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Movable Peak. Red China was quick to take advantage of the strained relations between Nepal and India. Last fall Mahendra and Giri traveled to Peking, where they got the full treatment—little flower girls at the airport, a cymbal-and-gong concert, repeated toasts to eternal Chinese-Nepalese friendship. Peking proved amiable in demarcating the border between Red-run Tibet and Nepal, and even accepted a splendidly Oriental compromise on the question of who owns Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain. Foreign Minister Giri explains that both sides agreed that Chomolongma (the Tibetan name for Everest) is "in China," while Sagar Matha (Nepali for Everest) is "in Nepal." Observed Giri: "Our feeling is that the Chinese have a much higher diplomacy than the Indians."
Nehru's government was stunned to discover that the King and Giri had also granted Red China permission to build a highway through the soaring Himalayas to link Nepal's capital, Katmandu, with Tibet's capital, Lhasa. The road not only opens Nepal to direct Communist influence but poses an immediate military threat to India by bringing the Red Chinese through the icy barrier of the Himalayas down to a connecting highway leading to the broad and populous plains of the Ganges River. "The security of India," said a worried Delhi official, "is directly tied up with the security of Nepal."
Indian Whisper. Giri replies that India has only itself to blame for the Red threat, that Nepal would not need Chinese aid if Nehru took action against the Nepali rebels who use Indian territory as a refuge and a training area. Referring to Rebel Chief Subarna, who is half deaf, Giri adds: "If India just whispered in Subarna's good ear, 99% of the raids would stop."
So far, India has failed to whisper. Katmandu reported that "antinational elements who have their base in India" struck in the biggest attack yet, a four-hour assault on the Nepali border town of Koilabas, and were actually led and directed by an Indian intelligence officer named Sitaram Singh. Even when driven off. Katmandu insisted, the "bandits continued to fire from Indian territory." A government-controlled newspaper in Katmandu charged that India was trying "to do a Cuba" in Nepal. Noting that India had failed to deliver a promised arms shipment. Nepal's Foreign Minister Giri said: "We are not happy in our arms agreement with India. The day might come when we will approach another government." Red China, obviously, will be happy to be "approached."