East Nepal Border: Area Rife for Potential Transgressions
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it -G. Santayana
Disclaimer: Normally, disclaimers come after an article block, here it’s a priori since it wades into international affairs with five friendly countries cornered in a small area and want readers to jump in armed with a viewpoint so anytime there are references to actors (state or non-state), readers should refrain from misinterpretation. We look at things from Nepal’s standpoint and make sure her soil, water and airwaves are not used by one against the other in any shape or form, mostly using pawns and they come in all shapes and sizes. We believe, the article would help shed light at fears/motivations of the Nation’s Founding fathers/mothers, practices/cultures, commercial route planning and host of others that each reader may individually deduce. Nepal Index travelled by foot, man pulled rickshaws in border areas to interview responders and collect evidence. Some evidence have been withheld for further processing which will be out in due time. Interviewee names have been withheld for their protection.
Take a look at the picture below from Google Map. The red earmark is the city Siliguri. There’s a narrow corridor in India called Siliguri Corridor between Nepal and Bangladesh which runs ~60 kms in length and 14-17 kms wide. To India, this area is a Chicken’s Neck, to Nepal, it’s a commerce lifeline with access to closest seaports.
The below picture has better clarity for someone not familiar with the area.
The city Siliguri, a commercial hub for all of India’s Northeast (Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Meghalaya), Sikkim, Darjeeling and Nepal. Exports and Imports managed by handful of Traders in Sevoke Road and Bidhan Road that resemble simple hardware stores with plastic pipes and pumps. However, the volume of business they manage/coordinate is not proportional to the facade and that gives away a lot.
Siliguri traders’ own trucking/cargo business, collect supplies via road and redirect them to Kolkata port or Bihar controlling supplies to/from population almost 10 times the population of the US and Canada combined. That should help readers understand the power these handful of traders wield and why East Nepal export businesses are at their mercy, often times deep in the trenches playing second fiddle to their larger designs in the area.
Most business setups in East Nepal have links to traders in Siliguri overseeing cash flow and investments along with goods. There’s been a case of an infamous Ponzi scheme dubbed Rose Valley Chit Fund Scam with investments reaching all the way to Kathmandu mainly in land and realty. How far the illicit seed capital money has metamorphized in Nepal or sucked out and how much capital followed? Your guess is as good as ours. Property records of initial buyers, their location and subsequent transfers should lend more credibility if anyone thinks this is just a wild accusation in the dark. If a single entity managed to reach this far into a Nation’s capital a decade back, imagine its immediate neighborhood, East Nepal, flush with illicit capital and strings they manage to pull with potential nodes rhyming across the tiny nation.
There’s a precedent to this pattern that began in late 1970s traversing the same area making way into India’s northeast, to Kathmandu, to Hongkong and then back to India. One traveler was Radhe Shyam Saraf with Rajasthan origins. How many people rode on his coattails for so long swindling away Gorkha money meant for Nepal is now glaring. The humble beginnings of Bhat-Bhateni transforming into Real Estate magnate across Nepal residing next to Hyatt Regency, Boudha and several other installations across Nepal has signs of money managed by this man and his chief cohorts, Shashikant Agarwal (Mirchaiya to Morang border man), Govind Saria (A former contraband smuggler from East Nepal nexus who sold orthodox tea & exotic herbs in Kathmandu) and Shivkumar Adukia ( Nepal’s Stock Market originator namesake, Gorkha money manager who also sold perfume, ran petrol pumps across Nepal, controlled banks, remittance and agricultural money with sons into Gold Smuggling and #1 beneficiary of India’s Harshad Mehta scam loot). Their claw marks from Naxalbari, West Bengal to Naxal Devi 🕉️ Bhagwati Garden, Kathmandu is in plain sight for everyone to see.
Some responders gave away info that an IT Institute recently turned college in Australia siphoned off Gorkha funds, but the veracity of such claims could not be independently proven by us at Nepal Index. Instead, our local associates Down Under have begun independent investigations into newfound businesses from Pokhara, where majority of Gorkha’s family reside and are currently connecting the dots to bring in global arbitrators to aid distribution to the deserving and may be give the wealth a bit more wings across the world in this great reset. We will simply wait for further deliberations until thorough investigations are complete and bring our focus back to East Nepal.
