Kathmandu: The leader of the UML, Madhav Kumar Nepal did wrong. No! He did a splendid job.

Madhav Nepal is in the news, both in the electronic and the print media for an act that he just accomplished last week which concurrently is bringing for him accolades and condemnations.

Nepali academicians appear to take Madhav Nepal’s clandestine trip to Lucknow, India, in a different manner.

Some say his going to Lucknow for a meeting with the Maoists supremo Comrade Prachanda, was a timely one in the sense that some one from some responsible quarters had to initiate this job and that Madhav Nepal in doing so has paved the way for the resumption of the now stalled talks with the maoists.

Others say that Madhav Nepal should not have gone to a “foreign country” in his present day responsible capacity of being the Opposition leader of Nepal and in doing so he, read Madhav Nepal, did not even took note of the diplomatic etiquette and the required protocols as is demanded when such a high personality of his stature visits an alien land.

“Madhav Nepal’s sudden and unannounced trip to Lucknow was made by the political personality as if the place he visited to meet Prachanda and his colleagues were an expanded territory of Nepal”, commented an academician associated with the Tribhuban University. He further opines that Madhav Nepal’s being in Lucknow last week must have embarrassed the Indian establishment for obvious political reasons. Elaborating further, the academic personality maintains that Mr. Nepal’s presence in Lucknow last week, for good or for bad, exposes the fact that prominent Maoists’ leaders reside in India and that the Indian establishment in one way or the other must be aware of it.

The fact is that the Indian establishment denies this general assumption here which got reflected in the issuance of the denial of any such meeting held in between Madhav Nepal and Maoists leaders in Lucknow by the Indian embassy staffer here.

But if one were to believe Mr. Nepal’s assertion that he met his Maoists friends at the Kapur Hotel in Lucknow then it becomes clear that Nepali Maoists reside in India which, say other set of academics, not necessarily be in the knowledge of the host country.

Reports have it that Madhav Nepal left the Nepali territory last Wednesday morning secretly. However, the secret remained no more a secret when the media people declared that Mr. Nepal already proceeded towards Lucknow. Later it was made known that Prachanda met Mr. Nepal at the hotel mentioned above and had talks for all along five hours.

Reports also revealed that Prachanda arrived Lucknow the same day from an unknown destination to meet Madhav Nepal.

The academics who give plus points to Madhav Nepal’s trip to Lucknow say that given the political stalemate in the country and given the chaotic situation due to the two-way battle in between the Maoists and the security forces, some one of the stature of Madhav Nepal should have initiated this move. “What is the harm in initiating such moves that bodes well for the country and its people”, adds the academic belonging to the other set.

According to him, what Madhav Nepal has done in effect should have been done by the State actors. In absence of any overtures from the state actors, Madhav Nepal shouldered this responsibility. “What is the harm when one Nepali leader meets another equally important Nepali leader in Indian territory”, continues the TU scholar.

“If intentions are sincere and if the motives are clear and if such meetings in any way supported the peace process to resume, I see no reason to dismiss Mr. Nepal’s claims that his meetings with Prachanda will go a long way for the country’s cause.

Be that as it may, however, there is yet another section of Nepali intellectuals who point blank maintain that Madhav Nepal in having materialised his secret trip to Lucknow, which never was a secret trip by any political measure, only helped embarrass the government in Delhi for obvious political reasons.

Question now arises: Did Madhav make this Lucknow trip informing Delhi in advance? If that were so , why the Indian embassy denial ? Or is it that the denial was just for Nepali consumption? Did Mr. Nepal exceed his diplomatic limits? Or was it a ploy to embarrass India? Or Madhav Nepal went to Lucknow at the suggestions of the international community who wish the early restoration of peace and the installment of a “representative” government in Kathmandu.

Who else better knows than Monsieur Nepal, the leader of the main opposition who is, by way of protocol, is already the Prime Minister in waiting. How Nepal pleads his case and justifies his trip to Lucknow will have to be watched.