Kathmandu, Nov 8: A senior Maoist leader, whom India once suspected to have links with underground organisations in north-eastern India, has been named as Nepal's new ambassador to India, months after the post lay vacant with the recall of the former envoy appointed by an earlier government.
The proposed new Nepali ambassador to India is Ram Karki, who is married to an Indian from Sikkim and was known as Partha Chhetri during the 10-year Maoist insurgency.
Karki had lived in West Bengal and New Delhi during the "People's War" and was arrested by Indian police and handed over to Nepal to serve a jail term. He was released after the government started peace negotiations with the Maoists in 2003.
When the Maoists first came to power in Nepal in 2008 after winning the election, the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda's cabinet nominated Karki, in his 50s, as the ambassador to India.
However, India objected to the proposal on the strength of its intelligence reports that Karki had links to Indian insurgent groups in the North-East and the subsequent fall of the government led to Nepali Congress nominee Rukma Shumsher Rana get the coveted diplomatic post.
India is Nepal's largest trade partner and has the biggest impact on socio-political developments in the Himalayan republic. Now it remains to be seen how New Delhi will react to Karki's re-appointment.
The current Maoist Prime Minister, Dr Baburam Bhattarai, enjoys better relations with the Indian government than Prachanda, and Bhattarai is likely to meet his Indian counterpart, Dr Manmohan Singh, in Maldives on the sidelines of the upcoming SAARC Summit.
Karki's appointment however will come through only after a parliamentary committee holds a hearing on the issue and gives him a clean bill of health.
Besides Karki's nomination, Bhattarai, hours before he left for Maldives, took two other decisions which too are expected to trigger controversies.
The government, dismissing calls by rights organisations and civil society, has decided to pardon a Maoist MP, Balkrishna Dhungel, who was convicted of murder during the insurgency.
Though the Supreme Court sentenced him to life, the Maoist government has been trying to grant Dhungel amnesty, saying the case was politically motivated.
With the cabinet deciding to exonerate the sitting MP, President Ram Baran Yadav, the constitutional head, will now be asked to pardon Dhungel. It creates a piquant situation for the president, who had faced another difficult situation in 2009 when the Maoist government tried to sack the army chief and Yadav stepped in to reinstate the sacked general.
Also, before his departure, Bhattarai, in a surprise move expanded his cabinet, inducting seven ministers and 18 ministers of state.
The sixth expansion makes it a jumbo 46-member cabinet that however still fails to accommodate the dissidents in the party. With the militant faction led by Maoist deputy chief Mohan Baidya still ignored, the expansion is likely to deepen the rift between the two factions.
