Nepal, Oct. 26 -- Swarnim Wagle is not an ordinary political cadre or a sub-national figure. As finance minister and vice-chairman of the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), he is among the principal voices explaining Nepal's recent political transition to the outside world. He is also one of the more intellectually articulate members of a government that came to power promising to do politics differently.

That is precisely why some of his recent remarks in New Delhi deserve more reflection and scrutiny than the predictable partisan outrage they have generated over the past few days.

Wagle's remarks about nationalism and India have created much outrage in the mainstream and on social media. At the NDTV World Summit, he said that there was a...