Most of Nepal exports in recent times were Tea, Jute & Timber with Rice mills playing intermittent role as government property transfer tool. The other industry verticals eventually headed the same direction. However, the short-lived Rice Mills burning smoke from the black chimneys barely lasted a year before they were shut down for good along the border. The reader should be aware that India’s Poverty Alleviation Campaign was run in the 70s right after the armed Peasants Uprising in Siliguri Area and few brick houses (20 at most) were constructed along East Nepal border across Mechi River with most Rice Mill setups in East Nepal most likely using the same fund. The reason we are able to connect the two is because most current day traders in East Nepal have origins in Rajasthan and their migration timeline match the events above with subsequent movements to major cities as capital infusion happened. We’re not implying anything here… just presenting the facts as we see it.
The original migration intent all the way from Rajasthan, India’s border in the west, could be entrepreneurial pursuits with uncanny ability to handle border debacle but subsequent results have proven otherwise. Also, there were migration to East Nepal from Northeast India, Darjeeling and most were in education, nursing and other sectors East Nepal was far behind with early foreign employees serving in distant lands. So, Nepal has benefitted from cross border migration in all sectors from India. However, the same duality could easily seep as transgressions and an ideal breeding ground for sleeper cells luring householders into nefarious activities by persons with ulterior motives and this is exactly what Nepal should guard against. With Nepali population now spread across the world, the network is further intertwined in complexity—locals currently being used as pawns directed by persons from a foreign land and the measure is complicated and ugly by all investigation standards.
Human movement across political boundaries in the region has long history. In ancient times, it was either exiled royal family from princely states, seekers looking to practice their sadhana or culture protectors that were hounded out making their way into the hills of Nepal to protect their culture via energized artefacts with signages inscribed for future generations. The reason why we see so many different rituals, at times contradicting each other, in such a small space in Nepal is a hint one cannot miss. These cultural places were energized, and signs sculpted to benefit entire human civilization and cannot be conformed or restricted to a community or space. One such cultural practice dominant in the region is worshipping Devi or Durga. In all of India and Nepal this region has the most temples dedicated to Devi/Durga. In December 2021, 'Durga Puja in Kolkata' was inscribed in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This itself lends global credibility to worshiping divine feminine culture in the region. Readers should read more about a son of this soil, Ramkrishna 🕉️ and his disciple, Swami Vivekananda 🕉️to understand more about cultural practices in the region.
Marwari Sewa Samiti was initially established in 1940s Sainthia, Birbhum in current day West Bengal and then in Kathmandu in 1960s. Forbes only billionaire from Nepal, Binod Chaudhary’s father, a former tea seller, has Rajasthan roots but not Marwari and has been associated with MSS in the above article. Whether it’s by design, we do not know. MSS rides on the tall shoulders of Jainism, Mahavira but the five basic ethics of Ahiṃsā (non-violence), Satya(truth), Asteya(not stealing), Brahmacharya(celibacy), Aparigraha(non-possessiveness) all missing in everyone. In fact, what we notice, is just the opposite and this is worrying even by bare minimum standards. Wise nextGen Marwaris in Nepal will have to work double hard to whitewash the mistakes of leaders in their community in Nepal. May be even help authorities by turning approver, we do not yet know.
MSS off springs wouldn’t have to worry about their Nepali citizenship issue, would have been naturalized by now if their fathers and mothers swore allegiance to Nepal. There are many from the Marwari community in Nepal looking for citizenship and hope authorities from India/Nepal (seek help of other countries too) get together and look at their family history and hand out citizenship soon. Nepal cannot handle the burden of additional forced refugees who have helped sustain businesses in her land.
Most of Nepal’s land were government owned, forest, guthi property and this created an ideal ground for realty investors with ulterior motives to trick locals into landholding eventually selling off to their cohorts. It’s a method to increase returns on investment on capital by utilizing free energy which is understandable in pure economic terms, but the coercion and lawlessness ground truth makes the entire deal nullifiable and never in Nepal’s interest. The episode has made enablers in government’s post and her people look for easy money usually via doles and largess ultimately corrupting masses which is now clearly visible. Even a camera toting tourist can easily capture corruption by the number of touts surrounding them.
