New Delhi/Kathmandu: The intervention of China in Kathmandu’s internal politics and Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s hostility towards India has left the top leadership in the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) at loggerheads with each other, as their talks failed to resolve their differences for the eighth time on Thursday.
Nepali media said that senior leaders of NCP, Madhav Kumar Nepal, Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Oli made no headway in their meeting at the PM’s residence in Baluwatar on Thursday.
The concerns about China’s interference in Nepal’s internal affairs erupted when it became public that the Ambassador of China to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, has held several meetings with former PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Madhav Kumar Nepal, another NCP leader Jhala Nath Khanal and many other senior leaders in the party.
The meetings triggered speculation that China is exerting its influence over Nepal’s ruling party and its internal politics.
Newspapers in Kathmandu reported that in June, Dahal and Nepal, along with the standing committee members, had asked Oli to quit one of the two posts that he holds — Prime Minister and the party chair. However, the PM had refused outright.
Analysts in Kathmandu believe that these differences along with Oli’s unrestrained bitterness against India have brought the NCP at the verge of a split.
In an offensive remark, Oli on Monday had said that Hindu lord Ram was born in Nepal and not in Ayodhya. He called the Ayodhya origin of Ram as ‘fake’ Indian narrative. The statement evoked widespread outrage in India, with even the opposition members condemning Oli’s remark.
In Nepal, opposition Nepali Congress spokesperson Bishwo Prakash Sharma had said on Wednesday that Oli has “lost the moral and political basis” to rule the country. Vice-president of the Nepali Congress, Bimalendra Nidhi, termed Oli’s remark as “baseless, irrelevant and objectionable”. (IANS)