Meeting the Maoists

Power has never really flowed from the barrel of a gun in the Himalayas, but New Delhi can take heart that it is in close touch with all the parties in the Nepalese peace process, including the banned Maoist rebels.

Some six weeks ago, reports from Kathmandu say, a senior official of the Indian Embassy in the Nepalese capital met the JNU-educated Babu Ram Bhattarai, the number two man in the Maoist hierarchy.

Although New Delhi does not officially recognise the Maoists, believing that they continue to support banned ultra-Left groups in India like the People8217;s War Group and Maoist Communist Centre, the meeting with Bhattarai came at a time when Maoist leaders had come overground after their ceasefire with Kathmandu.

A large number of Western diplomats were also at the time clamouring to meet the Maoist rebels, among them from Britain, Belgium and Norway. But the US took a much tougher line, treating the rebels as 8216;8216;terrorists8217;8217; and giving 86 million in aid to the Nepalese government, including a direct grant of 12 million.

Still, as the Maoists and the Surya Bahadur Thapa government, hand-picked by King Gyanendra, attempt a new stab at peace, a new nervousness about the 8216;8216;foreign hand8217;8217; seems to be at last linking the once-cool bureaucracies in Kathmandu and New Delhi.

At loggerheads in the recent past over a number of issues like terrorism 8212; Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal some months ago accused Nepal and India8217;s other neighbours of hardly doing enough to control anti-Indian activities on their soil 8212; Kathmandu and New Delhi now agree that 8216;8216;the effect of foreign mediation would be to put the Maoists and the Nepalese government on par with each other.8217;8217;

It8217;s a curious turnaround, especially since Thapa8217;s government is unelected and New Delhi has traditionally dealt with elected governments, whether the Nepali Congress or the Left. Moreover, King Gyanendra8217;s continuing taste for power, two years after the parricide of the Birendra royals, still leaves Nepal-watchers in New Delhi somewhat uncomfortable.

Nevertheless, the view from Nepal 8212; seconded by India 8212; is that it is a 8216;8216;dangerous precedent8217;8217; for Western governments like Britain and Norway to press for an 8216;8216;external facilitator8217;8217; to mediate the peace process. While London even appointed special envoy Jeffrey James in March, Oslo believes that Nepal could well take a leaf out of the peace processes it has been involved in, from Sri Lanka to West Asia.

Nepalese sources say the Thapa government seems especially wary about the 8216;8216;intervention8217;8217; from London, even though James is a frequent visitor to Kathmandu. But when the UN Secretary General8217;s special envoy T. Samuel offered his services recently, Kathmandu was at a loss for words.

Not so the Indian government. New Delhi has made it quite clear that it supports the 8216;8216;twin pillars8217;8217; of constitutional monarchy and political parties as a solution to the Nepal tangle. Moreover, it wants the political parties, so far cut out of the peace process, to be part of the final deal. Only when 8216;8216;Nepal8217;s political representatives own the peace process, can it actually work,8217;8217; they say.

Clearly, New Delhi does not want any outside power to 8216;8216;interfere8217;8217; in what it has traditionally considered its backyard. The diplomatic clash of opinions with London is most obvious. The British foreign office, with its long memories about Nepal, believes a mediator is essential to shore up the fragility of the peace process and avert a civil war in Nepal.

Interestingly, Britain and the US, analysts pointed out, have somewhat divergent views on Nepal. Washington believes the Maoists are little more than trumped-up terrorists 8212; a line both Kathmandu and New Delhi are much more comfortable with 8212; while London feels that Maoist successes, especially in the rural areas, are rooted in the abysmal lack of development in Nepal.

Under the circumstances, India and Nepal have begun to warm up to each other. During his visit to Kathmandu last month, Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal met King Gyanendra as well as the royalist Prime Minister. India8217;s Ambassador to Nepal Shyam Saran is believed to have 8216;8216;very good access8217;8217; to the Narayanhity Palace.

The third round of peace talks, meanwhile, could augur well. Earlier demands by the Maoists that the Nepalese Army should not stray further than 5 km from its barracks or that direct negotiations must be held with Gyanendra, have since been toned down. Chief Maoist guerrilla Prachanda is believed to have now even spoken about involving the political parties in the peace process.

Meanwhile, Nepal watches and waits, desperately hoping for a return to normalcy. For far too long, the Nepalese say, the Himalayan gods have turned away from the misdeeds of men. Then they wonder: Is this the end of paradise?