By Jan Sharma

There is little doubt that the latest New Delhi conclaves of Kathmandu-based diplomats and Nepali politicians on the developing situation in the kingdom were essentially designed to further deepen the rift between the king and the political parties.

If the rift deepens further, a return to democracy and constitutional process will be further delayed. In the long term, it will scuttle the democratic institutions and processes.

The disclosure by former premier Girija Prasad Koirala on Saturday upon his return from the Indian capital after “medical checkup” that the Maoists have indicated to join the national mainstream indicates just that.

Madhav Kumar Nepal, also returning after “medical checkup” in India, corroborated earlier that the New Delhi parlays were designed to bring the Maoists to the national mainstream “with the participation of the international community.”

The developments come hot on the heels of Nepal’s diplomatic moves during the recent South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Dhaka to veto Afghanistan’s admission as a new member unless China was admitted as an observer.

The move must ring as music in the ears of Western diplomats in Kathmandu who until the royal takeover privately complained that the governments since 1990 were so Indo-centric that they virtually ignored enormous Western goodwill towards Nepal.

The New Delhi parleys revive what the ceasefire declared by the Maoists on the eve of Dashain/Tihar festivals failed to achieve. The ceasefire was engineered after top Maoist leaders met Indian rulers in New Delhi.

One of the three key goals of the ceasefire was to prevent any prospect of reconciliation between the King and the political parties.

The Nepali Congress’s deletion of reference to “constitutional monarchy” in the party statute and the CPN-UML’s switch of loyalty from “multi-party people’s democracy” to “democratic republic” is producing cracks in the seven-party alliance.

The ceasefire was designed to embarrass the royal regime by forcing it to reciprocate. As the ceasefire in the past was used to regroup for new offensive, the government roundly rejected the offer.

The third objective was to win the international community on its side. There was no such support except by one or two European countries.

CPN-UML’s Bamdev Gautam and Maoist supreme Prachanda were reported to have reached “verbal understanding” on a six-point agenda recently somewhere in Rolpa. Neither side has disclosed the details.

The understanding is expected to pave the way for a broader alliance between the Maoists and the seven-party alliance, which will be a strange cohabitation because while the Maoists are unpopular, the political parties suffer from serious credibility gap.

American ambassador James F. Moriarty warned of the serious consequences of a possible alliance between the Maoists and the seven-party formation unless the former renounced violence, surrendered arms and joined the national mainstream.

A Western diplomat who traveled to the countryside recently found that most people he met complained of the Maoists’ excesses but had hardly any grudge against the King.