Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala continued high-level meetings in the Indian capital, New Delhi, Thursday as well.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala (File Photo)
PM Koirala had a meeting at with the president of India’s main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, Raj Nath Singh, at Delhi’s Imperial Hotel where he has been staying since Tuesday.
The recent political change in Nepal and the parliament’s announcement to turn Nepal as a secular state from the Hindu Kingdom and the ongoing government-Maoist talks were among the issues discussed in the half-an-hour meeting, reports said.
The BJP chief said after the meeting that with the declaration of a secular state, Nepal should also maintain its Hindu religious culture. Singh mentioned that PM Koirala told him that the Maoists were ready to come to the political mainstream and that he believed Koirala’s assertion.
The BJP is a Hindu fundamentalist party supported by a number of rightwing semi-political Hindu religious outfits. Many senior BJP leaders had gone on record to criticise the Nepal parliament’s declaration to do away with the Hindu identity of the country.
Similarly, the representatives of the Nepal Democracy Solidarity Committee, which was formed to support Nepal’s recent democratic movement, met Koirala and renewed their support to Nepal’s peace process, reports said.
PM Koirala is scheduled to meet with India’s Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi this evening.
Koirala arrived in New Delhi on a four-day goodwill visit Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, finance minister Dr Ram Saran Mahat, commerce and industries minister Gopal Man Shrestha and local development minister Rajendra Pandey met with their Indian counterparts separately and discussed about the areas of cooperation.
Dr Mahat also held a meeting with Indian industrialists today and urged them to invest in Nepal. The finance minister said the economic scenario in Nepal was improving with the restoration of democracy and the ongoing peace process and assured of investment-friendly environment to Indian investors.