Caught in a pincer – Kailash Mansarovar Yatra
By Col Satish Singh Lalotra
‘Kailash is the greatest mythical library on the planet. Anything that one wishes to know about creation has been stored there.’-Sadguru.
India, the land of mystiques encompassing innumerable places, people and a multitude of religions weave together a fine tapestry of events that cast an indelible mark on the terra firma of this blessed country leaving in its trails few imprints in the form of religious treks that reminds its citizens the all-important role of such physical endeavours to reconnect with its glorious past.
Centuries old ‘Kailash Mansarovar yatra is one such religious effort on the part of the citizens of this country that dates back to times one can’t catch in various timelines as found recorded in our historical treatises.
But off late this Yatra has come under the cloud of Geo-political machinations which has cast its web far and wide encompassing gullible tourists and yatris alike who have nothing to do with the labyrinthine weaved out of our neighbouring countries lust to rock the boat of religious harmony and bonhomie as never seen anywhere in the world.
‘Kailash Mansarovar yatra’ aka KM Yatra has the USP that none other religious event comes closer to it even by a whiff, in that this physical endeavour unites various religious cultures like Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Bon spread from Japan to Gibraltar through a commonalty of purpose; to pay obeisance at Mt Kailash that even surpasses the best of Iconic figures of religious importance practiced by the trio of Islam, Christianity and the Jew at the historic city of Jerusalem in sheer numbers of followers.
The latest in the long twist of travails stored for the yatris of this so called ‘Mother of all yatras’ has been a spanner thrown by the Chinese for the Indian pilgrims only to this sacred land in the form of denial of visa even through the land route via ‘Nepal’.
China has long maintained its reputation of assiduously following the tenets of its master strategician ,’Sun Tzu’ espoused by him in his excellent treatise -‘The art of warfare’. It is not that this hydra – headed problem unleashed by china upon us is something new, but dates back to the year 2019 when India rightfully exercising its role of a democratic dispensation tried to straighten its internal anomalies by way of revocation of article 370, and bifurcating Jammu &Kashmir into two parts, that of a UT (Union territory) comprising the former and another UT with ‘Ladakh.
As per the Chinese, India by unilaterally changing its domestic laws has undermined China’s territorial integrity since a major portion of eastern Ladakh which is now being administered directly from New Delhi (as part of UT) doesn’t conform to the stated positions as taken by both the Asian Giants since decades.
As per China this sudden change in the status quo by New Delhi in the Ladakh region amounts to muscle flexing and cannot go unchallenged and hence there has to be an equal amount of QPQ (Quid pro quo) or upping the ante in some other area of direct concern to India that hits its face squarely.
Though China after 9 months showed up its nefarious designs by its infringement of the LAC and subsequent clashes at Galwan, its much sinister designs to split wide open the Indian society comprising of numerous faiths was to put a spanner in one of the most famous religious treks undertaken by a multitude of religious people like the Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and the Bons. Thereby creating a religious discontent in the social fabric of India.
China in fact was restless since August 2019 to pull off a heist with regard to India when the latter changed the status quo in Jammu and Kashmir but was not able to find a suitable alibi for doing so.
This China did with its customary élan firstly at Galwan moving under the garb afforded by the ‘Corona pandemic’ with world attention divided and then subsequently building cross linkages with its southern neighbour ‘Nepal’ who started raising the bogey of ‘Kalapani-Lipulekh’ with India albeit with muted stances comprising of putting objections to road building activities from Dh?r Chula till Lipulekh in May 2020 and showing this 35 Square kilometers area as part of Nepal.
It has to be understood by us that Nepal’s proclivity to rake up old issues with India has become its wont guided partially by expediencies of domestic compulsions and more by Chinese giving it a heft to sway the old monarchy in its favour riding on the crest of liberal economic assistance.
Nepal has in fact overshot Chinese expectations in the latter’s red herring attempts against India by trying to connect Kalapani-Lipulekh imbroglio with that of infringement of its territorial integrity and India’s big brotherly attitude of subduing its smaller neighbours gained by its sheer size.
It has also tried to threaten India with annulment of 1950 ‘Indo-Nepalese peace and friendship treaty’ as also the tripartite agreement signed between Nepal, India and the UK regarding recruitment of its Gurkha nationals in the Indian army.
Combined with these above Nepalese moves ensnared in Chinese shenanigans is the latest move by the latter to restart the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra via the Nepalese region which was closed after the corona pandemic.
The caveat however in this Chinese move is to allow all pilgrims to this high altitude yatra, save the Indian pilgrims who have been barred from this once in life time opportunity based on certain visa regulations initiated by them.
As per the general secretary of TAN (Trekking association of Nepal) Vinod Sapkota who has been in the thick of such activities, earlier China used to provide visa to one and all without any discrimination based on a particular nationality, but this time changed its stance with regard to the Indian pilgrims.
For undertaking this mother of all high altitude treks the window of opportunity in terms of weather opens up only from May till September when the elements of nature are at their stable best and least interference from them to afford disruption in this holy endeavour.
In fact the secretary of AOA (Airline operators association) of Nepal Raju Nupane has stated the obvious by lamenting that the maximum number of pilgrims to this KM yatra used to be from India with a razzmatazz of colours, sounds and scents emanating from hordes of Hindus, Buddhists, Tibetans, Jains and the like all heading for a rendezvous with their ultimate belief i.e Mt Kailash.
This has been now a thing of the past courtesy the great Chinese perfidy. The above has affected even the helicopter service business to a large extent in Nepal since the Nepalese pilgrims prefer to take the road route via Rusvagudi.
Given the fact that this centuries old icon of religious belief affecting millions of Hindus, Buddhists ,Jains and Bon alike has been caught in a pincer movement by India’s northern neighbours Nepal and China, who have colluded into an unholy nexus calls for some tough realpolitik manoeuvers on our part to break this logjam.
One way forward to break this Gordian knot would be to take Nepal under its wings on the strength of historical and religious ties dating back to centuries as also to shun its foreign policy initiatives tinged with a ‘Top down’ model interface with its smaller counterparts .
But in the garb of sounding magnanimous the present government would do better not to trudge the path as was done by previous dispensation under IK Gujral who in 1997 gave a carte blanche to Nepal on an official visit to lay claim over Lipulekh area under the famous ‘Gujral doctrine’ with little or no QPQ(Quid pro quo).
It would really look bizarre to the entire comity of nations and cast a very poor image of the only two Hindu dominated countries not to find a common middle ground so as to convince China to lift off its ban on the visiting Indian pilgrims to Mt Kailash.
Moreover since March 2020 ,the onset of corona pandemic having frozen all movements across for this yatra and India having spent crores of rupees on extending the road route from Dh?r Chula right till the Lipulekh pass from May 2020 seems to mock us on our face.
This when seen in the light of Modi Govt’s proclivity to take all the religious people of the sub-continent in its stride betrays its real intent to solve this gridlock of relations between its neighbours as also raise its credibility amongst India’s citizenry.
If India could remove all obstacles with its western neighbour Pakistan in establishing a corridor of peace, friendship and religious bonhomie by way of Kartarpur corridor in November 2019 ,what is stopping the same government to do a retake in thawing the relations between its northern neighbours thus reposing faith in its millions of citizens to undertake the KM Yatra as has been the wont since ages?
Is it too little and too late to do an encore? No wonder it is time to put the words of ‘Sadguru’ to practice when he said -‘Kailash is the biggest mythical library on the planet. Anything that one wishes to know about creation has been stored here.’
(The writer is a retired army officer)
