President of the main opposition party of India, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rajnath Singh, has demanded that the Indian government immediately convene a meeting of all opposition parties to discuss the internal situation in Nepal.

Newly elected president of Bharatiya Janata Party Rajnath Singh

Newly elected president of Bharatiya Janata Party Rajnath Singh (Photo source: manoramaonline. com)
“The government of India is totally silent on the internal development in Nepal, when India cannot ignore such a development taking place in a neighbouring country,” official PTI news agency quoted Singh as saying in the Indian city of Raipur on Saturday.

“Hence, the Centre should immediately call a meeting of the opposition parties to discuss the internal situation in Nepal and what should be the role of India in that,” he said.

Singh also said that the chief of Nepal Maoists, Prachanda, was not only holding press conference in Delhi but was also getting in touch with leaders of political parties. “But the Centre was remaining unmoved on that matter”, he said.

Prachanda recently gave exclusive interviews to leading Nepali daily, Indian daily “The Hindu” and the first TV interview to BBC on the completion of ten years of “people’s war” in Nepal. Reports claimed that all those interviews were conducted in or around the Indian capital.

Pro-Hindu BJP is said to have close ties with the royal palace of Nepal. A BJP leader, Bijay Jolly, who was in Kathmandu last month to take part in the first convention of the Nepali Congress (Democratic) told reporters that as a political party BJP was committed to constitutional monarchy and multi-party democracy in Nepal.

Jolly disclosed that top leadership of the BJP had “very close” relationship with the royal palace of Nepal. “We also have cordial relationship with the political parties of Nepal. My visit here is to show that,” he added.

The delegation led by CPI (M) leader, Sitaram Yechuri, called for immediate restoration of democracy in Nepal.

Talking to reporters in Raipur, BJP leader Singh claimed that India’s position in the international level had been affected because of the wrong foreign policy of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh.

“Because of the Indo-US nuclear policy the scientist community of the country are worried,” he said.

An impression had been built up at the international level that India was considering United States “a bigger country”, he said and reminded that despite US pressure, the government led by AB Vajpayee went ahead with its nuke test for which there was economic sanctions against the country.