Hindustan Times Leadership Summit programme may create a controversy
Will Nepali Maoist leader Prac
[author:Arabinda Ghose Public time:Nov 7, 2006] |
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The Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, one of the popular events every winter since the last few years, may become a controversial affair this year with the newspaper announcing that one of the speakers would be the Nepali Maoist leader Prachanda, whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal.
For the last few days, the newspaper has been issuing full-page advertisements regarding the summit- on the topic of “India, the Next Global Superpower?”- to be held in New Delhi on Nov.17 and 18.
The panel of speakers, according to this advertisement, includes Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Afghan President Hamid Karzai. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the Malaysian leader Dr. Mahathir bin Mohammed and other world leaders apart from a number of political and corporate leaders of India.
This is the normal practice followed by the newspaper every year since the last few years for this programme. However, what creates a bit of surprise is the name of Prachanda among the panel of speakers. This is because there is some difference of opinion among people who have been following the developments in Nepal since a very long time whether Prachanda is still considered the leader of a terrorist outfit in Nepal by the Government of India since it was under his leadership that the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) carried on an armed insurrection in the country since Feb.1996 which has resulted in the death of over 13,000 young men and women of Nepal, mostly armed cadres of the Maoists and security organizations of Nepal including the Royal Nepal Army.
His Majesty’s Government of Nepal had declared this outfit as a terrorist organization way back in 2003.However, after the April 2006 agitation for the dethroning of King Gyanendra and formation of a new Government under the leadership of Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala, there have been a sea change in Nepal. The King has been stripped of all powers, the Government is now called merely the Government of Nepal and the Army, just Nepal Army. This government also withdrew the terrorist tag from the Maoist Party, following which Prachanda had come out of his hiding in the jungles in Western Nepal and is now functioning from the National Capital, Kathmandu. He has not abandoned his “security forces’ and is always covered by them whenever he moves out, just like heads of Government.
The question that arises here is whether the removal of the terrorist tag by the Government of Nepal means that India too automatically withdraws this tag. If not, how can the Prime Minister of India, who has been saying these days that terrorism is the gravest threat to India, can share a podium with a terrorist leader from neighbouring Nepal. Supposing this is so, and prachanda is no longer a terrorist in the eyes of the Government of India will it be proper for the Prime Minister of India to be seen in convivial company of a former terrorist leader whose declared aim has be
Printed From:http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200611/1162897622.html
Source:Free Press Release
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