[One highlight of this interview is Prachanda’s plans to forge an agreement with the reactionary Indian regime and the Chinese imperialists with the goals of developing closer economic ties and satisfying China’s and India’s “security concerns.” As part of this strategy, Prachanda is making a trip to New Delhi on November 15 to resolve the UCPN(Maoist)’s disputes with Indiia over borders and unequal treaties, in order to lessen and eventually remove Indian opposition to the UCPNM.
Prachanda also reiterates his full support for integration of an undisclosed number of the 19,000 members of the People’s Liberation Army (who have been housed in camps for four years) into the 90,000 strong US and Indian backed Nepal Army. This is the same army that the PLA was fighting against in order to liberate 80% of Nepal’s countryside as of 2006, the year that Prachanda and the UCPNM leadership called off the people’s war in order to become an electoral party in search of a peaceful reformist path to “socialism.”—Frontlines ed]
Posted on eKantipur.com on November 11, 2010
“We want to turn over a new leaf in our relationship with India”
Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) – UCPN(M) – has had a difficult relationship with India and other political parties in Nepal after the fall of Maoist-led government in May 2009. The party’s several attempts to regain power have been scuttled by its widening trust gap with various political forces. As a consequence the peace process has been stalled and Nepal has been without a functioning government for over four months. Against this backdrop, Prachanda ( Pushpa Kamal Dahal), Chairman of the UCPN (M), recently visited China where he proposed to the Chinese leadership a tripartite agreement between Nepal, China, and India. Prachanda spoke to Akhilesh Upadhyay and Sudheer Sharma on Saturday morning about his visit, his party’s upcoming plenum, its relationship with India, the peace process and his fall from grace.
You and your party men have been to China frequently. Some reading it as tilting towards China.
It is not as it appears in the media. At an ideological level, we are naturally interested in studying developments in China. But my visits have been circumstantial. The first time I went to the Olympics. The second time I was there to study Chinese development. This time I was there to attend the Shanghai Expo. Which is not just about China for the expo is, in a sense, a world expo.
It is true that while in China I had meetings with Chinese leaders. But upon my return I divulged the content of those meetings. Chinese leaders have always underlined the need to ensure peace and development (in Nepal). As the largest party, they have advised us to improve ties with India. There is no truth in the rumours about our party’s preference of China over India. Continue reading