Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda', Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Jugnauth are set to be invited to Modi's swearing-in ceremony.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Saturday conveyed India's 'deep disappointment' to Maoist leader Prachanda over his verbal attacks on the country, terming them 'baseless propaganda'. During a meeting with Prachanda in Kathmandu, Krishna asked the Maoists to fulfill their peace process commitments and join the consensus on concluding the peace process and drafting the new constitution by the targeted date of May 28. Krishna "conveyed deep disappointment".
Sharif was the only prime minister from India's neighbourhood who wasn't invited to the swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi.
53-year-old Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda was administered the oath of office by President Ram Baran Yadav during a function at the Rastrapati Bhawan in Kathmandu.
Stepping up his anti-India rhetoric, Maoist supremo Prachanda has accused it of backing a 'conspiracy' to restore monarchy in Nepal, which had turned into a republic from a kingdom just a year ago. Prachanda, who quit as premier after a dispute with President Ram Baran Yadav over the issue of sacking of the army chief, said the present Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) -led government is 'just a puppet' and efforts are on to 'murder the infant republic'.
If Prachanda is prudent and mature, he won't let relations with India be marred by anti-India posturing. Will he be able to do that? India's long border with Nepal has seen an unusual growth in madarssas and jihadi activities. Will Prachanda's Nepal help handle that?
The Maoists in Nepal spearheaded by Prachanda today surged ahead in the landmark constituent assembly polls, winning 14 seats and leading in 65 of the remaining 240 constituencies. Prachanda, 53, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist who led a decade-long insurgency in the country to overthrow the monarchy, defeated his closest rival Rajendra Kumar K.C of the Nepali Congress in Kathmandu.
India maintains Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura belong to it.
In an interactive programme at Rajbiraj, an eastern Nepal town, Prachanda claimed that his party Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist would get 150 seats out of a total of 300 seats in the direct election, and that he will become the first president of the Himalayan nation after the polls. He also sounded a note of apprehension over elections taking place on the scheduled date. "I am not confident that the CA elections will be held on the stipulated date," he said.
Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist leader Prachanda on Monday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kathmandu and expressed confidence that a "new chapter" has begun in Indo-Nepal ties.
Minutes after landing at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Prachanda was held up at the immigration counter for a few explanations. It took him half an hour before being allowed to proceed.
The main Opposition party Communist Party of Nepal-(Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML) disrupted the National Assembly meeting on Wednesday, demanding the prime minister's resignation. The meeting has been postponed to 1 pm Thursday.
"I am glad." That is how former external affairs Yashwant Sinha reacted to Prachanda's resignation as Nepal Prime Minister. Sinha was addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Monday.
Dismissing as "ridiculous" India's fears that Nepal was moving closer to China, Prime Minister Prachanda has, however, said there was a "crisis of confidence" between him and the Indian establishment.
Nepal Maoist supremo Prachanda on Tuesday blamed India's 'naked interference' for the lingering political crisis in Nepal, as the former rebels served an ultimatum to the embattled government to resolve the deadlock by January 24 or face an indefinite general strike.
In addition to participating in the swearing-in ceremony, the leaders will attend a banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan, it said.
Prachanda, the man who revolutionised Nepal politics in last one decade, said though he is not interested in any post, if the people of Nepal want him to become the president of the new republic, he would accept that responsibility.
Nepal's ruling UCPN-Maoist has suspended its supremo Prachanda's son Prakash Dahal from the party and from a powerful state affairs committee over his alleged extramarital affair with a student leader.
Maoist supremo Prachanda on Wednesday said that his party will not tolerate 'any kind of interference' in the internal affairs of Nepal from 'any part of the world'. He also accused India of 'breaking the politics of consensus' in the country. Addressing his first press conference after resigning as premier, he also dubbed a videotape, purportedly showing him boasting about making a false claim about the strength of Maoist combatants, as a 'conspiracy' against peace process.
Favouring a "revolutionary change" in relations with India, Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda on Tuesday said a "new era has dawned" that should help further strengthen the bilateral ties. He suggested that New Delhi should help in the development of Nepal, which is placed in between two rising economies -- India and China.
Newly elected Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on Saturday said the industries and business enterprises in Nepal which were closed due to the Maoist threats in the past will be reopened.
There are two possible scenarios -- these fears turn out to be baseless and Prachanda turns out to be a genuine democrat and a genuine friend of India or Prachanda after the elections turns out to be different from Prachanda before the elections and takes Nepal on a road, which would be detrimental to our national interests. While hoping for the first scenario, we must be prepared for the second.
With declaration of Nepal as a republic and abolishing the monarchy by the first meeting of Constituent Assembly on Wednesday, a new dawn has begun for the country to be led by the 53-year-old former rebel, who is now in his strongest position to rebuild the impoverished Himalayan country.
Expressing concern over the recent Maoist activities, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a recent meeting with a UML team in Delhi had said that the unity between the Nepali Congress and UML be strengthened.
The leader who three years ago was an ultra-Left wing underground leader was today talking with pragmatism and wisdom about dreams and peace. Karl Marx's foot soldier is now talking like a student of Dr Manmohan Singh's class on market economy
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
Nepal witnessed political turbulence in 2022 that dramatically turned rivals into allies and throned former guerrilla leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' as the prime minister for a third time, as Kathmandu made efforts to balance ties with immediate neighbours India and China with high-profile talks and visits.
Along with Modi, senior BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar, all ministers in Modi 2.0 Cabinet, took oath as cabinet ministers at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. In all, 71 ministers were sworn-in along with Modi, taking the strength of the Union council to 72.
Engagement with neighbours is a strategic imperative, and not an option, asserts Rup Narayan Das.
With the support from eight political parties, 78-year-old Poudel's victory was certain. His rival Subas Chandra Nebmang had support of former prime minister KP Sharma-led CPN-UML.
In a press statement, the foreign ministry here said 10 Nepali nationals lost their lives in the recent attack by Hamas in Israel.
The 76-year-old Nepali Congress president, who has served as the prime minister for a record fifth term, defeated his challenger party general secretary Gagan Kumar Thapa by 39 votes, officials said.
According to the National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Centre, the earthquake with an epicentre in Jajarkot district was recorded at 11.47 pm.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was accorded a warm reception as he arrived at the Indian Space Research Organisation headquarters in Bengaluru on Saturday morning.
The MEA described the mural as an artwork that depicted the spread of the prehistoric Ashokan empire.
The announcement came as Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' called an emergency meeting of the council of ministers following the crash.
The decision to remove Oli from the party's general membership was taken at the Standing Committee meeting of the faction led by former prime ministers Prachanda and Madhav Kumar Nepal after Oli failed to produce explanation to his recent moves as sought by party leadership, sources said.
Bhutan firmly abides by the one-China principle meaning Taiwan and Tibet are part of China and stands ready to work with China for an early settlement of the boundary issue and advance the political process of establishing diplomatic relations, it said.
The move comes as the intra-party feud reached climax in the ruling NCP which has been witnessing months long tussle between two factions, one led by 68-year-old Oli and Party's chairman and another led by 66-year-old 'Prachanda', also the executive chair of the party and former premier.
Nepal plunged into a political crisis last Sunday after Oli, known for his pro-Beijing leanings, in a surprise move, recommended dissolving the 275-member House, amidst a tussle for power with former prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda'.
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