The land value across Nepal is beyond a common person’s reach. Foreign employed worker’s high value currency is rendered below par for buying a property in Nepal. Nepal Index hopes to write more about how Nepal’s free energy was manipulated and misdirected to hurt the nation back more than benefit her. For now, it suffices to say that the tiny nation and her people are against a strong headwind of easy money. Work hard, be enterprising and build a prosperous life mantra still has ways to go in this land but have instead found it anywhere outside the land. In general, Nepalis are hardworking but haven’t just found the right ambience within the nation yet.
We have a theory on why there’s so much money floating around via business migrations in private hands of very few people guarding money transaction routes, hastily moving it around but will wait for the right time in future to publish. Some are starting to realize their mistakes, talking to global authorities and course correcting. Like everyone, they too deserve a second chance. Also, there are liquidations and companies being struck off globally and these are good signs that compels us to wait and watch.
The thing that pertains to this article is the effect of sudden capital flow without the value add but rather, short term vision in the form of casinos, overloaded banks, rampant low class education consultancy shops along the border turning them into possible gambling den, human trafficking, providing a safe haven to money launderers and currency hoarders. Monetarily speaking, it is—Easy come… easy go! Like in all cases of loot money with authorities on the trail, it’s usually the looters going after each other with uneven loot distribution that eventually aid global authorities in nabbing the culprit. There are glaring examples of that all over social media from Nepal’s Bueno Vistas. So, we’ll just wait and watch.
Nepal Tea Exports Debacle:
Tea Estates in India and Nepal were a courtesy of British Empire and were mainly in Hilly regions of East Nepal, Darjeeling and Assam in India. We all know China and Japan is where Tea originated, so they get credit for tea plants. Most Tea Exporters are based out of Kolkata with their collection point in Siliguri and their origins go back as far as 80-90 years. Terai part of east Nepal supplies the bulk of CTC variety while the hilly regions supply the orthodox variety from Nepal to Siliguri.
Most Tea estates were government owned earlier exporting green tea leaves but were later subsequently privatized, left to die blaming it on aging estates and land usurped/sold off via tacit means. While the private players have stepped up tea manufacturing to make up for the loss, the capital that came in tacitly with constantly changing front faces is what worries us. Any given moment, the profits could easily be siphoned off by strong arming local install. The amount of money in factories, Tea Estates management can be used to manage pretty much anything in the sensitive border area and that gives too much power in the hands of few people. We are not painting the whole estate establishment dirty, but what we noticed that over 70% in the region have unaccounted sources of capital money, some with dubious past and that is deeply troubling for the amount of power vested in their hands that could turn the entire region and the nation vulnerable.
Payments for produce is made in India with minor amount in LoCs from their Nepali banks. What percentage shows up in Nepal or diverted somewhere else, we do not know. Just the fact that it leaves ample room for chief architects with ulterior motives to play with their designs is worrisome. It’s like a huge empty canvas waiting to be painted anything. With no signs of good priori there’s very little hope that it might actually turn out to be ideal for Nepal. What is a fitting solution to this and what Nepal’s government should do, we do not yet know.
What we do know is that Nepal needs additional port access for exports to spread the high density of manufactures in East Nepal distributing opportunities equally to the western parts and recent additional seaport access is something along those lines. Some may quip that the cost of transport to these seaports will bear much cost, but the fact that there will be cargo EVs in the future and will encourage businessmen to set up more factories in the west balancing out wealth in East and West Nepal (both have similar geographical advantages) are signs that every Nepali with an iota of care for their nation and people should be happy about.
