South Asia Watch

From Far & Near

South Asia Watch

Nepal

By Shashi Malla

There is little direction and woefully little leadership in Nepal. There may be only a small number of confirmed cases in the country, but this is due to the minimal number of people tested.

In the meantime, the social media, the internet and tv are full of discussions and advice from all sorts of experts. Even the former chief Maoist ideologue BaburamBhattarai offered his tips on how we should behave.

The point is that the current government is totally rudderless with an ailing prime minister just going through the motions. There is a complete lack of meaningful communication between the various concerned institutions, and the information meted out to the people is little and meaningless.

People should be informed on a daily basis by medical experts. Currently, the government’s efforts are completely disjointed and doesn’t inspire confidence. There is a lack of professionalism and the trust deficit is truly great. After all, the government has to combat its past baggage of multiple scandals. There is the general feeling that the government is doing too little too late. The Foreign Minister Pradeep Gyawali claims that the government is not sleeping. However, the general impression is that it is in deep slumber. If it wants to impress the people, it should abandon its Pyongyang-on-the-Bagmati style.

The best thing would be to establish an independent ‘national crisis management centre independent of political influence. It could be headed by a high-ranking army officer, who would put together an expert team from various fields. As soon as the crisis is over, the centre would, of course, be disbanded.

In the meantime, the least the government can do has been suggested by the dean of the Institute of Medicine, Prof. Dr. J.P. Agrawal:

• Effective quarantine of all people coming from other countries
• Isolation of all contacts of those tested positive
• Rigorous testing
• Medical teams should gear up and prepare for the anticipated unusual health care demand.

In order to get the hang of how a proper briefing should be, the concerned government officials should watch the daily news conference by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on CNN!

Afghanistan

The peace deal in this war-torn country hangs in the balance. Political infighting between the two main political groups continues to hamper the peace process in Afghanistan, raising the risk that the U.S. attempt to disengage itself from the 18-year war will again come to nothing.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rushed to Kabul this week in an unsuccessful attempt to renew negotiations between Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival, Chief Executive Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. Both politicians claim the presidency after disputed elections in September 2019. This is threatening talks between the government and the Taliban insurgents.

Pompeo also met the Taliban negotiators in Doha, Qatar in an attempt to keep the peace agreement on track. The success of the intra-Afghan peace talks is not a pre-requisite for US withdrawal from Afghanistan. However, failure to reach an internal agreement could seriously constrain the larger peace effort as the U.S.  carries out a phased withdrawaland allies of troops.

Threat of U.S. Aid Cuts

Giving vent to his frustration, Pompeo issued an unusually harsh statement on the dueling antagonists Ghani and Abdullah, warning that the United States would cut US Dollar $ 1 billion in foreign assistance to the country, if they didn’t form a unity government soon.

Corona Pandemic Looms

In the meantime, the coronavirus pandemic could throw a spanner in the works and derail the peace efforts.

Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have crossed back into their home country from Iran, one of the worst hit countries. This could have dire consequences: “If the coronavirus spreads throughout Afghanistan, with its weak health care infrastructure and fragile political climate, it could be another factor that threatens to undermine peace” (Foreign Policy/Security Brief, March 26, 2020).

India

This week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ordered 1.3 billion Indians to stay inside their homes for 21 days in an unprecedented effort to stop the spread of the deadly planetary coronavirus pandemic in the country.

According to Dr. RamananLaxminarayan, who is an epidemiologist and an economist [and a senior research scholar at Princeton], the country has three to four weeks to create an enormous, affordable and easily available testing infrastructure, contain local outbreaks and prepare for the avalanche of the coronavirus (NYT, March 27, 2020). It is absolutely necessary to use this window of opportunity.

The lockdown has most probably saved millions of lives. However, the bold public health actions of the government must be matched by similar efforts to ensure that the pandemic does not generate a secondary hunger and poverty crisis, warns Dr. Laxminarayan.

The writer can be reached at: shashipbmalla@hotmail.com