Nepal’s ex-servicemen have made a remarkable turnaround, moving from opposition to Agniveer to demanding its acceptance on Indian terms. At a moment when Kathmandu faces unemployment, disaster and growing strategic uncertainty, India has a rare opening to revive the Gorkha recruitment relationship. Yet diplomacy appears to have missed the moment

Nepal was recently afflicted by tragic and catastrophic climate events: the 2015 earthquake, the 2023 Jajarkot earthquake, and now the glacial outbursts triggering the Rasuwa flash floods. A man-made disaster obliterated Kathmandu’s iconic buildings and institutions during the 72-hour Gen Z movement in September 2025. The Rasuwa/Trishuli tragedy of 26 August did not prevent NDTV from holding its conclave the next day, along with prominent Nepali business sponsors such as MAW Enterprises, Fone Pay, Panchkanya, Padma Jyoti and Goldstar - the Maoist-branded footwear of the ten-year civil war - owned by Vidushi Rana, a nominated MP of the ruling Rashtriya Swatantra Party government. She portrayed the business face of Nepal through Goldstar, sharing star billing with three of the RSP’s top politicians: President Rabi Lamichhane, Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle and Foreign Minister Shishir Khanal.

How could they be persuaded to attend is a separate story. Never short of words, Shashi Tharoor led the Indian side in an exchange of ideas on India-Nepal relations, sans any real specialists on India and Nepal. As one Nepali filmmaker put it: “The conclave was to facilitate entry into the Nepali market of the owners of NDTV, the Adanis.” The human tragedy was ignored.

This social-calendar event robbed the devastating floods of focus, as did the fallout from Indian COAS General Dhiraj Seth’s first visit abroad to Nepal the previous week, at a time when Nepal’s........

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