Today is a special day in India — it’s the 61st Republic Day of India, after gaining independence from British rule and adopting a republican constitution. Festivities take place on a grand scale in New Delhi, India’s capital. Traditionally, the highlight is a spectacular military parade featuring contingents from the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The parade also includes colorful floats from each of India’s states.

To push ahead with the landmark peace process, Nepal on 28th May, 2009 marked its first Republic Day after the abolition of the 240-year-old monarchy. President Ram Baran Yadav asked the people to strengthen democracy and seek consensus over critical issues facing the nation. “Though the right to disagree in a democracy is a fundamental ingredient, it will flourish only when we seek consensus amid disagreements.”

A decade-long People’s Revolution by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) along with several weeks of mass protests by all major political parties of Nepal in 2006, culminated in a peace accord and the ensuing elections for the Constituent Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of the abdication of the last Nepali monarch Gyanendra Shah, and the establishment of a federal democratic republic on May 28, 2008.

The basic parameters of Nepal and India relationship are defined by the bilateral Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1950. There are voices from different quarters that the treaty needs revision in the changed context. Nevertheless, the development in reviewing the treaty is at a very slow pace. There was a reference to the Nepali PM’s meeting with his Indian counterpart Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Copenhagen on the sidelines of the climate summit.

Indian leadership has been keen to address Nepal’s calls for reciprocity in high-level visits. The former external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee had visited Nepal in November 2008. He happens to be the senior-most Indian leader to visit Nepal in recent years.

Just to recapitulate, it has been customary for Nepali prime ministers to visit New Delhi after they assume office; Nepal has not been able to secure reciprocal trips by their Indian counterparts for more than a decade. The last Indian prime minister to visit Nepal was I.K. Gujral, who visited Nepal in June 1997. The Gujral doctrine of maintaining close and friendly relationship with the neighbors was very popular and the Trade and Transit Treaty signed at that time was the testimony of this doctrine. This visit is remembered as the milestone in the Nepal-India trade and economic co-operation.

Former Prime Minister of India , Atal Behari Vajpayee had visited Nepal in January 2002 but it was only for a day. Vajpayee was here to attend the 11th SAARC Summit.

The first president of the Republic of Nepal, Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, is also slated to visit India on February 15.

Apart from ethnic, cultural and religious ties, both countries share similarities of approach on many outstanding international pro-blems. SAARC, BIMSTEC have added some more areas for the two countries to work together in achieving the goal of collective self-reliance within the region. Both Nepal and India are the members of major international organizations, and share common perceptions and concerns on most international issues.

Trying to impress upon the common destiny, late Nehru of India had said that “Since the Himalayas have provided us with a magnificent frontier….we cannot allow that barrier to be penetrated because it is also the principal barrier to India. Therefore, much as we appreciate the independence of Nepal, we cannot allow anything to go wrong in Nepal or permit that barrier to be crossed or weakened because that would also be a risk to our security.”

The recent visit by the External Affairs Minister of India Krishna to Nepal provided a new milestone and dimension to the bilateral ties subsisting between Nepal and India in the changed political context of Nepal.

Nepali Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal visited India in August 2009 after assuming office. He had held extensive discussions on various issues, and a joint communiqué was also signed at the end of Nepal’s visit to India. Krishna’s visit was a follow-up to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s visit in August.

India has been assisting Nepal and the people of Nepal in economic development and reconstruction. The areas of assistance include infrastructure, human resource development, health and education.

The visit by the Indian External Affairs Minister to Nepal at this stage has helped in concretizing the issues and reshaping the bilateral relations. As Nepal is a young republic seeking to institutionalise democracy and peace, cooperation from India for the country’s social, cultural, constitutional and economic development will definitely be very crucial.

Since India is quite aware of Nepal’s situation, particularly of the private sector and the business community, this sector’s representatives have been emphasizing that the trade and economic issues between Ne-pal and India be accorded special attention, especially given Nepal’s LDC status.