By IANS,
New Delhi : The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday questioned the Maoists’ legitimacy to rule Nepal and said their victory in the constituent assembly elections was not in India’s interest.
“The communist rule in Nepal is not in India’s interest,” senior BJP leader and former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh told reporters here.
“The CPN-M (Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist) has only one-third majority,” he added, questioning the former armed rebels’ legitimacy to rule the neighbouring country.
“There was no need to hurry with the elections in Nepal. We had requested the United Nations (UN) observers to first ensure that all the weapons (of the Maoists) were surrendered. The figures given of the number of people who surrendered was inflated,” he said.
“During the Nepal elections, there was rigging and intimidation, especially in the rural areas,” Jaswant Singh alleged.
Earlier, the BJP national executive meeting here passed a resolution on “foreign policy, national security and the United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) disastrous governance”.
The resolution expressed satisfaction over elections in Nepal but underscored the need for “great restraint in the utterances and conduct of the CPN-M”.
It also demanded that the Manmohan Singh government should make its stand on the CPN-M clear.
Singh clarified that the BJP stand on the CPN-M had “nothing to do with the continuance or not of the monarchy” there. “We want a functional democracy and peace, stability and progress in Nepal,” he said.
He stated that the Indian Left parties were working with the Maoists in Nepal. “The results of these relations are grave and will be worse in future as the Maoist corridor being formed (from Nepal to Bihar, Chhattisgarh and other states in India) is dangerous for India and Nepal,” he said.
Singh castigated the UPA government for its foreign policy, especially towards Pakistan and China.
The BJP resolution welcomed the return of democracy in Pakistan. It expressed concern over last month’s firing from across the Line of Control (LoC) in the Samba sector in Jammu and Kashmir, and Pakistan’s “support” to terrorism.
When External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee visited Islamabad last month, he should have reminded Pakistan of the Jan 6, 2004 joint statement with India in which Pakistan pledged not to allow any terror activities against India on its soil, Singh said.
He said terrorists were now receiving shelter in Bangladesh, which is “the new epicentre of terrorism”.
Terming India’s relations with China as “sad and depressing”, Singh said: “The manner in which the Olympic flame run in India was handled was depressing. MPs were confined in parliament precincts,” Singh said.
The BJP also demanded an explanation from the UPA government on an area in Sikkim known as the “finger point”, on which China has made a claim. The party also asked what was being done about “Chinese encroachments” in Arunachal Pradesh.
Commenting on the India-US civilian nuclear deal that is in limbo following political opposition here, the BJP favoured re-negotiations. “Losing the right to conduct nuclear tests is unacceptable,” Singh maintained.
Singh also said the UPA government had allowed India’s most enduring “strategic partnership” with Russia to stagnate.