and work is underway for the completion of remaining terminals.

• The Indian government is in the process of upgrading India-Nepal border trade infrastructure, with an objective to reduce bottlenecks, accelerate clearances and promote the creation of regional economic hubs.

• In view of the importance of cross-border railway link between India and Nepal for strengthening of border infrastructure and greater people to people link, India’s parliament committee for external affairs has urged the Indian government for early operationalization of the ongoing rail link projects and completion of the feasibility study of the proposed Raxaul-Kathmandu broad gauge rail link.

• India’s engagement with its neighbors under regional frameworks like SAARC, BIMSTEC and BBIN is an important element of the Neighborhood First Policy.

• The committee believes while BIMSTEC has emerged as an important regional organization in recent years, not much progress has been made under SAARC due to hurdles created by one member state.

• Though SAARC has made good progress in some areas of cooperation, it has not been able to achieve its full potential as several important connectivity and trade initiatives such as SAARC Motor Vehicle Agreement, SAARC Railways Agreement, Agreement on Regional Air Services, Agreement on Trade in Services, etc. are held up since 2014 due to the lack of consensus among all member states.

• India should take more initiatives for elimination of destabilizing forces like terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, etc. in the region through collective efforts of all neighboring countries.

• The parliamentary committee advises the Indian government to implement the BIMSTEC Master Plan for Transport Connectivity at the earliest.

• The committee is of the opinion that no member country should be allowed to impede the effective functioning of regional forums.

Of course yes, the whole world knows what a rainbow is. ‘Do you know what primary colors are’? Art teacher (Sonam Sherpa) asked me when I was in class five. I reckon those days, no burden, nothing to do, just time pass. Just play and read (not all the time). Life was full of excitement; but something was there which haunted me badly in those days. It was an economic burden to my parents…  

I replied immediately: Blue, red and yellow.  The whole world is colorful because of these three primary colors.  All other colors, which we find in nature, are the gift of them (primary colors).  

Let us open the window, see outside or go upstairs at the rooftop (terrace), or go down to the ground (garden may be). Look up, high in the sky, what do we find? A glance of clear blue sky with its depth: Floating cotton white clouds. Anything more can we see?  Yes, sometimes birds fly, another man made things (airplanes). What a peculiar creation! Blue, deep and calm. If you put down your eyes just in front of you, an age-old green tree stands full of historical facts.  In fact, the hills are alive because of the green.  The ground is matted with green carpet of meadows where cattle graze.

If you wake up early in the morning before dawn, keep your eyes toward the eastern sky, there you find Dog Star (Sirius), just above the colorful rays of the sun painted in the sky. Slowly and gradually, the sun appears shining from the horizon with glittering golden colors. But there is a saying in English ‘all that glitters is not gold’. Then what is it?  Something that is a thousand times more precious than gold. That’s beautiful nature. Beautiful morning, it is an orange too—a combination of red and yellow. There is a perfect color blend and balance in nature. Who is the great artist, the creator of this wonderful and colorful world?  Do you know?  Nobody knows, in fact, some may say there is supernatural power. What is that power? Where does it exist? It’s in heaven or hell? Is that God?  It’s too complex a question to answer. Exactly so, to me,  when we think of heaven we feel happy. It’s full of yellow—enchantment whereas hell is something dark, no progress, and the heart is full of jealousy, hatred, chaos and anxiety (like that of Nepali political system).  

One of my friends came rushing to me and said that he got the green signal from his lover. Green has a symbolic meaning. Every color has a symbolic meaning. We celebrate numerous festivals where Red has become the ‘role model’ color to express the meaning of every cultural trait.  

Children on Dec 25 night wait for an aged Santa Claus with a red suit having a silvery white bear as a gift of blessings. It is a colorful night of excitement and joy to the world of Christianity. 

In fact, nobody likes to live in a world without colors.  When we are sad there is supposed to be gray more than that gloomy dark color (maybe Hungarian poet’s gloomy Sunday). We can’t decolorize colors.  How to express feelings? It is easy for the artists. Abstract paintings are full of abstract feeling having vivid expressions. It studies the psychic behavior of human beings. So, it is color psychology or color phenomenology, which studies human behavior, aptitude, and so on. 

Color plays a vital role in the life of every individual. We say ‘black beauty’. Do you think black is beautiful?  Here comes the graceful girl; black may be graceful, fun loving but not beautiful! That’s what you think? She looks beautiful because of her white and rosy face, having a lean and thin body; what we call zero-size figures.  If a man (female too) is judged by color and race, what will be the condition of African countries? Among the flowers, the sunflower is quite big.  It is a yellow-colored flower, in great demand in the world market today.  It is not because of its color, nor because of oil preparation. 

“Sunflower” the greatest impressionist painting gift to the world by Vincent Van Gog. What can we give to others if anyone asks us? Van Gog gave his ear to his beloved, though she had just joked! He gave red to her. She was startled and confused and rejected his true, colorful love.  He later committed suicide; nonetheless, he was the world-renowned artist, who lives in the heart of scholars and artists around the world.  

‘What a sweet smile’ is the colorful expression of all young and old, hermit or professors, scientists or politicians, philosophers or doctors.  It is the greatest gift of nature to human beings. No other creature possesses the art of smiling. That’s why we are always full of colors and enchantment. Thus, we understand the language of smile; hence colors speak all languages.

‘I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki’ by Baek Sehee is less than 200 pages long. The chapters are short too. You will be able to read it in a single sitting. But you won’t be done with the book so soon. You will want to keep rereading passages and dipping in and out. I’m not someone who likes to underline and write in her books but my copy of ‘I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki’ is filled with scribbles and notes. I wanted to be reminded of some things over and over again.

Part memoir, part self-help, the book is a record of the therapy the author received for dysthymia, or persistent depressive disorder (a state of constant, light depression). Written by a young woman who is struggling through life, caught in a web of mood swings and ups and downs, the book is highly relatable and discusses fairly common issues like low self-esteem, jealousy, anger, etc. It also highlights how social media and society put pressure on us to conform—look a certain way, behave a certain way, etc—and how that can have a detrimental effect on our mental health.

Baek Sehee decided to open up her sessions to the world by writing a book because she wanted others who were going through the same problem as hers to know that they weren’t alone. Early on, in the introduction, she admits that the next book she writes might not be as honest but she will try to do everything she can to help those going through mental health issues.

Baek Sehee’s book quickly became a Korean bestseller. It was even recommended by a BTS member. Mental health problems are highly stigmatized in Korean society, despite highly stressful work and social environment being a leading cause of suicides among youths. This book sheds light on what it’s like living with mental health issues and how getting help can prevent problems from escalating. I Want to Die But ‘I Want to Eat Tteokbokki’ is an insightful and eye-opening take on the importance of acknowledging mental health conditions as any other health problem and how therapy can be a boon.

Memoir

I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokbokki

Baek Sehee

Translated into English by Anton Hur

Published: 2018

Publisher: Bloomsbury

Pages: 194, Paperback