Kathmandu: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said India stands by the efforts of Nepal and its people towards logically concluding their peace process and the drafting of the constitution for a multi-party democracy, as he met a wide spectrum of political leaders in Kathmandu.
Mukherjee, who was on a day-long visit to Nepal, met Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai, besides all major political leaders, including Maoist supremo Prachanda, CPN-UML president Jhala Nath Khanal and Nepali Congress president Sushil Koirala. He also called on President Ram Baran Yadav.
After meeting Bhattarai, Mukherjee said, "India stands by the efforts of the people and government of Nepal to logically conclude the peace process and finalise drafting of the constitution".
"We want that the peace process and the constitution drafting process should be finalised so that after long struggle people of Nepal have created an atmosphere where multi-party democracy can function effectively," he said.
Welcoming the seven-point agreement reached among the political parties under the initiative of Bhattarai, the Finance Minister said: "We are confident that people of Nepal would be in a position through the representation of their respective political parties to come to the logical end of the peace process and drafting of a new constitution."
During his meeting with Nepali Congress president Koirala and former Prime Minister and NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, Mukherjee said India wants to see how Nepal's democratisation process can be consolidated and the constitution-making process be expedited.
"Mukherjee mentioned about good relations existing between Congress I and Nepali Congress parties saying that India wants to see how democratisation process could be strengthened in Nepal," according to Nepali Congress central member Bimalendra Nidhi, who was also present during the meeting.
During the meeting, Nepali Congress leaders briefed him about the ongoing peace process, constitution making process and the current political situation.
Nepalese leaders told Mukherjee that they were hopeful over concluding the constitution-drafting in the next six months period, when the Indian leader asked about the delay in constitution drafting despite the terms of the Constituent Assembly being extended several times.
Koirala told Mukherjee that his party was still apprehensive about the Maoists' motive as they had not yet committed to political pluralism. He added that the Nepali Congress wants parliamentary form of governance along with federalism to be incorporated in the new constitution, Nidhi said.
Mukherjee on his part clarified that India does not want to impose anything on Nepal, and will support the peace process in whatever way the Nepalese people want.
Under the seven-point pact, the major parties - the ruling UCPN-Maoist, Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML - agreed to integrate up to 6,500 Maoist combatants into the country's security forces by forming a separate directorate under Nepal Army.
Earlier, Mukherjee inked the DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) with Nepal and held bilateral talks with his Nepalese counterpart Barsha Man Pun.
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