During Delhi visit, top Nepal Communist leader 'Prachanda' bats for cooperation, dialogue

During Delhi visit, Top Nepal leader and Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has called increased cooperation with India in areas like connectivity, energy, agriculture, tourism and other areas. Speaking at an event, he said, "we greatly value India’s longstanding cooperation in Nepal’s development pursuits" even as he pointed to railway links being scaled up. The passenger services in Janyanagar-Kurtha railway have resumed connecting Nepal with India's railway network. He said that his country is "expecting India’s favourable response to our request for additional air entry points as we expand the network of international/regional airports in Nepal", something that has been a long-standing request of Kathmandu to New Delhi.

He hoped for more Indian tourist and explained that "Ramayan Circuit, Buddhist Circuit and other religious sites including Pashupatinath, Muktinath, Janakpur solidly represent our civilizational bonds and potentials for scaling up religious tourism". Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year visited Nepal's Lumbani on Buddha Purnima. Lumbani is the birthplace of Lord Buddha and Indian PM's presence on the holiest day in Buddhist religious calendar was symbolic in many ways in terms of Buddhist connect between the 2 countries.

He said, as coalition partners in the government his view is that "our two countries should work together to fully harness the development potentials in order to uplift the living standard of our peoples who deserve a dignified life".Without pointing to any specific issues, Prachanda called for resolution of "some issues left by history" through "diplomatic efforts and dialogue" to "fully realize full potentials of Nepal-India relations and cooperation."Nepal claims Indian territories of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani and previous KP Sharma Oli govt even issued new maps of the country which had riled New Delhi, calling the development as "unjustified cartographic assertion".

On Sunday, thetop Nepal Communist leader visited the headquarter of India's rulingBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party and held talks withNational President J.P. Nadda. External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar was also present in the meet. On Saturday, he met External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar. During the meet, EAM assured that "Indiawill remain a steadfast partner of Nepal in its quest for progress and prosperity", a tweet-statement said.

His visit to Delhi comes days after top Chinese leader visited Kathmandu and met the Nepali leadership. Minister of International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China Liu Jianchao during Nepal visit met former Nepal PM KP Sharma Oli, Foreign minister Narayan Khadka, PM Sher Bahadur Deuba and President Bidya Devi Bhandari. His visit is being seen as Beijing's push for unity among the communist parties.