Unrest because of shock: Indian envoy

KATHMANDU, JUNE 6. India today attributed the civil unrest in Nepal to the people's difficulty in coming to terms with the palace killings and rejected reports of any hesitation on New Delhi's part to recognise the new monarch.

``The late King Birendra was honoured, loved and revered by the people of Nepal. They are finding it difficult to come to terms with what is absolutely a huge tragedy,'' the Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Mr. Deb Mukherji, told a select group of visiting Indian journalists.

Asked about the Indian mission's assessment of the massacre, he said, ``an inquiry commission has been set up. Let us wait for its report.''

Mr. Mukherji, however, said the question of India hesitating to accept the new monarch did not arise. ``Both the President and the Prime Minister have sent their condolences to the new King and assured the Nepalese Government of our total support in their hour of crisis,'' said the envoy, who had earlier signed the condolence register at the Narayanhity Palace. Asked about the Indians stranded in Nepal due to the curfew, he said the mission was not aware of such reports but the Indian Government would operate additional flights, if necessary. He also clarified that the Indo-Nepal border had been sealed from the Nepalese side and not the Indian side in view of the ongoing developments. No Indian establishments had been attacked anywhere in Nepal while some Indian television reporters were picked up due to what the Nepalese authorities perceived as untrue reporting, he said adding they were later let off.

Maoist rebels accuse RAW

Meanwhile, the ultra-Left Maoist rebels have accused India's external Intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), of planning the strategy with the support of the American Central Intelligence Agency, a charge described as baseless by the Indian mission here.

In a hard-hitting article today in the daily Kantipur, the supreme leader of the outlawed Communist party of Nepal-Maoist, Mr. Baburam Bhattarai said that in the background of conflict between America and China, the proximity between America and India was growing. It was therefore more natural for King Birendra to be an eyesore for American imperialists and Indian ``colonialists'' as he was soft towards China and Maoists. Indirectly hinting that the new monarch, King Gyanendra, was soft towards India, he said India's old dream of turning Nepal into Sikkim had all of a sudden changed into a new design of making her (Nepal) first into Bhutan (an Indian protectorate) and then into Sikkim, which merged with India.

- PTI

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