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Nepal Premier Bhattarai with his Indian host, Manmohan Singh during his visit to Delhi in October 2011
Nepal’s second Maoist Prime Minister met “friends, comrades and gurus (teachers)” from the Indian Socialist and Communist parties at various functions organised in Delhi. He said Marxists and Maoists are "very dogmatic and sectarian" in their approach, while he personally lays emphasis on the need for assimilation of various thoughts arising from a people's movement.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai arrived in Delhi to warm welcome. Aside from the normal courtesies extended to a newly elected Prime Minister from Nepal, it was the emotion and nostalgia with which he was feted by old colleagues and comrades in India that marked his visit.
The one-time PhD scholar at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) visited his alma mater and was greeted with calls of “Lal Salaam” (Red salute) and “Inquilab Zindabad” (Long Live the Revolution) by the Left-leaning students of the University, which was once considered a bastion of Left intellectual ideology. Dr Bhattarai said that he was happy to see that the University’s culture had not changed. “It is the culture of revolutionary fervour and zeal, the combination of academic excellence and revolutionary activism” that he remembered. “I am what I am because of JNU,” said the former student choking up in emotion.
Nepal’s second Maoist Prime Minister met “friends, comrades and gurus (teachers)” from the Indian Socialist and Communist parties at various functions organised in the city. Speaking at the South Asian Forum for Peoples' Initiative, he said that Marxists and Maoists were "very dogmatic and sectarian" in their approach, while he personally lays emphasis on the need for assimilation of various thoughts arising from a people's movement.
The main focus of Bhattarai’s visit was economic cooperation, with a special thrust on attracting Indian investments to give a boost to Nepal’s flagging economy. Unlike his party chief and predecessor as prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ who had flouted convention and ruffled feathers in India and made his first foreign tour to Beijing, Bhattarai chose to make India his first foreign destination as Prime Minister. The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Marxists) has often been suspicious of India and its alleged interference in Nepal’s affairs and has sought to develop stronger ties with Nepal’s northern neighbour, China.
The Nepalese Prime Minister was accompanied by a 37-member high-powered delegation indicating the importance his government attached to the visit. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha ‘Prakash’, Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta, Minister for Physical Planning and Works Hridayesh Tripathi, Minister for Health and Population Rajendra Mahato, Minister for Finance Barsha Man Pun, Minister for Irrigation Mahendra Prasad Yadav, Minister for Industry Anil Kumar Jha, and Vice-Chairman, National Planning Commission Deependra Bahadur Chhetri, were a part of the delegation. So were some law makers.
India and Nepal signed two significant agreements: an agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investments, and another on a dollar credit line of US$ 250 million. The first accord seeks help revive the investment climate in Nepal which has been vitiated after the 900 MW hydro-electric power project being constructed by an Indian company was attacked allegedly by Maoist cadres. Now, under the agreement, Nepal will provide for protection and compensation of investment losses due to wars, riots, insurrections and armed conflict. It also guarantees that foreign investment would not be nationalised or expropriated except in public interest and in accordance with law on a non- discriminatory basis and against fair and equitable compensation. Nepal has agreements with some other countries as well. In that sense it is not India specific though the way to signing the agreement saw several hiccups. More over recent months have seen unruly mobs target several Indian joint ventures and these attacks coincided with political instability in the Himalayan state. Delhi is keen to obtain assurances on the security of Indian investments in Nepal. And Maoist government leadership has promised to ensure an investor-friendly business environment to encourage private sector investments.
Trade between India and Nepal was US $ 4 billion in 2010-11; however trade was heavily in India’s favour with Nepal’s trade deficit reaching US $ 3 billion. The trade deficit has been growing since Nepal imports most of its requirements including petroleum products from India while its own exports to India have not increased. The Nepalese side has been asking India to remove ‘barriers’ that require a specified amount of value addition to goods assembled or re-exported from Nepal. It has also asked for creation of Special Economic Zones on the Indo-Nepal border to create production facilities for goods aimed for the Indian market.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Bhattarai decided to set up a committee at the level of Foreign Secretaries to review the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship and other agreements. Successive Nepalese governments in the last decade and a half have called for a reworking of the 1950 treaty to bring it in line with contemporary times. While India agreed to review the treaty and asked the Nepalese side for its proposals, there has been no movement on the subject.. Probably the time has come to take afresh look at the Indo-Nepal ties, and prepare a road map for the future. In this context, Prime Minister Bhattarai’s suggestion that an Eminent Persons Group be set up to go into the entire gamut of bilateral relations is worth pursuing.
Bhattarai spoke about the on-going peace process in his country. He is hopeful of reaching an agreement among the parties for integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants. The method of integration has been a major sticking point in the peace process though one of the provisions of the peace agreement of 2006 specially provided for the new deal to the erstwhile guerrillas. He also hopes that the other major political parties, the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninists) would join a national unity government. From India he has sought assistance for several projects to boost Nepal's roads, airports and educational institutions, which the Indian government agreed to consider.
