Sources in New Delhi said that India wants to see the UCPN (Maoist) “fulfill all its past commitments” and take “extra steps” to ensure that the commitments are implemented for the success of the peace process and constitution writing.[break]
Krishna is traveling to Nepal also at the height of the Maoist resistance against Indian business ventures with demand of review of all hydropower projects involving India.
The Maoists have in the past few weeks unleashed a fresh wave of antagonism against India leading the Indian embassy in Kathmandu to take up the matter with Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal.
While reiterating India´s support for Nepal´s peace process and constitution drafting amidst political stalemate, Krishna is thus expected to convey to the Nepali leadership India´s concerns over security for its projects in Nepal. In fact, according to reports from Nepal on Sunday, Maoists stormed a function organised by Indian hydropower major GMR in Kathmandu and demanded that its project in the western part of the country be scrapped.
Stating that India is not keen on another Constituent Assembly term extension, sources said, “India would like to see progress in peace process and thus it will ask Nepali leaders to work toward that,” a government source said.
During his visit, Krishna will meet, apart from the prime minister, all senior Maoist leaders. Sources said some 14 meetings are scheduled during his stay.
Sources said Krishna was likely to formally invite Prime Minister Khanal to visit India. While Khanal is said to be keen on visiting India, his plans have run into stiff opposition from ally UCPN (Maoist) who are insisting that the prime minister look at the possibility of visiting China first.
Krishna, in fact, was scheduled to visit Nepal earlier but that could not happen because of the delay in government formation in Nepal.
It was suggested that Krishna would visit Nepal only after a foreign minister was appointed. However, while Khanal has twice expanded his cabinet, no foreign minister has been appointed till now. Many Maoist leaders opposed both the expansion, alleging that Khanal had not taken allies into confidence in appointing ministers.
Besides a whole gamut of bilateral relations to be discussed during Krishna’s visit, high on agenda are long-standing issues like extradition treaty and signing of border map between the two neighbors. Also, Krishna will take up the matter confronting UTL company in Nepal.
Related story
NC settles on 60–40 power split for PR nominations as factions...
-1200x560-1779450784.webp)
