Expatriate Nepalis and friends of Nepal have staged demonstrations in five major Indian cities to express solidarity to the movement of the opposition seven parties in Nepal.

Thousands of expatriate Nepalis and Indian nationals joined the demonstrations orgranised by United Nepali Front for Democracy in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bhopal on Sunday, according to media reports. Indian political leaders also participated in the demonstrations and mass meetings.

In New Delhi, the Indian capital city, a mass meeting attended by about 20,000 Nepali migrants was organised which was participated by senior CPN (UML) leaders Bam Dev Gautam and Jhalnath Khanal, who are in India since last few weeks, and leader of Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechuri.

Addressing the gathering at Ramlila Maidan, Gautam said the seven-party alliance was committed to take the movement against ‘royal autocracy’ to a decisive end.

CPI (M) leader Yechuri, who is also a parliamentarian, said most of the Indian political parties had support to the democratic movement in Nepal.

“But is for the Nepali people to choose what kind of political system they want,” reports quoted Yechuri as saying.

Leader of Nationalist Congress D.P. Tripathi, socialist leaders Vijay Pratap, Surendra Mohan, Samim Faiji, Dr Sunilam, Ananda Swaroop Verma, Deepak Mallik and few other Indian leaders also participated in the mass meeting.

India has been urging the King to initiate dialogue with the political parties to end the present political deadlock. Indian military aid to Nepal has been suspended after February 1, 2005, when the King assumed direct power. nepalnews.com mk Apr 10 06