Delhi initiates Nepal talks

In a shock move, India has initiated talks with senior leaders of the Nepalese Communist Party-Maoist and Opposition parties in an effort to usher in a multi-party government of national unity.

This would pre-empt any further moves by the king to consolidate his own power in the Himalayan kingdom.

A senior Indian official said he could neither deny nor confirm that talks are under way with leaders of the violent Maoist movement that has so far claimed 11,000 lives.

"I refuse to comment," he said. The move flies in the face of stated policy by India and the international community [United States and the UK] which have said the twin pillars of Nepal's state are its constitutional monarchy and its multi-party polity.

Asks K.V. Rajan, former Indian ambassador to Nepal, "how did the bad guys [Maoists] suddenly become the good guys?"

India ran into a wall of criticism from Opposition parties when it recently announced resumption of military aid to King Gyanendra after he promised to restore multi-party democracy.

Within days, there were question marks over his intentions after he arrested former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on corruption charges.

Shekhar Koirala of the Nepali Congress warned against negotiating with the king. "It's the classic chicken and egg situation. Which should come first: democracy or military assistance? We know India will take a hundred steps. The king will have taken none.

"The power that the king has to marginalise the politicians is huge, and this could explain their urgency in reaching out to the Maoists for talks," Rajan said.

"But it doesn't explain the Maoists, who are deeply divided over talking to the king, the politicians and India. Unless it's a tactical manoeuvre to gain time to rearm, just another ploy to start talks and leave it half-way, or the feeling that they are losing the war and need to find a fresh role."

Back channel talks indicate that Delhi may be planning to present the king with a fait accompli a united all-party political front that could then go on to form a multi-party government.

"The Maoists cannot be defeated with arms, they must be encouraged to give up violence and brought into the mainstream," said Rajan Bhattarai, of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) when asked the Opposition's plans for the future.

In a rare show of solidarity, all seven came together last week to adopt a common minimum programme and a common agenda. Its main plank is the restoration of the dissolved parliament.

Reinstating the representative body would lead to the formation of an all-party government to solve conflicts.

"Such a government will create an appropriate atmosphere necessary to bring the Maoists into the peace process," the prescient agenda said.

The seven-party grouping had only last week rejected any kind of rapprochement with the Maoists. "That's for public consumption," explained the Maoist sympathiser who revealed that talks were going on to Gulf News.

The Maoists main leader Baburam Bhattarai who is in India with two other Maoists, Commander Mahara and Krishna Paykural have held talks at various secret locations with Indian intelligence officials as well as representatives of Nepalese mainstream opposition parties.

Key events

• King Gyanendra dissolves 205-member parliament in May 2002 on advice of then prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
• King declares emergency on February 1, to tackle Maoists who have sworn to overthrow the monarchy and install a multi-party republic.
• The king has since arrested thousands of political party activists, releasing only a handful under international pressure.
• The US and the UK have followed India's lead in calling for a restoration of democracy.
• Agenda to restore democracy through establishment of a multi-party government signed by Nepali Congress, Nepali People's Front, Nepali Communist Party (UML), People's Front Nepal, Nepal Workers and Peasants Party, Nepal Sadbhavana Party-Anandadevi and the United Left Front.
• Maoists offer of talks with Opposition rejected.
• Secret talks held between India, Maoists and Opposition in Delhi.