'Attacking India a cheap propaganda'

KATHMANDU: Describing it as a "cheap propaganda", Nepal's Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav on Monday came out against the growing tendency among leaders in the country to attack India or speak out against the landmark 1950 Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship treaty.
 
Yadav, who was in India last month to attend the BIMSTEC meet, a regional grouping under SAARC, said the Indian authorities were ready to review the 1950 Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship treaty, a demand frequently raised by the CPN-Maoist leadership.
 
The Terai-based leader of the MPRF criticized those political leaders in Nepal who speak out against India or the 1950 treaty, terming it as "cheap propaganda".
 
"We must keep in mind the fact that the 1950 treaty has created an open border, established better ties and given us free cross-border movement," he said.
 
"India has agreed to review the 1950 treaty," said Yadav, the leader of the MPRF, which is an important partner in the Maoist-led coalition. Yadav said he was informed by the Indian Foreign Ministry that New Delhi was ready to amend the treaty if Nepal deemed it necessary.
 
Yadav stressed that India is open to suggestions, we should decide whether we want to dump the 1950 treaty and sign a new one or just update it as required.
 
The Foreign Minister asked India to provide a land route to connect landlocked Nepal with Bangladesh, a step that would facilitate direct trade links between Kathmandu and Dhaka.
 
Nepal and Bangladesh is separated by barely 60 kilometres of Indian territory and Dhaka has allowed permitted us to use its Mangla port, but we cannot use it unless New Delhi provides us a land route, he said.
 
Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda, who is scheduled to visit India from September 14 , had earlier said that the historic 1950 Indo-Nepal trade and transit treaty needed to be reviewed. However, he has not given details as to what needs to be changed. Earlier, Prachanda had also called for the revision of the landmark Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950.
 
The Nepal Foreign Minister said until now we have been using Indian trucks to ferry goods between Bangladesh and Nepal that causes hassles and is time consuming. So our demand is that Bangladesh and Nepal should be allowed to conduct bilateral trade through this route, Yadav pointed out.
 
Yadav said that he had raised the issue with the Indian authorities during his recent trip to Delhi to attend the BIMSTEC meetings.
 
We want India to allow our vehicles to enter Bangladesh so that we can use Mangla port, he said, adding "I have approached India for such facility."
 
Yadav, who recently visited the Kosi flood affected area in eastern Nepal where thousands of people have become homeless, said the strong nexus between the contractor, engineers and the Bihar government officials was responsible for the Kosi disaster.
 
Prime Minister Prachanda is expected to discuss the 1954 Kosi water-sharing treaty, which has sparked a row between the two neighbours after the breach of its embankment in Nepal.
 
The shifting course of the river has flooded Nepal's southern district of Sunsari and the northern parts of Bihar in India. Even as Indian and Nepalese engineers have joined hands to repair the breach in the river embankment, it has rendered thousands of people homeless.