India may brainwash Nepalese officers, fear Maoists

A Nepalese Parliamentary committee has asked the government not to send officers to India for training after Maoists feared that they might be 'brainwashed' during their stay in the country.

The International Relations and Human Rights Committee of the Parliament on Tuesday asked the foreign ministry not to send the foreign service cadres to India for the 10-day training programme. India's external affairs ministry has agreed to provide training to the Nepalese officials as per the request made by the Nepalese foreign ministry, according to Indian embassy sources.

Earlier, during a discussion at the House, panel chairman of the IRHR committee Padma Lal Bishwokarma, also a Maoist lawmaker, had claimed that the decision to send the Nepalese officers to India goes against national interest as they might get 'brainwashed'.

However, this is not for the first time that the Nepalese foreign ministry is sending its officials to India for training. Over 300 officials from the Nepalese foreign ministry have already received training from the Indian external affairs ministry since 2007, according to Indian embassy sources.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Achyut Raj Pandey disagreed with the Maoist lawmaker's view, saying, "We don't believe in hollow nationalism like the Maoists. India is our good neighbour and by sending our officers to India, we will help in strengthening the relations between the two countries".

"There is no ground to believe in the argument that such types of short training course provided to our officers will put our nationalism at stake," he pointed out.

According to Indian embassy sources, the government of India will bear all the costs for the training programme.

"We have agreed to provide the training to the officials of the foreign ministry of Nepal as they have made a request for the same," said Indian embassy spokesman Apoorva Srivastava.