Kathmandu: NC president dismisses the theory that he met top-rung Maoist leaders during his Delhi sojourn. However, informed sources here confirm Koirala’s meeting with the rebels at one Mani Limbu’s residence in Delhi through the kind courtesy of Sujata Jost-Koirala.

Koirala upon his return to Kathmandu has repeatedly hinted that he and only him could sort out the Maoists issue immaterial whether the King or his government supported him or not in his “pious mission”. This expression does indicate that Koirala is all set to proceed solo and bag success leaving his rivals to guess as to what charisma made the Maoists to act on the advices of Koirala and seek his support in settling their overly stretched imbroglio with the old-regime.

Likewise, Madhav Nepal, the strongman of the UML too appears desperate in moving in this regard all alone. In the process, Mr. Nepal is pressing the Deuba establishment to the extent that he would prefer a unilateral ceasefire being announced by the government much ahead of the Maoists reciprocating to the government’s gesture.

Only the other day, Madhav Nepal is reported to have pressed Deuba for unilateral ceasefire and assured the prime minister that the Maoists would follow the suit.

However, Deuba apparently rejected Madhav’s plea on the grounds that he have had tragic experiences with the Maoists in this regard and that he would proceed carefully so far as the announcement of ceasefire were concerned.

The fact is that Madhav Nepal appears more than interested for the announcement of a ceasefire by the government than what his own party-ministers should have done. In effect, his own party-ministers have been saying that without doing proper homeworks, there was no meaning of the announcement of the ceasefire and that too unilaterally.

This means that Madhav Nepal reiteration and for that matter his desperation is being challenged by his own party comrades in government.

What is not known so far is what compels Madhav Nepal to press the government for the announcement of ceasefire?

To bag unilateral success? Or to exhibit that he is more concerned for the Maoists and to their issues?

To sum up, all put together what comes to the fore is that both Koirala and Madhav Nepal in one way or the other were in a sort of race to exhibit their loyalty to the Maoists and the Maoists have reasons to be happy that they have been able to swing the congress and the UML politics their way.

Nevertheless, the government, high placed sources confide, too is in the same race but it doesn’t want to exhibit its penchant for the talks. The fact is that the government channels are well working to the extent that analysts believe that so far two separate rounds of talks have already been taken place in between the two warring rivals. However, both prefer to remain tight-lipped for their own obvious reasons.

No less interesting is the policy of quiet diplomacy acquired of late by the European Union members in this regard. High placed hint that some of the EU members have taken up the challenge and are working hard in order to manage secret level meetings in between the leaders of the Maoists and the government. However, what is not known so far as to which countries have taken up the issue? Norway? Switzerland? Denmark? Finland? Or even Germany or France? Could be any one of them mentioned above.

This means that not only the European countries were eager to sort out this issue for good but the government too is trying hard to arrive at an amicable solution on a permanent basis.

That the Maoists too were desperate for the talks gets reflected from the recent utterances of one of the student leaders affiliated to Maoists, Mr. Lekh Nath Neupane, who is on record to have said that “they would begin programs to gherao headquarters along with all the students and parents from September if their talks with the government fails or the situation remained static”.

A close look at this statement does reveal: firstly, that the Maoists will await for the possible talks with the government till September which means that they are ready for the talks any time from now; secondly, the statement does hint that they wish the talks not to go to the dogs which also hints that they too would wish the talks to yield positive results this time; thirdly, they can’t wait for the talks to happen ad infinitum.

All put together what again comes to the fore is that a slight push to both the warring sides could bring both to the talks. However, the Maoists appear to have acquired a strategy to step up their violent activities and that too to press the government for the talks.

In the meanwhile, India has expressed its concern over the Maoists reiteration that they will hit those companies that have Indian investment. This means that the Maoists will have to face a wrath if they attack Indian investments. But in what form the Indian authorities will exhibit their wrath will have to be watched if the rebels act as per their declaration.