UPA to Left: Can’t ignore neighbours warming up to Nepal

The UPA Government today explained to Left leaders that Nepal was a strategically-placed neighbour and it could not remain a mute spectator ...

The UPA Government today explained to Left leaders that Nepal was a strategically-placed neighbour and it could not remain a mute spectator if other countries cosy up to the mountain kingdom and offer help, including arms.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, according to Left sources, talked of the problems being posed by the Maoists in the Himalayan kingdom and how an unsettled Nepal was geopolitically a serious problem for India as well. The M, however, told the Left leaders that he had not really made a commitment for immediate help.

It is learnt that Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee put it quite bluntly to Left leaders that there was little option available with the Government. He apparently said the UPA Government did not want to see a situation where other interested parties (in an oblique reference to both China and Pakistan) were pledging arms and other logistical or military help to Nepal.

Story continues below this ad

The Left has been opposing the Government decision to provide arms and other support to Nepal in order to combat the Maoists when King Gyanendra has not really made a pledge to restore democracy within a stipulated timeframe.

‘‘We want constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy to be restored and only then the Government should have conceived of a plan to help the Nepalese authorities,’’ CPI(M) leader in the Rajya Sabha, Nilotpal Basu had said at a press conference here this afternoon. The CPI(M) leaders had said they would have raised the issue in Parliament but were prevented by the disturbances that broke out over the issue of framing of charges against Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.