Will India-baiter Oli sign the BRI execution treaty in Beijing?

India's best bet for keeping the pro-China Oli in check is the Nepali Congress, which is not aligned with Beijing

- S N M ABDI

Nepal's Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli is busy packing his bags and drawing up a wish list of all the things he wants from the resourceful northern neighbour ahead of his December 2-6 state visit to China. Oli, a Hindu Brahmin, deliberately chose Beijing as his first foreign destination after taking over the reins of the predominantly Hindu Himalayan country for the fourth time, to spite New Delhi. It's crystal clear that he couldn't resist the temptation to cock a snook at India which expects all newly elected heads of state in the neighbourhood to visit New Delhi to pledge their allegiance before heading off to other world capitals.

As India is not only the resident power and a nuclear power to boot, besides being the world's most populated country, Oli's decision to make Beijing his first port of call must be truly galling for the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party government. All things considered, it's a big rebuff by the world's only other Hindu country. And mind you, India is about 22 times bigger than Nepal and claims to be the Vishwaguru but Oli doesn't seem to care a damn.

By the way, I am really amazed by Oli's capacity for needling the current dispensation in New Delhi. Before it was confirmed that Oli's first bilateral visit in his fourth innings as PM would be to China and not to India, he likened China and India to the Sufi shrines in Ajmer and Nizamuddin in New Delhi. Speaking at the annual Kantipur Conclave in Kathmandu, evidently tongue firmly in cheek, Oli said that it shouldn't matter which Sufi shrine a devotee visits first.