India has role to play in Nepal's peace process: Ex-PM

Underlining that a peaceful Nepal was in India's "national interest", former Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai today said it has a role to play in resolving his country's current political stalemate over the Constitution-drafting process.
However, Bhattarai, a key Maoist ideologue, said "direct intervention" was not welcome.
"Though India should not be directly involved or has not been directly involved but the reality is in today's globalised world what happens in the neighbourhood cannot be just wished away.
"To complete the peace process India has a role to play in Nepal not in terms of direct political interference but to create a conducive atmosphere so that the political parties in Nepal come together and make the Constitution agreeable to all. That would contribute towards the national interest of India as well," he said.

Accusing the Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) of "breaching" their promises, the former Prime Minister said the current deadlock was product of a "contradiction" between the authority of the revolution and the mandate of the election.
"The Constituent Assembly, which is a process, has to abide by the basic agenda agreed upon during the revolution and later the Madhesi movement which includes the issue of federalism. It cannot go against that simply because it has the majority," he said.
Reacting to Bhattarai's comments, former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, who was moderating the discussion, said, "India would continue to confront the dilemma of supporting Nepal while maintaining a certain distance. The question which will always confront India would be how far to go in helping Nepal."

Saran was moderating the discussion, organised by Society For Policy Studies.