'Resolve contentious issues with India'

Nepal’s Maoists do not want Prime Minister Prachanda to undertake a courtesy visit to India, and has instructed him to resolve contentious issues with New Delhi.

The Maoist Central Committee has instructed Prachanda to make his proposed visit “meaningful” for the people of Nepal. The new PM is scheduled to visit to India on September 14.

“We do not want him (Prachanda) to undertake a goodwill visit to India,” said CP Gajurel, the chief of Maoists’ International Command, adding that they would like to immediately resolve the issue of perennial with India.

Gajurel, who is also a politburo member of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), said Prachanda’s first official visit is not to exchange greetings and attend banquets. “It is a highly political visit,” he maintained. The party has directed Prachanda to take up the Kosi Water-sharing Treaty of 1954 on a war-footing. Prachanda is likely to seek compensation from New Delhi for rehabilitation of the flood victims.

The recent flood in southern Nepal and north Bihar, which was due to the changing course of Kosi river, has been the cause of bad blood between the two countries. Prachanda has termed the Koshi agreement as a “historic blunder”.

Senior Nepali Congress leader and former Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat said Prachanda should take up the Kosi issue with Indian PM Manmohan Singh and find a permanent solution.

Prachanda is likely to meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Prachanda will request New Delhi to consider more investments in Nepal, especially in harnessing the hydro-electricity potential, sources in the Ministry of Water Resources, said.