Describing his “highly successful” visit, Bhattarai said that he had "free and frank discussions" with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which had dispelled misunderstandings and misgivings between the two neighbours. He said that the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement was the "most significant outcome" of his visit to India. However, Dr Bhattarai may have some difficulty in explaining the agreement to his own party colleagues as a dissident section has already labelled the agreement as “anti-national”.
The one-time PhD scholar at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) visited his alma mater and was greeted with calls of “Lal Salaam” (Red salute) and “Inquilab Zindabad” (Long Live the Revolution) by the Left-leaning students of the University, which was once considered a bastion of Left intellectual ideology. Dr Bhattarai said that he was happy to see that the University’s culture had not changed. “It is the culture of revolutionary fervour and zeal, the combination of academic excellence and revolutionary activism” that he remembered. “I am what I am because of JNU,” said the former student choking up in emotion.
Nepal’s second Maoist Prime Minister met “friends, comrades and gurus (teachers)” from the Indian Socialist and Communist parties at various functions organised in the city. Speaking at the South Asian Forum for Peoples' Initiative, he said that Marxists and Maoists were "very dogmatic and sectarian" in their approach, while he personally lays emphasis on the need for assimilation of various thoughts arising from a people's movement.
The main focus of Bhattarai’s visit was economic cooperation, with a special thrust on attracting Indian investments to give a boost to Nepal’s flagging economy. Unlike his party chief and predecessor as prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ who had flouted convention and ruffled feathers in India and made his first foreign tour to Beijing, Bhattarai chose to make India his first foreign destination as Prime Minister. The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Marxists) has often been suspicious of India and its alleged interference in Nepal’s affairs and has sought to develop stronger ties with Nepal’s northern neighbour, China.
The Nepalese Prime Minister was accompanied by a 37-member high-powered delegation indicating the importance his government attached to the visit. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Kaji Shrestha ‘Prakash’, Minister for Information and Communications Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta, Minister for Physical Planning and Works Hridayesh Tripathi, Minister for Health and Population Rajendra Mahato, Minister for Finance Barsha Man Pun, Minister for Irrigation Mahendra Prasad Yadav, Minister for Industry Anil Kumar Jha, and Vice-Chairman, National Planning Commission Deependra Bahadur Chhetri, were a part of the delegation. So were some law makers.
India and Nepal signed two significant agreements: an agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investments, and another on a dollar credit line of US$ 250 million. The first accord seeks help revive the investment climate in Nepal which has been vitiated after the 900 MW hydro-electric power project being constructed by an Indian company was attacked allegedly by Maoist cadres. Now, under the agreement, Nepal will provide for protection and compensation of investment losses due to wars, riots, insurrections and armed conflict. It also guarantees that foreign investment would not be nationalised or expropriated except in public interest and in accordance with law on a non- discriminatory basis and against fair and equitable compensation. Nepal has agreements with some other countries as well. In that sense it is not India specific though the way to signing the agreement saw several hiccups. More over recent months have seen unruly mobs target several Indian joint ventures and these attacks coincided with political instability in the Himalayan state. Delhi is keen to obtain assurances on the security of Indian investments in Nepal. And Maoist government leadership has promised to ensure an investor-friendly business environment to encourage private sector investments.
Trade between India and Nepal was US $ 4 billion in 2010-11; however trade was heavily in India’s favour with Nepal’s trade deficit reaching US $ 3 billion. The trade deficit has been growing since Nepal imports most of its requirements including petroleum products from India while its own exports to India have not increased. The Nepalese side has been asking India to remove ‘barriers’ that require a specified amount of value addition to goods assembled or re-exported from Nepal. It has also asked for creation of Special Economic Zones on the Indo-Nepal border to create production facilities for goods aimed for the Indian market.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Prime Minister Bhattarai decided to set up a committee at the level of Foreign Secretaries to review the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship and other agreements. Successive Nepalese governments in the last decade and a half have called for a reworking of the 1950 treaty to bring it in line with contemporary times. While India agreed to review the treaty and asked the Nepalese side for its proposals, there has been no movement on the subject.. Probably the time has come to take afresh look at the Indo-Nepal ties, and prepare a road map for the future. In this context, Prime Minister Bhattarai’s suggestion that an Eminent Persons Group be set up to go into the entire gamut of bilateral relations is worth pursuing.
Bhattarai spoke about the on-going peace process in his country. He is hopeful of reaching an agreement among the parties for integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist combatants. The method of integration has been a major sticking point in the peace process though one of the provisions of the peace agreement of 2006 specially provided for the new deal to the erstwhile guerrillas. He also hopes that the other major political parties, the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninists) would join a national unity government. From India he has sought assistance for several projects to boost Nepal's roads, airports and educational institutions, which the Indian government agreed to consider.
Describing his “highly successful” visit, Bhattarai said that he had "free and frank discussions" with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which had dispelled misunderstandings and misgivings between the two neighbours. He said that the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement was the "most significant outcome" of his visit to India. However, Dr Bhattarai may have some difficulty in explaining the agreement to his own party colleagues as a dissident section has already labelled the agreement as “anti-national”.
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