The recent ban of Green Tea leaves and processed CTC tea from Nepal to India is just an example of the sudden shift that could take place jeopardizing even the most earnest investment in the region and its soil used as playground. The prime leaf picking season was about to start with monsoon rescinding. This would worry exporters in the region. However, unlike other perishable items, manufactured CTC tea can be stored for longer period of time, and we hope that the buyers/traders iron out their differences and come up with an amicable solution before it’s too late. This should not stop normal tea operations in East Nepal and profits will most likely show up in the books next year. There’s nothing wrong in that when the whole world’s currently experiencing crisis economically with unheard of interest rates across the spectrum.
Timber Story:
There’s also plywood story and recent exports doing the rounds but will save it for some other day. Anyone familiar with plywood/timber plying along the border area will simply laugh this off. We at Nepal Index are constantly keeping a bird eye view on Timber developments in the region and making sure Nepal’s Green Cover Sustainable Development Goal posts do not move.
Mass Human Migration:
Siliguri corridor was also used for mass human migration of Nepali speaking population in Bhutan and there are varying views. Some say that most authentic refugees have already been resettled while there are claims of refugees still left behind. Prima facie evidence points to language spoken and printed ID cards as a basis of people from Nepal origin which is a little bit absurd. This claim is best left to the readers mind to judge. It is like saying that someone speaks English and does not look like a Nepali, so could easily be classified being from England. That’s a little far-fetched. Please bear in mind that the entire region is currently reviewing their respective citizenship rules and carefully treading their immigration laws so issues such as these do not repeat.
Nepal Index, during their investigation, found that that major highway nodes from from Kakarvitta (jhapa) to Itahari(Morang) that includes, Mechinagar, Dhulabari, Birtamode, Surunga, Damak prime properties are now owned by the beneficiaries of Bhutanese migration and currently in the process of connecting the dots. Some of these properties owned by then Nepali politicians clearly show nexus on the Nepal side to aide this design. Upon further investigation by our interlocutors, we heard a lot of senior citizens say that most who did not make it to the prescribed camps were carrying loads of Indian currency notes and not Bhutanese currency which led us to suspect that this exodus was fishy, beautifully choreographed and brew trouble in the sensitive region. The land prices in Birtamode, Damak shot through the roof which aided certain beneficiaries while most poor remained in the camps to be looked after by rented UN office in Bhadrapur, Jhapa some 60 kms east of the main camp in Beldangi. The refugee kids of parents who carried cash were immediately enrolled in local schools, were welcomed and integrated well with other kids including that of UN authorities. Some had outstanding academic abilities and competed with the best. Most currently reside in a foreign land. Nepal’s guardians should start investigating in their respective domicile and create a portal for the actual Truth to come out. This is beyond the capacity and will of Nepal.
In a few months, a garment industry was started in Jhapa with all the pomp importing all machinery and few personnel from Chennai residing within a stone’s throw away from UN headquarter in Bhadrapur.
India for all its technical and human powers have only recently standardized their citizenship rules and still have to go through the nook and cranny of past citizenship basis saving a soft spot in certain immigration rules of the region. To expect Nepal to have advanced mechanism in place is a little farfetched. Sikkim, Darjeeling & Northeast India have massive Nepali speaking population and Nepal is one out of many official languages of India. However, the massive flow into Nepal identifying humans from a single Mechi Bridge (pic below) with no human count and based on the language spoken is something that we at Nepal Index find perplexing. Perhaps, politics of the day by in the early 1990s and then NGO authorities can explain more. Even developed countries in Europe with stronger immigration rules were not sparred human exodus into their region and we don’t expect Nepal, India and other immediate countries to immediately solve the issue. It’s simply not possible. Electrocuted fences and manning via border patrols have been significantly improved along unofficial forest passages in the last 30 years but that alone will not solve the issue keeping in mind the humanitarian needs of people in the area.
Additionally, Nepali citizens in the area have themselves migrated to other parts of the world, so the question of Bhutanese left behind in Nepal camps is still up for debate or simply there for political reasons. Regardless of what tunes are being played, we believe every human soul should have a place they can call their home and should not have to run away to a land not of their choosing.
