India would do well to understand the US’ covert game in Nepal

Bhim Bhurtel

The grand strategy of New Delhi, long predicated on the assumption of a ‘strategic partnership’ with Washington to counter a rising Beijing, is facing a moment of profound reckoning. Nowhere is this more evident than in Nepal’s rugged geopolitical terrain. For decades, the corridors of South Block and the embassy gates at Lainchaur (where the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu is located) have operated under a comforting delusion: that the Indo-American strategic partnership is a monolith, a shared weapon of deterrence against Chinese ambition.

Yet a cold, clinical analysis of American manoeuvres in Kathmandu reveals a reality as startling as it is ignored. The United States (US) is not acting in the letter and spirit of its agreements with India. Instead, Washington’s footprints in the Himalayas suggest a far more Machiavellian objective. The target of American containment is not the Dragon to the north, but the Elephant to the south.

To observe the current state of Indian diplomacy is to witness a masterclass in either extreme naïveté or unparalleled strategic lethality. The narrative that India poses the primary threat to Nepal’s sovereignty is no longer a fringe sentiment; it is being systematically institutionalised with American scaffolding. While Indian strategists congratulate themselves on their alignment with a ‘fellow democracy,’ they remain blissfully unaware of the behaviour of a global hegemon.

India is unaware of the hegemon’s behaviour

History provides a brutal syllabus for those who mistake an alliance with the US for a partnership of equals. In the lexicon of Washington’s foreign policy, a ‘strategic partner’ or ‘ally’ is often a polite euphemism for a vassal state. To enter the American orbit is to forfeit the right to an independent sphere of influence. The US recognises no regional dominance other than its own. Its guiding principle remains the cold calculus of national interest. This process views the borders and traditional spheres of its allies as mere logistical hurdles to be cleared or dismantled.

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The late Henry Kissinger, a man who understood the dark heart of realpolitik better than most, famously quipped that while ‘being an enemy of the United States is dangerous, being its friend is fatal.’ India is currently testing the veracity of this maxim. Today, American influence is metastasising in Nepal, a territory that was historically, culturally, and economically an undisputed area of Indian influence. Many of the activities undertaken by the US to expand this footprint are directly or indirectly subversive to Indian interests. Yet, New Delhi persists in viewing Washington through the rose-tinted lens of ‘strategic partnership,’ turning a blind eye to a campaign that uses the ‘China threat’ as a Trojan horse to hollow out Indian authority. This is not just a lapse in judgment; it is a definitive example of diplomatic immaturity.

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