Delhi durbars come under Maoist fire

Sudeshna Sarkar

Kathmandu, June 7: A series of meetings between top Indian officials and leaders of two of Nepal's biggest political parties in New Delhi has given rise to deep unease among Maoist guerrillas here, with their chief Prachanda lashing out at "Indian interference".Maoist supremo Prachanda, who was touring the Terai plains as top leaders of his rival Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML) were in New Delhi to attend a conference of MPs from South Asia, Wednesday accused India of trying to suppress the Maoists by playing a divide and rule game."India has no right to say which Nepali parties should come close or which ones to stay away from," the Maoist leader said.The anger was caused by a meeting Tuesday between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UML chief Madhav Kumar Nepal, who was also accompanied by two former deputy prime ministers, K.P. Oli and Bharat Mohan Adhikari.

The Maoists are smouldering at the Indian prime minister reportedly urging close ties between the UML and the Nepali Congress, two of its biggest rivals in the upcoming November elections.Though Maoist MP Dinanath Sharma is also taking part in the parliamentarians' conference, he had not been included in the meetings between UML leaders and the Indian authorities, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.The Delhi meets come at a time there has been a fresh war of words between the Maoists and Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.Earlier this week, Maoist cadres handed over to the police a businessman wanted for nearly a year for defrauding a bank of about Nepali Rs.200 million.The "arrest" of wanted businessman Sitaram Prasain, who is considered close to Koirala's Nepali Congress party, triggered an angry reaction from Koirala, who called the cadres of the Maoist Young Communist League the 'Young Criminal League'.

The comment has given rise to widespread anger and criticism, both among the Maoists and the public, who are accusing Koirala of shielding corrupt businessmen.Maoists MPs Wednesday threw a challenge to the prime miniser in parliament, saying he should ban the YCL if it was a criminal organisation, or else, apologise.Information and Communications Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is both the government spokesperson as well as one of the top Maoist leaders, said Koirala's comment smacked of bias towards criminals.The growing rift between the prime minister and the Maoists may have growing implications in the days to come, especially since Nepal is in the process of amending its new constitution.Once the amendment comes into force, the prime minister can be removed if two-thirds of the MPs support a no-trust vote.The king, whose powers and privileges have been suspended by the new statute, can also be removed by a two-third majority vote and Nepal be declared a republic well ahead of the November election, an action that the Maoists are gunning for.

Source: IANS, June 7, 2007