Thaindian News

Kathmandu, April 14 (IANS) A day after formally conveying its displeasure to the Nepal government for scrapping a deal with an Indian state-owned company to print Nepali passports, India Wednesday conveyed its concern at the “growing anti-Indian activities” of Nepal’s former Maoist guerrillas to the ex-rebels themselves.
India’s ambassador to Nepal, Rakesh Sood, Wednesday met Maoist chief and former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda at the latter’s residence here to convey New Delhi’s displeasure over the Maoists leaking a confidential official letter and concern at the increasingly “anti-India stand” taken by the former guerrillas.

“Prachanda told the envoy that the Maoists were not involved in anti-India activities,” Prachanda’s aide Samir Dahal told the media after the meeting. “The Maoists are instead seeking to build new relations with India that will recognise the changed scenario in Nepal.”

Though MPs cutting across political lines condemned the agreement between the Security Printing and Minting Corp of India and the coalition government, resulting in the passport deal being scrapped this week, India regards the Maoists, the biggest party in Nepal, as having engineered the volte face.

The rift between New Delhi and the former armed party has been widening with the latter accusing India of causing the fall of its government in 2009, preventing the inclusion of its guerrilla fighters in the national army, and meddling in Nepal’s internal matters.

The New Delhi-Maoist standoff has been proving costly for Indian companies with joint ventures in Nepal, especially in the hydro-power sector, with the Maoists organising protests and stopping work.

Plagued with a growing Maoist insurgency in 20 of its 28 states, the Indian government is also concerned about the Maoists in Nepal though the latter signed a peace agreement in 2006.

While not openly taking up arms, Nepal’s Maoists have been rumoured to be keeping arms, soldiers and strategies ready for armed struggles in future.