Nepal's Prachanda for 'new level of understanding' with India

Maoist leader Prachanda, who has recently been engaged in a bitter attack on India, has said he wants a "new level of understanding" to be developed with the "big neighbour" with which Nepal enjoys "distinct" ties, unlike China.

The chairman of Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) emphasised that India and China cannot have an equal role in the affairs of Nepal as India's ties with Nepal have a "specific" character "dictated" by aspects like open border and  historical, geographical and cultural linkages.

"We are never ignoring our distinct historical, geographical and cultural relationship with India. We cannot ignore it. Only we can develop a new level of understanding to strengthen our relations," the 56-year-old former prime minister told PTI in an interview here.

He said the new understanding with India needed to be developed on the basis of "changed scenario" in Nepal and after addressing all outstanding issues, like revision of the 1950 Friendship Treaty and resolving Kalapani and Susta border disputes.

Insisting that the impression about his being anti-India is wrong, Prachanda said, "The fact is that we want to develop a new basis and new level of understanding (with India) to strengthen the relationship and to have economic development in this country."

Prachanda, who led a decade-long armed struggle against the monarchy before joining the mainstream in 2005, regretted that his demands for revising the Friendship Treaty and solving other issues were being misconstrued as an attempt to create some difficulties.

"We are not against good relations with India," he said.

"But to have good relations, we should focus on some issues of history, we should have to address old treaties, the (1950 Friendship) Treaty of (former King) Rana regime, solve border issues Susta and Kalapani," he said, adding he wanted these issues, as also the trade imbalance, to be addressed once and for all.

Prachanda, whose original name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has recently been engaged in a vitriolic attack on India, alleging that it has been interfering in Nepal's affairs and "dictating" to its leadership. This prompted a sharp reaction from New Delhi.

"If we are able to convey our concerns to Indian leadership, it will be very easy to develop newer basis, to have a good relations with India," he contended.

Prachanda, who is seen as pro-China, observed that both India and China have fast growing economies and "We want to benefit from our big neighbours."

Asked whether India and China had the equal role in Nepal, Prachanda said, "There is no comparison... We cannot compare. There is no confusion in our mind."

Maintaining that he favoured "good neighbourly relations with these big neighbours", he said, "obviously there is a major role for India because of open border, history, culture, geography. All these things dictate the policy."  "We have distinct relations with India, specific feature of relationship with India, dictated by history, geography, culture," Prachanda said.

To reinforce the special character of Indo-Nepal relations, he noted that his two daughters are married in India, making it a "roti, beti ka samband (a relationship of bread and daughter)."

When pointed out that he is seen to have pro-China tilt, the Maoist leader said, "This is baseless. People have some sort of prejudice and some sorts of illusion."

"We want to build good neighbourly relations with both the countries. But there is no comparison. India is India, China is China. We don't want to be pro-China or pro-India. We will be pro-Nepalese."

Asked what then explains his six visits to China over the last two years, he sought to underline that he had travelled to India and stayed there much more regularly, even dating back to his underground days in 1990s.

"I visited India hundreds and hundreds of time, even during war. Even after becoming PM, I visited India three times," he said.

He said he wanted Nepal to benefit from India's economic growth which would be good for India itself.

"If Nepal remains poor and unstable, it will have impact mainly on India. It will have impact also on China but because of historical, geographical and cultural and economic relations, there will be serious impact between Nepal and India," he said.