Speaking to Republica, senior politician D P Tripathi said, “There was no alternative to the extension and it is more welcome as it shows that Nepali leaders are committed to resolve the current problems.”[break]
Tripathi, who is also the Chairman of the Indo-Nepal Parliamentary Solidarity Committee, said, “The peace process and the constitution writing are two essential components and it can be achieved only through consensus.”
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury, said, “If all political parties in Nepal come to an agreement, the peace process can be concluded within the next three months.”
“The realization has come among the parties in Nepal that the peace process must be concluded now and the three-month extension is a timeframe,” he told Republica.
Yechury played a key role in signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and is considered a long time friend of Nepal.
While the Indian government has maintained silence over the extension with no official statements, sources have said that it is yet to be seen how the Maoists take the new opportunity to conclude the peace process.
However, on the five-point deal struck among the three major parties in Nepal on the wee hours of late Saturday, Indian politicians and civil society has termed it “vague” and a “repetition” of the last year’s agreement.
“Since there is no timeframe mentioned in the five-point deal either for the resignation of PM Jhalanath Khanal or fixing of the number of combatants to be integrated, it is doubtful whether the peace process will be concluded within the three months time,” Dr Nihar Nayak, associate fellow at the government-owned Institute of Defense Studies and Analysis in New Delhi said. He added, “It looks a repetition of last year’s agreement and is completely vague.”
Doubts are also afloat that the agreement may once again be an eyewash for the public.
“The extension is a pressure on the Maoists to complete the integration process and also to write the constitution,” said retired general Ashok Mehta, a defense analyst.
India has maintained that the peace process should precede constitution writing and has been pressing the UCPN (Maoist) to conclude the integration of the PLA combatants, which, it has said, is the key to concluding the peace process in Nepal.
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