India shows its big heart to Nepal Maoists

KATHMANDU: Ahead of the celebrationsof the 64th Independence Day, India has shown its big heart to the former Maoistguerrillas of Nepal, responding with alacrity to save the life of a Maoistlegislator who incurred eighty percent burns after an accident.RamKumari Yadav, who was elected to parliament in 2008 from constituency 6 inDhanusha district adjoining India, will not be taking part in the fifth round ofprime ministerial election to be held in the House on Wednesday when her partychief Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda tries again to become the new premier inNepal. Instead, she will be in the hands of doctors at the burn, plastic andmaxillofacial surgery ward in New Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, fightingfor her life.“My mother-in-law was admitted in the hospitaltoday,” the burnt lawmaker’s son-in-law Ram Bahadur Yadav told TNN.“An air ambulance flew in from New Delhi today with a medical team ofthree to take her there. The doctor said she had a chance of recovery as theburns, though extensive, are superficial and the internal organs have not beenbadly damaged.”According to the son-in-law, the MP, in her60s, had smelled cooking gas coming out of the kitchen in her residence in thecapital early Friday morning and had gone inside to investigate. When she turnedon the automatic gas oven knob by mistake, she was immediately engulfed in ablaze of fire. By the time her sleeping family, alerted by her cries for help,rushed to her rescue, she had already sustained extensive burns. The doctors atthe Bir Hospital, where she was taken for treatment, said they did not have thefacilities required to treat such a severe case and recommended she be taken toIndia.Most of the Maoist top leaders rushed to the hospital afterhearing the news, including Prachanda, his three deputies and even MatrikaPrasad Yadav, another rebel leader from Dhanusha who however has now left theparty. The leaders decided to bury their differences, for the time being, withIndia and approach the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu for urgenthelp.Accordingly, Maoist foreign affairs in-charge Krishna BahadurMahara sent an SOS to the embassy, requesting it to facilitate Yadav’streatment in India. The earlier letter the former rebels had sent to the embassythis month was reportedly in a different tenor, seeking action against anembassy official accused of having threatened another Maoist MP on the phone.Nepal’s parliament has been in an uproar over the allegation with MPsasking the Indian official to be declared persona non grata and sent back. Theyhave also flayed former Indian secretary Shyam Saran’s visit to Kathmaduas Dr Manmohan Singh’s special envoy, calling it a breach of protocol. TheMaoists have blamed Saran’s visit for Prachanda’s failure to winsimple majority in the prime ministerial election. However, despitethe India bashing, the embassy rose to the occasion and contacted the Safdarjungauthorities, urging them to give top priority to Yadav. It also organised theservices of an air ambulance to transport the MP to New Delhi at the earliest.Accompanying Ram Kumari Yadav were her youngest daughter Sunita and ason-in-law, Ram Kumar Yadav. Ram Kumari Yadav is the wife of a senior Maoistleader, Ram Briksh Yadav, who has a Maoist brigade named after him. He diedbefore the Maoists began the People’s War and the Maoists accuse the thenruling parties of having a hand in his murder. The Yadavs’ son, ShekharYadav, was killed by security forces during the insurgency.