Rao begins Nepal visit under arms row shadow

KATHMANDU: Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao began her three-day visit to Nepal Tuesday under the shadow of an arms row between the caretaker government of Nepal and the opposition Maoist party though the Indian government was not involved.
It's official now, finally. Starved of arms and ammunition since 2005, when King Gyanendra staged an army-backed coup, Nepal's security forces are now getting fresh ammo.However, contrary to reports in a section of the Indian media, the largesse is not coming from the Indian government, that stopped lethal military assistance soon after the royal coup in protest.
Nepal's home minister Bhim Rawal Tuesday clarified that the government is getting ingredients for making ammunition for the sake of training security forces. Rawal said the agreement had been made during an earlier Nepali financial year when Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda had visited India. There was nothing untoward about the purchase and it did not construe a violation of the peace agreement signed between the Maoists and the ruling parties in 2006 that saw both sides pledge not to amass further arms or soldiers.
According to media reports in Nepal, the deal is with the Hinduja Group's Gulf Oil Corporation Ltd in Hyderabad, India's largest manufacturer of explosives and detonators. Nepal is reportedly buying safety pins to make grenades in its own factory in Hetauda and bullet cups to manufacture ammunition in Sundarijal. The reports also said Nepal waited till the UN Mission in Nepal, that had been monitoring the state and Maoists' adherence to the peace accord, exited to ask for delivery of the consignment. There was no immediate official reaction to the reports.
On Tuesday, Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda met Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal to ask about the procurement of arms. The Maoists' prime concern however was that Nepal was obtaining lethal arms from the Indian government. The Maoists also put off talks with the 27 other parliamentary parties Tuesday to discuss the formation of an all-party government due to a fresh intra-party clash between Prachanda and his deputy, Dr Baburam Bhattarai. Even the parliamentary meeting scheduled for Tuesday had to be deferred after the Maoists and the two major ruling parties, the Nepali Congress and communists, could not agree on a new mode of prime ministerial election.
Against this backdrop of renewed differences and distrust, Rao began her Nepal visit to assess the progress made in bilateral commitments and the peace process in Nepal. The foreign secretary wraps up her visit Thursday, a day before the deadline given to the parties by the President, Dr Ram Bara Yadav, to form a consensus government, comes to an end. Rao said her visit was not intended to interfere in the internal affairs of Nepal.