The Jain Commission report is preposterous. Take its temerity in implicating Nepalese royalty in the conspiracy to assassinate Rajiv Gandhi. It quotes a Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) letter: ``The Queen of Nepal (Aishwarya) has asked Maj Gen Aditya Shamsher Jung Bahadur, an honorary aide-de-camp to King Birendra, to arrange for the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, for which Rs 10 crore would be made available.''

Anyone with the foggiest idea about how R&AW operatives work, especially low-grade ones in Nepal, would have laughed at this. Those with any idea of the respect for the monarchy in Nepal and the hurt such an allegation could cause would have had second thoughts about including it in the report.

I was in Nepal when the article containing this report reached Kathmandu. Bilateral relations, traditionally prone to ups and downs and on the mend only due to the Gujral doctrine, became Jain's latest victim. An uproar in Kathmandu deflected attention from the painful process of expanding the Surya Bahadur Thapa government and the reported resignation of former Prime Minister K.P. Bhattarai from the Nepali Congress' Central Working Committee.Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa, already baiting India with the case for revising the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship and the dispute over the Kalapani military post on the India-Nepal-Tibet border, handed a note verbale to Indian Ambassador K. V. Rajan condemning the ``malicious and irresponsible act of outright misinformation''. The Nepalese prime minister's office issued a press communique reiterating this.The signal of the hurt came through the cancellation of the visit of Nepalese Army chief, Gen Dharampal Barsin Thapa, an honorary general of the Indian Army. As part of special and unique military relations, Nepalese and Indian Army chiefs are awarded this rank in each other's army during their tenure. Forty thousand men in 38 Gorkha battalions are recruited from Nepal in the Indian Army. Thapa's counterpart, Gen V. P. Malik, was in Nepal last month and was given the General's Sword and Royal Seal by King Birendra. The stir caused by the report coincided with Queen Elizabeth unveiling, outside Whitehall, a bronze memorial of the legendary Gurkha soldier to commemorate nearly 200 years of loyal service to the British Crown.

A damage-control exercise was launched by India. India's ambassador in Kathmandu and the spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs issued statements dissociating government from the report, calling it groundless and misguided. The formal apology said, ``India holds their Majesties, the King and Queen of Nepal, in the highest esteem and deeply cherishes her traditional friendly relations with Nepal.''

The immediate aim was to revive Thapa's historic review on December 6 of the 101st Passing Out Parade at Dehradun's Military Academy, commemorating its 50 years and a reunion of the first batch of officers. This signal honour for the Nepalese Army Chief is unprecedented.

In his capacity as honorary general of the Royal Nepal Army, Ved Malik spoke to Nepalese Ambassador Bek Bahadur Thapa, a cousin of foreign minister Kamal Thapa who is close to the palace, requesting Thapa's presence in Dehradun. King Birendra gave a delayed nod for an abridged visit, a residual snub. Thapa's scheduled meeting with Malik did not take place as the latter was on a tour of Southern Command. Thapa was the chief guest. His not coming would have been a political embarrassment. His journey became a SAARC reunion, with senior retired officers of 1947 vintage from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh present. On parade were gentleman cadets from Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

King Birendra's government acted with great sagacity in repairing the damage done by the baseless R&AW report. True, in the run-up to the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy in 1990, the Nepalese vernacular press went to town about the panchayat-palace raj and attributed to Queen Aishwarya grave improprieties. But the monarhcy has returned to its pedestal since the heady days of Nepal's second revolution.

Let Delhi not forget that the Nepalese, especially in Kathmandu, still talk about the invasion of Nepalese skies by Indian helicopters in 1993, the Delhi Police raid in Kathmandu in 1994 and the Indian police intrusion in Nepalganj in 1995.

(Maj Gen Aditya Shamsher Jung Bahadur Rana mentioned in the R&AW report died of a heart attack on July 15, 1990).

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.