Devil's Advocate: Prachanda on Indo-Nepal relations

LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR? The 1950 Indo-Nepal treaty is not beneficial for Nepal, says Prachanda.

        

Other stories in the section:

India N-chants Vienna, next stop Washington

There is stiff opposition for the Indo-US deal from a small quarter in the US.

• Zardari wins Pak Prez polls | Profile: Mr '10 per cent'

• Obama says winning Pennsylvania is the key

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Tale of Two Azmis

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Abolish Nepal monarchy now: Prachanda
• We want a new relationship with India: Prachanda
• Prachanda picks two seats to ensure win in Nepal poll

Keywords: Democracy, Maoists

Prachanda: But I always said that there is a special relationship with India, geographical and cultural, and therefore we should have a special relationship with New Delhi. No one can ignore this historical, geographical and cultural fact. What I am saying is that we will not side up with one country against the other. We will maintain equidistance in political sense and not in terms of cooperation and other things.

Karan Thapar: The culture, history, and geographical relationship that Nepal has with India, will remain intact?

Prachanda: Yes, it will remain. It is a historical fact and we will have to strengthen this relationship.

Karan Thapar: Let me discuss some problems that may arise. You said that you want to abrogate the 1950 Indo-Nepal treaty and you want to renegotiate it. What are the aspects of the treaty that you don’t like?

Prachanda: Our people have put forward this concern that they feel that the treaty lacks inequality and that it is not beneficial for Nepal. We thus want to review all the points of the 1950 treaty. And we want to revise it according to new necessity.

Karan Thapar: The 1950 treaty guarantees the open border with Nepal and it also says that people of Nepal have national citizen status in India. Do you want to revise it and rework that?

Prachanda: Not exactly right now. There are other provisions that we want to discuss in detail.

Karan Thapar: So you want to retain the open border and you want to retain national citizen status of people, but there are other provisions?

Prachanda: There are others which I don’t want to discuss right now in detail.

Karan Thapar: Is one of them the defence purchase provision which requires Nepal to consult Delhi and only then acquire arms. Is that one?

Prachanda: That also should be reviewed and should be made according to the necessity of the 21st century.

Karan Thapar: Let me tell you what your colleague, Babu Ram Bhattarai told Nepal Telegraph on May 10. He said it was only because of the open border that Nepal could not achieve economic prosperity. Do you agree with him?

Prachanda: In the transitional phase, right now with the processes going on, it is not correct.

Karan Thapar: So this view is not correct?

Prachanda: Right now it is not correct.

Karan Thapar: He expressed this roughly just a week ago.