Make changes to constitution: India to Nepal

NEW DELHI: India, encouraged by the informal move by the big three political parties of Nepal to open talks with agitating Madhesis to resolve the ongoing political crisis, has conveyed to the visiting commerce and supplies minister of the Himalayan state, Sunil Bahadur Thapa, that an amendment to the Constitution would bring durable peace to the region.

Thapa, who was in Delhi earlier this week to attend the South Asia economic conclave organised by the Modi government, met external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and other senior officials.

The authorities are understood to have conveyed to him that Delhi f avours an amendment to the new Constitution that would meet the aspirations of the agitating Madhesis for stability and durable peace in Nepal. Later, Swaraj also met her counterpart Mahendra Bahadur Pandey in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The Indian authorities told Thapa that issues confronting Nepal are largely political in nature and that the Nepalese leadership needs to address the causes credibly and effectively, persons familiar with the minister’s visit indicated. The Modi government maintained that differences within Nepal should be resolved and institutionalised with broadbased ownership and acceptance. Even before the Constitution was promulgated on September 20 by Nepal’s Constituent Assembly, India has been calling for an institutional course correction to address the grievances of two-thirds of Nepal’s population who feel politically under-represented in the new document.

Thapa briefed Swaraj on the hardships that Nepali citizens have been facing due to the "blockade" and urged a resolution, Nepali government officials told ET. Thapa also assured Swaraj that the political crisis in Nepal would be resolved soon through talks. The visiting minister had conveyed India’s viewpoints to Prime Minister Sushil Koirala.