Prachanda suspicious about India's role, keen to meet PM

Ajay Kaul
Kathmandu, Jan 18 (PTI) Nursing "serious suspicions" on
India's role in Nepal's political process, Maoist leader
Prachanda has said the Indian establishment had failed to
"grasp the verdict" of the historic 2008 election and he is
keen to discuss his concerns with Prime Minister of India
Manmohan Singh.
Former Premier Pushma Kamal Dahal Prachanda, who has
recently carried out a series of stinging attacks on India,
said the discussions with such high-level Indian leadership
were essential for creation of a "positive atmosphere".
India, he claimed, had failed to "grasp the verdict" of
the elections and "expectations of people" and wanted
continuance of "status quo" wherein the "old political
parties" would run the government.
The 56-year-old Chairman of Unified Communist Party of
Nepal (Maoist) contended there were sections in the Indian
establishment who did "not want to understand the dynamics of
change" brought about by the 2008 elections in Nepal.
"I am not saying everybody in India is against Maoists
but there may be tendency in bureaucracy, or (intelligence)
agencies or part of political leadership... There may be some
people who don't want to understand the dynamics of change,"
he told PTI in an interview here.
He said India played a positive role when the Maoists and
political parties reached the 12-point understanding, as also
during the Constituent Assembly elections.
"But after the results of the elections, I have serious
concerns, serious suspicion and doubts that the positive role
to support the peace process and Constitution drafting has not
continued," Prachanda said.
He contended that India's positive attitude had not
continued because it had "not accepted" that Maoists had
emerged the largest party in the elections.
"We want to have high-level political discussion about
our concerns... It will create positive atmosphere," he said,
adding that it meant talks with the Indian Prime Minister.
He said he did not have any suspicion in the leadership
of Singh "because when I met him twice during my visit to
India as Prime Minister, we had very good discussions".
"But later on, there have been ups and downs, twists and
turns in our relations and we want to have high-level
political discussion to address concerns and to clarify on
suspicions," he said.
Asked whether he would like to meet the Indian Prime
Minister, he responded in affirmative but said it was for the
Indian government to decide on this along with the timing.
"Suspicions need to be cleared...We want to clarify our
position and understand the position of India," he said.
Prachanda, who led a decade-long armed agitation before
joining the mainstream in 2006, became Prime Minister in
August 2008 after his party got a majority in the elections.
He resigned in May last year in protest against the
decision of President Ram Baran Yadav to reverse his order
sacking the then Army Chief Gen R Katawal.
Prachanda said he had tried to convey his concerns and
suspicions to External Affairs Minister of India S M Krishna
during their meeting here on Saturday last.
On his recent allegations that India was interfering in
Nepal's internal affairs, he said it was a result of reported
comments by the Indian Army Chief Gen Deepak Kapoor opposing
the proposed integration of former Maoist combatants in the
Nepalese Army.
He said he raised this issue with Krishna who "explained"
that the comments that appeared in media were "not authentic".
The "clarification" by the External Affairs Minister had
satisfied him "to some extent", Prachanda said but suspicions
continue.
During that meeting, Krishna conveyed India's unhappiness
to Prachanda and said his "baseless propaganda" was vitiating
the relations.
Insisting that his party wanted to have "good relations"
with India, Prachanda said it needed a "new basis" which
cannot happen till there is an understanding about the
"expectations" of the people of Nepal, implying restoration of
power to the Maoists.
"If we are able to convey our concerns to the Indian
leadership, it will be very helpful for development of new
relationship with India," he said. PTI AKK
AHM