While mass human exodus was taking place and resettlement plans drawn in East Nepal—human land mines and leaders were being manufactured just west of Nepal borders mainly in Uttarakhand and Punjab imparting training for series of events to be executed under the shadow of global events, so no one got a sniff of what was about to come. Was guarded very closely in a bespoke design model, each module segregated from the other so early stooges that partook didn’t get to know the larger picture. The exodus enablers on Nepal side were taken out one by one immediately after rewards given and few reusable parts filtered and deployed in west Nepal, so one hand didn’t know what the other hand was doing. Nepal Index and our associates have completed ground research, met with personnel in former hideouts of most and currently in the process of assimilating reports on the accomplishes currently spread globally. Since this article is on East Nepal, we will just stick to that and not elaborate any further.
Conclusion:
We are not against the money or people that make their way into Nepal, but the fact that there’s unchecked inflow/outflow and high density of commercial activity in one corner of the nation leaving the other corner in dire straits is what bothers us. What happens in the area easily influences Nepal for instance the uprising, human displacement, illegal gambling, human trafficking, narcotics trafficking, money laundering and all other ills nations across the globe has to face. This article is an effort for citizens to be aware of the sensitivities in the area and make sure Nepalis do not succumb to the ill designs perpetrated by others and vehemently refuse, report to global authorities if asked or threatened. A tall ask but has to be done if anyone dreams of a thriving democracy in this nation with no repeat of historical ills.
More queries during our meet up near a m-store at a T-Junction in Morang, East Nepal House:
Q1: We hear that NI is coming up with posts with more specificities. Is that True?
A1: Oh Yes! Our team's hard at work collecting photographic evidence. Our Chairwoman has directed the entire team to stop at nothing.
Q2: Why can't you do a single post and name all the perpetrators?
A2: Well, we can't. The complexity and links are something we are not able to decipher in a single post. It's taken decades for the perpetrators to plan and execute with human resources spread out across every meter of road in Nepal. So, we have to plan this carefully so there are little collateral damages.
Q3: What are probable reasons for anyone to be in the position of power in Nepal only to misuse it later? Is there something we Nepalis/ese do not see in our own land and have to migrate to other parts of the world?
A3: We hope to answer this through series of posts in the near future since this one involves human psychology, spirituality, politics, wealth, power and hosts of other that are brought up during 'closed session' discussions by our board members. Few items still under intense discussion and scrutinized under microscopic lens.
Q4: What's a harmless and harmful public conduct?
A4: Normally, any action that intrude into other people's personal territory and makes a landing is deemed harmful. For instance, during spitting if a single spit molecule reaches passerby, the person has the right to retaliate no matter what the message. So, be mindful of the wind flow direction during spitting. A single event can be understood as a mistake, but repeated use of mouth piston to shoot off oral fluids landing into another person's body is a big NO NO! Regardless, spitting in public is bad, whether it lands on someone else's body or not.
Mailed in letter that came in late due to Nepali festivities:
1. Why does NI (Nepal Index) keep referring to "Global Authorities" while Nepal is a sovereign country? Do you not trust local security authorities of the land to do the job or do you have issues with them?
Ans1: Well, first we believe Nepali authorities are "global." The reason we say that is because if you look back at the history of rule and law of the land.. some written, some verbal ..you will find traces that could imply applicability beyond the region. Nepalis have been entrusted with security/peace-keeping across the globe since ancient times with several members still in active duty. It's also home to a lot of retired security personnel. So, goes without saying that the genetic makeup is global. We just have to start behaving like one. Also, the nature of crime has changed across the globe and bravery alone does not get the job done. Most crime has now shifted online. Security has to change accordingly by integrating multiple authorities in several layers, so culprits can be misdirected, stopped, nabbed & made to face-the-music. So, security by it's nature is now global and Nepalis "ground"(space including as sovereiginity implies) authorities are our first line of defence. This is why we use global authorities as a reference and we have nothing personal against our own. Nepal's missed a 'lot of busses', and we want to make sure we don't miss the 'new' bus our ancestors were the first 'shotgun' riders in.
Even for some crimes inherently local, we still need global authorities so the Crime can be studied in detail by researchers helping shape up futuristic laws and/or plan behavorial changes to nip them in the bud. NI sees so many different use cases which we hope to do a detailed write up on at some point in the near future.