From The Telegraph, 08/17/2005
(http://www.nepalnews.com)
Nepal's sitting minister exposes India's possible designs
Kathmandu: Close on the heels of the Royal Nepal Army's declaration that they have had some clear proofs that some of the high command rebel leaders have had "tacit" linkages with the Indian establishment, comes yet another political veteran, Prakash Koirala, now a minister in the King's cabinet who appears to have collected enough courage to say that "I have concrete materials to prove that the Maoists have been enjoying the support of the Indian government".
Not only this the energetic congress leader who has now been expelled from his mother party-the congress-says that Indian designs are dangerous towards the Kingdom of Nepal.
"Firstly, India would wish that Nepal turns to a protectorate state like what is Bhutan today. If Nepal rejects this Indian policy, the Indian establishment would wish to even turn Nepal into a republican state ultimately", adds the congress leader who claims that he is still in the congress despite the claims of the party otherwise. The junior Koirala laments and says that the political parties have not understood the hidden agenda of the Indian establishment and toeing their line without assessing the consequences of the fact that what would happen to this country in the absence of a monarchy?
Prakash Koirala, the son of Nepal's one of the illustrious and brilliant visionary leader, B.P.Koirala, says that he thinks that it is Indian maneuvering that has brought or is all set to bring the seven agitating political parties closer to the Maoists.
In the same vein junior Koirala opines that he possesses clear proofs of how the Indian establishment is supplying the rebels with trainings and weapons.
The proofs? Koirala narrates one story.
In his own words: " Only recently I met one retired Indian army official. I could meet him in BUTWAL, a town close to Bhairahava. He is a Nepali and resides now in Butwal. He said to me that there is a place some fifty-five kilometers from Dehradun, a mountainous town in North India, wherein there is an Indian army center. It is this place wherein the Nepali rebels are provided the needed and the required trainings. What else you want to know from me when the retired army official himself declared that he was the one who had trained the Maoists. The army official says that in that particular center non-military men were not allowed entrance. The place let me recall, is JAROKOT or close to this name".
Prakash Koirala emphatically says that he has no illusion over the fact that the idea of republicanism has come from Indian establishment.
He also maintains that Nepali Maoists have simply adored the name of Mao Tse Tung. The fact is that, adds Koirala, Nepali Maoists were the brainchild of late Indian Prime Minister, P.V. Narsingha Rao.
"This is what I have been saying since long", continues Koirala.
Analysts conclude that Koirala could have been the single sitting minister ever in Nepali cabinet to wrap India in this manner. How India reacts to his political overtures will have to be watched.
Analysts opine that when India's defense minister can forget diplomatic etiquette and talk against Nepal why can a Nepali minister not?
(Based on an interview of Koirala with the Jan Bhavana Weekly dated 15 August 2005).
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