The Hindu : National : It’s new Nepal, new continuation of ties with India: Prachanda

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It’s new Nepal, new continuation of ties with India: Prachanda

Neena Vyas

— Photo: Rajeev Bhatt

Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (right) with (from left) Prakash Karat (CPI-M), Murli Manohar Joshi (BJP), Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Mulayam Singh (SP) and Sharad Yadav (JD-U) during a lunch organised by the India Nepal Parliamentary Friendship Forum in New Delhi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Political leaders from across the political spectrum on Tuesday gathered at the residence of Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav to interact with Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda), who was the chief guest at a lunch hosted under the aegis of the India-Nepal Parliamentary Friendship Forum.

Camaraderie pervaded the atmosphere as Mr. Prachanda recalled his long association with India, its people and leaders, during the 10-year long liberation struggle that he was leading in Nepal in the course of which he spent a lot of time in India and developed strong friendship.

“It seems strange as I stand here today, my first visit to India as Nepal’s Prime Minister … nobody would have thought that a person leading a revolutionary struggle in Nepal would spend so much of his time in India during those years, but that was a fact. I was attempting a new model of revolution, a new model of people’s war, which has now been transformed into a peace process … as I stand here it feels like a dream that all these things should have happened in a relatively short span of time,” said Mr. Prachanda in a short speech.

New dynamism

He emphasised it was a “new Nepal” he was leading, and there must be a “break with the old continuation and a start of a new continuation [in the relations between India and Nepal].” No two countries in the world possibly enjoyed the kind of “sweet relations” that India and Nepal have traditionally and historically had. These bonds have to be strengthened through a “fresh start.” The two countries were linked through “thousands of small links that cannot be broken,”, but there was need for a “new dynamism” in the relationship that could be given by focussing “not on the small things, but looking at the big picture.”

The guests at the lunch included Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh, Samajwadi Party president and general secretary Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh, Nationalist Congress Party leaders Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, the former Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, and a host of other leaders from various political parties and a large number of journalists and eminent people from all walks of life.

The former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh, sent a message that he was unable to come due to ill-health.

Mr. Prachanda talked about Nepal’s need for a rail link in his country going across the Terai region from East to West – in this he wanted India to help – and he talked about power projects in Nepal that could generate 10,000 MW with which Nepal could help energy-deficit India. He also referred to the problem of floods, now being faced by Bihar and areas in Nepal and the need to look at possible solutions.

He said he would go back satisfied with his meetings in New Delhi. He was happy to note that people across the country were interested in and shared the excitement of the rise of a new Nepal. Its ties with India “cannot be broken, but need to be strengthened through a new dynamism and a new conceptual framework.”

Mr. Sharad Yadav, who is also the president of the India-Nepal Parliamentary Friendship Forum, said people of both nations shared each other’s struggles and aspirations. He mentioned the misery of farmers in Bihar as a result of floods in the Kosi. He was certain Mr. Prachanda would be very sensitive to this suffering as “you have spent your life fighting for the poor”. He understood that this subject figured in his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

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