India pact undermines sovereignty: Nepal’s Left

Several Left parties in Nepal on Monday announced a joint protest later this month against a 25-point agreement between Nepal and India during Prime Minister Prachanda’s visit to New Delhi saying parts of the pact “undermined” the sovereignty of the landlocked country.

The Left parties — CPN-ML, CPN-Revolutionary Maoist, CPN-Masal, CPN-Marxist, People’s Front Nepal, National People’s Front — announced the protest in a statement.

CPN-Masal general-secretary Mohan Bikram Singh said the Indo-Nepal joint press communique issued on September 16 included matters that “undermined the national sovereignty” of Nepal.

Certain clauses were against national interests and the agreement was signed at a time when the need for establishing Nepal as an independent nation by scrapping “unequal and anti-national” treaties signed with India in the past had been felt, said the parties in the statement.

As part of their protest programme, the parties have decided to jointly issue a leaflet, highlighting the need to launch a struggle against “the act of betrayal” by the Prachanda-led coalition government.

A grand rally will be organised in Kathmandu on October 25 against the agreement, they said.

India and Nepal in a joint statement last month had announced measures to strengthen ties. The statement had said the two countries would work to ensure the open border was “not allowed to be misused by unscrupulous elements posing security threats to either side.”