‘Arms supply only after democracy’

New Delhi today made it clear to visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca that King Gyanendra will have to move ‘‘...

New Delhi today made it clear to visiting US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca that King Gyanendra will have to move ‘‘sufficiently’’ towards multi-party democracy before India resumes arms supplies to Kathmandu.

Rocca, who met two senior officials in South Block before leaving for Kathmandu, was briefed on the stalemate between the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) and the Maoists too. While the RNA could not focus on anti-Maoist operations due to its commitment in the Valley, the Maoists were a divided lot with Baburam Bhattarai currently incarcerated by Prachanda.

New Delhi has already informed Washington that it will keep it posted on any move towards resuming arms supply to Nepal. It has told the US State Department that even though King Gyanendra has lifted the emergency, the monarch is targeting the political leadership through corruption cases and is gagging the media.

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The MEA has also conveyed to Rocca that India was interested in seeing multi-party democracy restored at the earliest and release of all political prisoners.

Rocca’s visit, which will involve high-level discussions with the Nepal Government, will be an attempt in getting the King to restore democracy as soon as possible.

Though the US’ top priority is the Maoists, Washington has indicated that it will go along with New Delhi in pushing the King towards restoration of multi-party democracy and constitutional monarchy.