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Nepal’s focus on India, China

KATHMANDU: Nepal would give priority to strengthen relations with India and China, according to the government’s programmes and policies for 2008-09. Unveiling the document, President Ram Baran Yadav said: “Friendship with India and Nepal would be given special priority.”

The government’s fiscal plan seeks foreign investment in areas where large funds are needed, says the document. However, the 84th point of the document reads: “The treaties signed with other countries, which don’t seem to be in national interest would be re-evaluated.” Lately, various parties have stressed on the need to either modify or scrap the Kosi Treaty. The recent floods displaced more than 50,000 people in Nepal. Furthermore, the document highlights the need to send back Bhutanese refugees living in Nepal for more than a decade.

The government plans to make public the state of the people who went “missing” during insurgency and integrate the Maoists’ Army with the Nepal Army in six months. Likewise, attention has been given to boost economic growth, for which public-private partnership would be encouraged. Also on the list is framing a democratic Constitution.

The government has also appealed to various groups carrying out different kinds of “struggles” to suspend their activities and hold talks. Several groups in the Terai are still engaged in an armed struggle.

The document has failed to impress the opposition Nepali Congress. The former Prime Minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, said there was no “newness” in it. “The only new things are the inclusion of ‘People’s War’ and ‘People’s Liberation Army’,” he said. No official document so far had these terms, and thereby it “insults” the Comprehensive Peace Accord, he added. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Prachanda said the programmes attempted to address people’s aspirations. However, CPN (UML) leader Madhav Kumar Nepal said the programmes may be achieved in 20 years.

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