A senior Indian politician, Sitaram Yechuri, has said joining of peaceful democratic process by the Nepali Maoists will have positive impact across South Asia.
Addressing a ‘Face to Face programme’ organized by the Reporters’ Club in Kathmandu on Saturday, politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechuri said reinstatement of the House of Representatives in Nepal is a good beginning. He said the 12-point understanding between the Seven Party Alliance and the CPN (Maoist) is the basis of present democratic changes in Nepal.
Yechuri, who is also the acting chairman of Nepal Democracy Solidarity Committee in India, said (Nepali) Maoists were ready to join the democratic process in the country. “Their participation in the democratic process will have a positive impact on entire South Asia,” he added.
“Whatever the Nepali people decide regarding the fate of monarchy through constituent assembly elections, we will support that,” said Yechuri. He said now there was a need of economic rebuilding in Nepal and that the international community including India should come forward to help Nepal in that regard.
General Secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party of India, D. P. Tripathi, said he, along with his colleagues, had arrived Kathmandu to salute and greet Nepali people for their great revolution, democratic upsurge and success. He also congratulated Maoist chairman, Prachanda, for the success of ‘people’s movement’ and advised media to refer to him by his original name Pushpa Kamal Dahal. “This spirit of ‘jana andolan’ will ensure the success of democratic movement in Nepal,” he added.
A leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Atul K. Anjan, said there was no room for what he called royal anarchy as well as social anarchy in democracy. “We want stable democracy in Nepal and we will impress upon the Indian government to provide more assistance to Nepal in future,” he added.
Journalist and leftist writer, Anand Sworup Verma, said Nepali people had rejected advice by the Indian and US authorities to bring the king and parliamentary parties together so as to isolate the Maoists. He said people’s movement had also afforded an opportunity to the SPA to regain their lost ground over the last 12 years.
Human rights activist Padma Ratna Tuladhar alleged that the SPA was trying to undermine the role of CPN (Maoist) in the people’s movement. He said Nepali people were not happy to see that Indian premier Dr. Manmohan Singh had sent a ‘maharaja’ (Dr. Karan Singh) as his envoy to Nepal.
Nepali Congress leader Narahari Acharya said with SPA agreeing to hold elections for the constituent assembly, the main agenda now was to decide the fate of monarchy. He claimed that Nepali Congress to would not stand in favour monarchy during the constituent assembly elections. nepalnews.com by Apr 29 06