As the stench of death and destruction permeates a virtually ruined Nepal, hopefully the magnitude of devastation caused by the worst earthquake in 80 years will jolt the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) member states into action so that comprehensive disaster mitigation measures can be put into place at the earliest.
After all, South Asia is one among the high-risk earthquake regions in the world with six out of the eight Indian subcontinent nations situated within the seismically overactive Himalayan-Hindukush belt, which has recorded some of the worst earthquakes witnessed anywhere on globe. Even island states like Maldives, Sri Lanka and the coastal areas of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are vulnerable to tsunamigenic-earthquake originating in the Indian Ocean.
Wrecked by nature’s fury, a picturesque Nepal now faces the most daunting task of nation rebuilding from scratch, as the economic damage is pegged at more than $10 billion. But to have a smooth and effective national reconstruction process, Nepal must first cease to be the battleground of Sino-Indian competition for strategic dominance in the Himalayan foothills, which has resulted in the poor country functioning without a proper constitution and elected local representatives for long. New Delhi, on its part, must desist from displaying arrogance and contempt for the Nepalese politico-administrative system. The Indian establishment has been crowing about how the country’s disaster management professionals heroically dealt with rescue efforts in Nepal in the face of rotten infrastructure, fragile and helpless population, incompetent political class and a completely demoralized bureaucracy.
Indian Premier Narendra Modi went to the extent of suggesting that the Nepalese bureaucracy kept Prime Minister Sushil Koirala — stationed abroad on an official trip when the deadly earthquake struck — in the dark and that it was the famous “Modi-Tweet” which actually introduced Koirala to the tragic disaster that devastated his country’s east-central mid-hills. Certainly, this was another typical Modi faux pas. The timing could not have been more inappropriate as such gasconade will only aid and abet Nepali peoples’ alienation from the political class at a time when unity is the need of the hour. True, in the past, both immediate and distant, the Nepalese administration was sluggish in its emergency response when climbers on Mount Everest or Kanchenjunga were hit by avalanche, freak monsoon flood swept away habitations and mountain landslide caused enormous hardship to population in central districts. But does that give the leadership of a friendly nation the right to add insult to injury and make the sufferers feel that they are living on a big neighbor’s dole?
Intriguingly, this is the same Modi who dug into his experience, of efficiently managing the 2001 Gujarat earthquake, to provide a quick and extensive response to “Nepal-earthquake-emergency” by flying in rescue teams, medical supplies and relief material within hours after the Indian subcontinent tectonic plate lurched 3 meters northward to burrow into the Tibetan plate, thus causing the earth to crumble violently. Modi even monitored relief efforts personally as Indian military and civil administration operated at the earthquake’s epicenter zone to rescue hundreds of survivors, including Indian government emissaries assembled for classified activity, as a source confirmed to this author.
But then, Modi’s infamous penchant for propaganda virtually negated all the good works associated with a worth-emulating humanitarian operation. Does Modi realize that his vow to “wipe the tears of every Nepali” will now be taken with a pinch of a salt? Surely, as the dust settles, a large segment of the Nepali population will feel disenchanted and consider the mammoth relief work as a mere extension of India’s hegemonic expansionism. It is no secret that the entire Nepalese territory — having deep linkages with India due to an open border — is in New Delhi’s grip. Almost 80 percent of Nepalese trade is in the hands of Indian origin people and virtually every industry in Nepal has an overbearing Indian influence.
In fact, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has always felt an affinity toward Nepal due to the Hindu-majority population and wanted it within India’s territorial ambit badly. Senior Hindutva ideologues have not hidden their displeasure at India refusing a supposed offer from the then Nepali monarch to accede to India sometime in the 1950s. So, there are enough reasons for the Nepali citizens to nurture disgruntlement against the Indian State. India should therefore shed this “big brother” like attitude and instead take the lead in pooling together resources, expertise and strength of the South Asian nations. Both Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif have agreed to exploit the SAARC platform for jointly conducting mock exercises on disaster relief and rescue so that loss of life and property during natural calamities can be minimized. In view of it, reinvigorating the SAARC “Comprehensive Framework on Disaster Management” can help mitigate risk through a combination of structural and non-structural measures at regional and local levels simultaneously. Most importantly, employing an “earthquake early warning system” can help adequately address a catastrophic geological threat faced by South Asia. Though predicting an earthquake accurately is still some distance away, an integrated seismic-cum-communication network can work wonder. Since an earthquake creates two waves, the benign primary wave can be detected and converted into public warning by censors before the arrival of the damaging secondary waves, carrying the earthquakes’ destructive force. As the next earthquake is not a matter of if but when, even a “warning of minutes” is enough to save precious lives. The only thing that matter is whether a fiscally disadvantaged South Asia can afford such an expensive technique.
