Why Prachanda termed his India tour as 'astounding success'

On his arrival back in Kathmandu after a four-day visit to India, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' described his tour an "astounding success". This type of euphoric reply would have to be understood in the context of the kind of "uncomfortable friendship" the two civilisational neighbours were experiencing in the recent past.

Sandwiched between two mega, powerful warring neighbours -- India and China -- on either side of its boarders and being ruled by parties with their ideology totally inimical to its own traditional values and ethos, Nepal is not only undergoing a cultural crisis but the land-locked Himalayan country is also suffering from a huge dilemma on the foreign policy front.

The statement of their PM obviously comes as a major relief to the common people of Nepal as they are quite comfortable with their cultural and civilisational relations with India since time immemorial. But at the government or policy level, Prachanda's remark looks more 'diplomatic' than natural as it's not going to make its recently-found ally China any happy.

Speaking to media persons upon his arrival at Tribhuwan International Airport in Kathmandu, Prachanda said, "This four-day visit has basically resulted in the fulfilment of promises I made before setting foot in India. A slew of agreements of long-term importance was signed, which, in itself, is significant.''

He talked about especially the power-sharing deal he inked with India terming it as ''an important milestone in our bilateral ties" and said that the agreement will help Nepal draw big-ticket investments in the energy sector. But more than that he underscored the "newfound trust and foundation" established through the agreement.

Prachand went to the extent of saying that the tour has "eradicated the mistrust" in bilateral relations between the two countries. He even quoted his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi saying that the ties between the two countries should be scale "higher than the Himalayas."

Another point to be noted that Prachand refused to oblige to his opponents' demand to raise the issue of the murals and maps, put up in the new building of the Indian Parliament depicting Nepal to be a part of Akhand Bharat, with Modi. He simply ignored the demand of the Opposition back home and went about his business as usual during the visit.

This shows that he wanted to ward off any kind of negativity around his India tour. This stems from Prachand's eagerness to demonstrate his closeness to India vis-a-vis China as he is conscious of the fact that in India, he considered to be a "commie puppet" of one of India's arch enemy. However, time has changed and the two neighbours are coming to terms with the ground realities.