By Sudeshna Sarkar
Kathmandu, Oct 10 (IANS) Nepal’s Maoist guerrillas are outraged by a former Indian Army officer’s statement that the Indian military could be deployed in Nepal. The Indian government’s denial and support to a key Maoist demand by some Indian MPs has only partially mollified them.
“The (Nepal) government should object to the statement by (retired Indian Army officer) Ashok Mehta, who is also a security advisor (sic) of Nepal,” Maoist spokesperson and former information and communications minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara told the official media.
“(Mehta’s statement that the Indian Army could be deployed in Nepal against the Maoists) is a direct interference in the sovereignty and independence of Nepal,” the state-run Rising Nepal daily Wednesday quoted the Maoist leader as saying.
“The Indian policy of trying to put Nepal under its hegemony and presenting India as the supreme power in South Asia does not exhibit the qualities of a responsible and good neighbour.”
There was anger in the Maoist camp after BBC Radio’s Nepali service Monday aired an interview with Ashok Mehta, a retired major-general of the Indian Army who is now a media commentator on strategic affairs, said India could deploy its army in Nepal if there was a confrontation between the Maoists and the Nepal Army even without Nepal asking for it.
Mahara said that if the statement was made in view of the protests planned by his party Thursday – when a critical parliament session convenes – he was clarifying that the demonstrations would remain peaceful.
“There is no plan of capturing Kathmandu or Nepal,” he told the official media. “Making such a comment about a single event is tantamount to interfering in Nepal’s politics.”
The rebels called it “India’s military threat”.
The Janadisha daily, an organ of the guerrillas, said that Mehta had made similar controversial statements to the same radio station two years ago.
“If the Maoists capture Kathmandu, Mehta had threatened that the Indian Army would intervene,” the daily said.
“Mehta’s statement is being taken as a naked threat to Nepal’s independence and sovereignty.”
Alert to the turmoil the statement could trigger in Nepal, India’s external affairs ministry Tuesday issued a denial, saying Mehta’s views did not “in any shape or form represent views of the government of India”.
Besides the official denial, the Maoists were also mollified by a statement expressed by 25 Indian MPs, saying they expressed solidarity with Nepalis’ demand for a republic in Nepal and prayed for their success.
An earlier statement by India’s opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, saying that Nepal should not abolish monarchy through a parliament vote, had also angered the Maoists, who have forced a special house session Thursday to try do exactly that.
The arrival of India’s special envoy, former foreign secretary and Indian ambassador to Nepal, Shyam Saran, in Kathmandu Wednesday on a two-day visit assumes special significance in view of the developments.
Saran comes at a time Nepal is on the brink of fresh chaos with elections put off indefinitely and Maoists threatening to bring the Girija Prasad Koirala government down as well as ending their alliance with the ruling parties.