Viewpoints:
On January 28, Delhi's unpretentious Paharganj locality played host to thousands of Nepali Maoists, almost half of whom crossed over from the neighbouring country, while the rest were already residing in India. Held under the banner of the Nepali Jan Adhikaar Suraksha Samiti (Bharat), the 4700-strong gathering included representatives from each of the Himalayan kingdom's 75 districts, most being the cadre of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist).
Hitherto reliable sources report that the chief guests who blessed the gathering were two White men, respectively introduced as Comrade Peter and Comrade Mangoli, both from the United States. The Indian VIPs included Prof Vijay Sharma of Delhi, Ms Ravi Varvar (Andhra Pradesh), Mr Prakash of the People's War Group (Jharkhand), Mr Manohar Lal Tiwari (Delhi) and Mr Fateh Anwar (Jammu & Kashmir).
The Nepali contingent was led by Gaurav, better known as Mr CP Gajurel, missionary preacher, gun-runner, and ideologue of the Nepali Maoists, not to mention 'guru' to Comrade Prachanda. He was recently released from a Chennai jail by the ruling UPA dispensation, for reasons unrelated to the Indian national interest. Mr Gajurel descended on New Delhi specifically to attend this conclave, the purpose of which was to win over every Nepali resident in India to the Maoist cause, and ensure that they return to the country to vote for Prachanda's party in the forthcoming June election. He did not, as media reports would suggest, come here to whine about alleged RSS-BJP activism among Terai Hindus.
Other important Nepali delegates included Mr Mohan Baid (Kiran), Mr Raju Nepali, Ms Rekha Sharma and Ms Sushila Biswakarma, one of the new Maoist MPs in Parliament. The meeting, convened by Mr Laxman Pant, was inaugurated by Mr Ishwari Bhandari, a well known Nepali missionary preacher. Its purpose was avowedly political, focusing particularly upon fund-raising for the forthcoming election for a new Constituent Assembly, and mobilising public support for the polls. In the closed session, organisational elections of the Nepali Jan Adhikaar Suraksha Samiti were held and tasks allocated.
Essentially, four zonal chiefs were elected, and entrusted with the responsibility of wooing the Nepali population in their respective regions. Delhi has been assigned to Mr Shankar Biswakarma, the person in-charge of church-Maoist links in India. Mr Vinod Dhakal has been sent to Punjab and it is said that his job is to take care of the Maoist weaponry which is not going to be surrendered to the United Nations. Mr Amrit Thapa has been given charge of Kolkata, and he is reputedly responsible for the tickets and transportation of Nepalis in India to the country in June. Mr Dilip Kesri has been deputed to Bangalore to maintain links with the Andhra Maoists.
Given such an overtly political agenda, to be implemented on an all-India canvas with the explicit involvement of foreign agencies, it needs be asked if the Delhi Government and the ruling UPA had officially permitted such a meeting to take place on Indian soil. The State Government cannot plead ignorance, since the meeting was held in the immediate vicinity of the Paharganj police station, and the Nepali delegates were also housed in buildings nearby. And while it is true that Mr Gajurel probably does not require a visa to visit India, the Centre must explain how the American visitors entered the country and what kind of activity they were permitted to engage in against their visas.
The question is particularly relevant in the light of the anti-Hindu activity the guests (who are probably Christian missionaries) reportedly indulged in. Sources say that Comrade Peter blessed the gathering and gave a clarion cry: "Brahmanvaad, Hinduvaad, Murdabad" (down with Brahmin and Hindu values). Since Nepali politics has long been dominated by Brahmins and Kshatriyas from the hills, the slogan seems to indicate a missionary bias against the Hindu ethos of the till-recently Hindu kingdom. A comprehensive anti-conversion law, on the lines of Sri Lanka's aborted legislation, is clearly the need of the hour.
Interestingly, a banner displayed at the meet proclaimed: "Bharatiya vistarvaad murdabad" (down with Indian expansionism). This is also the title of a book written by Ms Hisila Yami, the Christian wife of Maoist ideologue Baburam Bhattarai, and a new MP in the interim Parliament. The writing on the wall clearly suggests that an open assault upon the cultural and civilisational values of Nepal is already underway.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh owes the nation an explanation if the ruling UPA endorses these vicious anti-Hindu and anti-Indian views of the Nepali Maoists and their Western patrons, and if New Delhi is going to permit their political activities on Indian soil. Is that the reason why the Government of India extended the red carpet for a supposedly private visit by Comrades Prachanda and Bhattarai to New Delhi recently?
At a more fundamental level, India needs to know why the Sonia Gandhi-dominated regime has thrown the Himalayan kingdom to the mercy of the American church and its Maoist collaborators. What is India gaining from severing historical and civilisational ties with Nepal and promoting a phony democracy movement that is intolerant of genuine people's power and seeks to deny agency to nearly 40 per cent of the population living in the fertile Terai plains?
Within Nepal, it is becoming increasingly apparent to the intelligentsia that the rent-a-crowd movement that succeeded in ousting the monarchy is actually a coup against democracy. There is growing awareness that the interim Constitution, implemented from January 15, excludes all political parties from power, barring a privileged group of eight (Seven-Party Alliance plus Maoists), and seeks to repress the legitimate aspirations of myriad ethnic and regional groups in the country.
India must lend moral support to the Madheshi Janadhikar Forum, which is seeking a federal set up in the proposed new Constitution, with proportional representation for the Terai in the new Constituent Assembly. South Block's silence at the death of at least seven people in police firing on this issue is shameful. What is more, India will be a loser if more parties refuse to kow-tow to Prachanda; the Nepal Sadhbhavana Party has already quit the interim Government over the Terai question. There is no way India can permit an emerging political structure in a sister civilisation to ignore legitimate regional and ethnic aspirations.
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