India pledges support to Nepal

IANS/New Delhi

Amid growing political uncertainty in Nepal, India yesterday said it would welcome “whatever consensus” emerges among key political players in the Himalayan country and reiterated its commitment to supplying additional electricity to it.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid called on Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav, who is on a six-day visit to India, and discussed the ongoing political flux in the Himalayan country.

“There was a discussion on the current situation in Nepal,” said official sources. “The minister emphasised that it is in India’s interest that Nepal progresses as a stable, secular and democratic republic and indicated that India would welcome whatever consensus emerges among Nepali political actors,” said the sources.

Khurshid lauded Yadav as “a great friend of India” and stressed that his support “had played a crucial role in strengthening India-Nepal relations.”

Khurshid apprised the Nepalese president on “efforts being made to supply additional electricity to Nepal during the lean season”.

The minister said that short-term measures to augment grid connectivity of 40-55MW had been completed and added that India was working to increase this.

A day before his India visit, Nepal’s President Ram Baran Yadav has said his efforts to prepare the ground for a national unity government will continue.

His statement was indicative of a renewed call for the parties to stitch together a political deal so as to bail the country out of the present political quagmire within the deadline.

The president is disgruntled with the country’s major political parties - Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), Nepali Congress (NC), the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist and Samyukta Loktantrik Madhesi Morcha - as they have repeatedly failed to pick a prime ministerial candidate.

With the major parties failing to strike a deal despite five extensions of the deadline, the president has invited all parties represented in the erstwhile constituent assembly (CA) to his official residence yesterday to inform them about his new initiative. “The process of forming a national unity government as per the Article 38 (1) of the interim constitution will continue. The president, however, will not immediately set any deadline,” said Yadav’s press adviser Rajendra Dahal.