Sher Bahadur Deuba is the new Prime Minister of neighbouring Nepal who succeeded K P Sharma Oli after a Supreme Court ruling cleared his way to claim the top seat. With Deuba now back as the PM for a fifth term, India expects its relation with Nepal that has been murky in the recent past to improve given his previous associations.
Unlike Oli, who has been known to favour China and its aspirations in South Asia, Deuba has shared a cordial relation with India during his previous stints.
When Nepal was framing a new Constitution in 2015, according to a report in The Kathmandu Post, India is said to have urged for a broad-based consensus among stakeholders and Deuba had spoken openly about India’s non-interference and its support. He is also known to have said that India urging for maximum consensus was to ensure that stakeholders do not oppose the Constitution in the future.
Good ties with Nepal is key for India to counter China’s growing influence in the region and though openly India does not have a stance on Deuba, the possibility of a new dynamic with the Himalayan nation may be encouraging. India’s Ambassador to Nepal, Vinay Mohan Kwatra met the new Prime Minister on Wednesday and said he looks forward to working with Deuba’s team to deepen India and Nepal’s bilateral relationship.
However, given the strained ties between the two nations during Oli's term with issues such as putting out of a distorted map showing Lipulek, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura areas belonging to India as its own and issuing statements over the birthplace of Lord Ram that irked many politicians in India, Deuba may need to do some "damage control".
Oli’s closeness with China even as India engaged in a long-term stand-off with the latter did not help improve the relationship between India and Nepal, at least not until recently. China is said to have sent delegations to Nepal to stabilise the situation within Oli's party. Despite an intervention, issues persisted and the political situation continued to worsen, leading to the dissolving of the government.
A tough road lies ahead of Deuba as he first needs to seek a vote of confidence from the House within a month of his appointment according to the country’s Constitution, and a complicated political equation among various parties and factions may make his survival as PM rather difficult.
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