CALCUTTA, 8 February 2005 — Openly challenging New Delhi’s policy vis-a-vis Nepal, India’s communist parties are piling pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to adopt a soft line toward Maoists in the neighboring country.
“India should back Maoists if they fight for the restoration of democracy in Nepal. We must express solidarity with Maoists”, said Anil Biswas, who heads the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal and is a member of the party’s powerful politburo.
Sitaram Yechury, another CPI(M) heavyweight, declared yesterday that Nepal’s Maoists deserve India’s full support for the sake of democracy.
Analysts say that after dictating economic policies, the left parties whose support is vital for the survival of the federal government, appear determined to reshape the country’s foreign policy too.
Backing Maoists would amount to a total reversal of New Delhi’s Nepal policy. India has blacklisted Maoists as terrorists and favors constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy in Nepal.
Maoists, too, are vehemently anti-India and accuse New Delhi of treating Nepal as its colony. According to them, Nepal’s King Gyanendra is an Indian stooge. They believe that Nepal’s political parties are also on India’s payroll.
The Maoist rebels have been fighting a guerrilla war for nine years for the abolition of monarchy and the creation of a communist republic in Nepal.
Now India’s communists want South Block to read the riot act to King Gyanendra and prop up Maoists for the restoration of democracy in the landlocked Himalayan nation.
Last week, CPI(M)’s Har Kishen Singh Surjeet and Yechury and Communist Party of India’s A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja met the prime minister to convey the left’s stand on the political turmoil in Nepal.
A senior CPI(M) leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said New Delhi must stop supplying arms to Katmandu to express its displeasure at the palace coup and the throttling of democracy in Nepal.
“We fully understand that China and Pakistan will take advantage of the situation in Nepal if India stops supplying arms to the Royal Nepal Army or takes a tough stand against King Gyanendra. We are also not ruling out the possibility of King Gyanendra turning to USA for help in the fight against Maoists. South Block must resolve these knotty issues. But for us, restoration of democracy in Nepal is the most important issue overriding everything”, he bluntly said.
According to Yechury, “the Indian government has many ways of telling Nepal that the overthrowing of democracy is totally unacceptable, including expressing solidarity with Maoists”.
