First port of call: Natwar in Nepal today

When K Natwar Singh travels to Nepal tomorrow on his first visit as External Affairs minister, he will seek to impress upon King Gyanendra a...

When K Natwar Singh travels to Nepal tomorrow on his first visit as External Affairs minister, he will seek to impress upon King Gyanendra and a cross-section of the Nepalese leadership the urgent need for political consensus, including the need to hold elections.

Singh’s mission is a signal that New Delhi takes the rest of its neighbourhood — not just Pakistan — seriously. It also highlghts the need for a first-hand assessment of the Maoist insurgency in Nepal that has direct links with insurgent groups in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

Singh will meet King Gyanendra and the two-day-old Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba tomorrow, as well as major political leaders such as Girija Prasad Koirala of the Nepali Congress and Madhav Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal.

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King Gyanendra’s naming of Deuba as PM, a man who he had sacked a couple of years ago for describing him as ‘‘incompetent,’’ further complicates the complex political scene in Nepal. The all-powerful King, who completed his third anniversary as monarch on June 1 after the unfortunate parricide of the previous King Birendra, has been unwilling to let go of certain key powers vested in him by the Constitution, including control of the Army.

	Natwar calls up Kasuri

			• NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh today called up his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri and conveyed to him that the future of Indo-Pak ties ‘‘would not not lie in the past’’. The two leaders touched upon all issues of bilateral interest during the coversation which happened in the ‘‘spirit of friendship and cordiality’’, an MEA spokesperson said.-ENS

A key concern in New Delhi revolves around the role of the King and the need to create a multi-party government. It is only when the monarch and the political leadership join hands that they can effectively fight the Maoists, New Delhi feels.

An additional complication is the role of the international community, with many differing with New Delhi’s perception of the continuing chaos in the country. The European Union, for example, recently stopped its massive $600 million annual aid to Nepal because it was unable to directly control the money that is spent in the rural areas. The EU also has strong views about human rights violations that the Nepalese army commits against Maoists.

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