By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : A team rushed to Kathmandu by India’s ruling Congress party on the eve of a crucial election cut a sorry figure with their ignorance of the situation in Nepal and the lack of concern for ailing Indian companies in the country.
Headed by former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh, who is also a general secretary of the Congress, the team is the first sent to Nepal by the Congress since the fall of King Gyanendra’s government in 2006 and the sea changes since then.
The four-member team, comprising Shakeel Ahmad, M. Veerappa Moily and Jiten Prasada, spoke to a section of the Indian media here Tuesday night.
Singh made a faux pas saying that India had supported constitutional monarchy in Nepal in the past since that was the structure developed when the “British left”.
However, unlike India, the British never conquered Nepal.
Singh insisted the delegation would not intervene in Nepal’s internal matters or support one side against the other since it was a sovereign state.
Asked in that case why did India broker a clandestine peace agreement between the Maoists and the opposition against King Gyanendra in New Delhi in 2006, he said he was “ignorant” of the Delhi agreement.
Singh said the team was bringing the message that the Congress supports the democratic process in Nepal and would like to see Nepal hold the promised election to promulgate a constitution written by people’s representatives.
He also said the three parties in Nepal’s Terai plains, which have called an indefinite shutdown in the plains from Wednesday, should take part in the election since a further poll postponement would see the people lose and anti-people forces win.
During its three-day visit at the invitation of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s Nepali Congress party, the Congress delegation will meet Koirala, Maoist chief Prachanda and the Terai dissenters.
Although it is not meeting King Gyanendra, the delegation is holding meetings with former prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, a royal appointee, and other royalists.
The Maoists have already begun expressing their displeasure.
The Janadisha daily, considered a mouthpiece of the former insurgents, Wednesday said the Congress team was trying to lobby support for monarchy in Nepal.
Ironically, Singh, who said his Congress party did not support feudalism and would therefore not meet the king, comes from a former Indian princely state himself.
Party banners still call him “King Digvijay Singh” while to his admirers he is “Diggy Raja”.
The team’s parleys with the Terai groups is also likely to create anti-India feelings with Koirala himself having indicated earlier that New Delhi had influence on the plain groups.
However, at a time India’s telecom joint venture United Telecom Ltd has been crippled by a strike, the delegation is not to raise the issue with Nepal’s leaders or governments.
When pointed out that along with UTL, in which the government of India holds 80 percent stake, has been shut down by strikers as well as other Indian ventures like Nepal Lever, Singh said the problem was not unique to Indian companies.