Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 19 (IANS) It will be a time for nostalgia and camaraderie when Nepal’s Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai Thursday meets his old college mates from Jawaharlal Nehru University, long-time friends like Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as well as Swami Agnivesh who performed his marriage ceremony in the 1980s.

Bhattarai’s four-day visit to India kicks off with a reception Thursday evening that will bring together his batchmates from JNU from the early 1980s, civil society figures, Gandhian activists and intellectuals.

Bhattarai will meet Nitish Kumar, whom he admires for his developmental initiatives in transforming Bihar. Bhattarai is expected to discuss some of his ideas for closer links between Bihar that borders Nepal.

Sharad Yadav, Janata Dal-United leader and convener of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) who has known Bhattarai for long, would also be present.

The reception has been hosted by South Asian Forum for People’s Initiative, a think tank, and Samkaleen Teesri Dunia.

Among the guests will be Swami Agnivesh, a social activist and an Arya Samaj leader who has a special link with Bhattarai. Agnivesh performed an Arya Samaj marriage of Bhattarai and his wife Hisila Yami, a fellow Maoist who was studying in India around the same time.

Agnivesh recalls the marriage ceremony warmly, which was held at the home of Shamsul Islam, who is now principal of Satyavati College and a street theatre activist. “They make a lovely couple. In those days one could see that he was very committed to the struggle for social justice,” Agnivesh told IANS.

“He is a good friend of India. We can trust him to make India-Nepal relations stronger,” said Agnvesh.

Islam is also expected to meet his old friend from Nepal.

“He was a very open-minded Marxist and an admirer of Indian leaders like Jaypraksh Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia. He was a sober and introverted student,” recalls Sudhindra Bhadoria, secretary general of South Asian Forum who knew Bhattarai in his JNU days well.

Bhattarai studied at the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture for an M.Tech degree and did his PhD degree from JNU in 1986 on ‘The Nature of Underdevelopment and Regional Structure of Nepal- A Marxist Analysis’. His Ph.D. thesis was later published as a book.

Bhattarai will hold official talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his senior cabinet ministers on a wide range of issues, including expansion of economic and developmental cooperation between the two countries.