Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari is reportedly very disappointed with the decision of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s government to cancel her visit to India.
Bhandari, Nepal’s first woman president, was to embark on her first official visit to India next week on the invitation of President Pranab Mukherjee.
Karna said the Nepal cabinet took the decision to cancel the president’s visit following political upheaval in the Himalayan nation two days ago when Oli’s government was nearly toppled by its Maoist ally.
According to Karna, what is all the more surprising is that the process of President Bhandari’s visit was actually initiated by the Nepali side after Oli’s visit to India in February this year.
Karna said that Oli was apparently trying to take revenge against India for allegedly interfering in Nepal’s internal affairs.
He also alleged that Oli was trying to bully the country’s bureaucracy and the judiciary.
Karna was also critical of the way Nepal’s Ambassador Deep Kumar Upadhyay was recalled from New Delhi.
On Friday, the Nepal government decided to recall its envoy Upadhyay.
The recall decision came after Uphadhya held a conversation with Oli on Friday morning and reportedly made his displeasure known to the prime minister on the cancellation of the president’s visit.
Oli reportedly told Uphadhya that:
Upadhyay, a Nepali Congress member, is a three-time MP and two-time minister.
On Wednesday, Oli’s seven-month-old Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) government teetered on the brink of collapse after its ally, the United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), led by chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda, decided to form a new government by withdrawing support to it. The decision was backed by the main opposition Nepali Congress which offered the prime minister’s post to Prachanda.
However, the following day, the Oli government got a reprieve when the UCPN-M did a U-turn and decided not to withdraw support for the time being.
The U-turn came about following a “secret agreement” between Oli and Prachanda during a dinner meeting on Wednesday, it is believed.
(Aroonim Bhuyan can be reached at aroonim.b@ians.in)
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