NEW RAILWAYS NEW DIPLOMACY

AUM
NEW RAILWAYS NEW GAME
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM

The name of the game is: open new railways and play new game of diplomacy. Diplomacy is the art of the impossible. A diplomat never clogs his line of communication even with the bitterest of the enemies because there is always a kind of hope of getting information that might help the home country in winning the cold war. Railways in India and elsewhere in the world have been a good means of communication. Espionage and pumping of fake currency in the adversary’s country are aims plus of running new railways. Now a piece of news emanating from Nepal has unnerved some greenhorn diplomats, albeit there is nothing to worry about.
The government of Nepal has requested the government of the People’s Republic of China to extend the Beijing-Lhasa railway line to Kathmandu, capital of Nepal. Nothing wrong with that request nor with the response that is likely to be a positive one. China might launch another adventurous project of building the new railway line from Lhasa, capital of Tibet to Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The railway engineers will be adequately employed and their skills will be tested day in and day out in that rugged Himalayan terrain where the crust of earth is yet to settle down. No wonder there are landslides every now and then. This valuable experience will help the Chinese engineers in advising military engineers if the PLA has to fight a war in that inhospitable region.
SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS
There has been a flurry of intellectual activity in the strategic study circles to assess the impact of this project on the future military planning. Will the new railway line bring the People’s Liberation Army(PLA) of China too close to be comfortable. A cool headed assessment will reassure the panicky fellows that there is nothing to be afraid of. If the Chinese forces come to Kathmandu, so what? Aren’t they so close to the Indian Army troops across the Nathula pass in Sikkim? Aren’t they so close to the Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh at the Bumla pass? Rest assured, heavens won’t fall if the Beijing-Lhasa railway line is extended to Kathmandu. It may benefit Nepal economically and we Indians, as neighbours of Nepal, should be happy about it.
A STUDENT OF HISTORY WILL BE REMINDED OF ANOTHER SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEF ABOUT A NEW RAILWAY LINE BEING LAID CLOSE TO THE Red Fort in New Delhi. King Bahadur Shah Zafar, a pensioner of the East India Company represented to the Company Bahadur that the railway line running so close to the Red Fort and palaces inside may induce miscarriage among the pregnant queens. He was assured that the new railway line would bring joy and not sorrow to one and all.
The Red Indians of America had also opposed laying of new railway lines through their reservations but eventually were convinced that the new fangled thing is an instrument of economic progress.
One may recall that the very first railway line laid and used to run a train was from Bori Bunder in Bombay (now Mumbai) to Thane, a princely distance of 34 kilometers. On April 16, 1853 as many as 14 carriages pulled by three locomotives had carried 400 guests. A 21 gun salute was given to the train and the Governor’s band was in attendance. No superstitious beliefs plagued the people and the journey was a grand success.
One should take the Chinese effort in helping Nepal with the same smoothness as the Marathas took the inaugural run of the Bori Bunder-Thane railway. A step forward in any direction means progress for the Mankind. Peace brings prosperity in the region. Where prosperity prevails, poverty retreats and fades into the pages of history. A prosperous country hates to go to war with a neighbouring country because a war spells economic disaster for all concerned. Let us hope and trust that the new railway line, as and when made operational, will bring an economic boom to our kith and kin in Nepal.
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