Nepal's Maoist PM to visit India

By Charles Haviland
BBC News, Kathmandu

Prachanda's Maoists have been critical of Indian influence in Nepal

Former Maoist rebel leader and new Nepalese Prime Minister Prachanda is to make his first official visit to India since his April election victory.

Prachanda says he will not sign any concrete agreements but he leads a large delegation on a four-day visit packed with political meetings.

Nepal has a prickly relationship with its larger southern neighbour, India.

Nepal's Maoists have used tough anti-Indian rhetoric, calling for treaties they see as unequal to be abolished.

India denies it was taken aback by the Maoists' election win. But its diplomats were reportedly unhappy when Prachanda's first foreign trip was to China, for the closing ceremony of the Olympics.

Nepalese commentators point out that this country is independent and say it is not open to bullying.

Nevertheless, the weight of ties means Prachanda has had to stress that his arrival on Sunday in New Delhi for a five-day visit is his first political foreign trip - as though to reassure Indians uneasy about where the new Maoist-led republic is heading.

Uneasy relationship

The two countries have a special but often uneasy relationship.

At times, Nepal's leaders have even accused India of having designs on the smaller country's territory.

India's official language, Hindi, is widely used in southern Nepal - but when the new vice-president here took his oath of office in Hindi, there were days of riots in response.

The countries are tightly bound by culture, religion and history and keep their long border open. Simple geography makes co-operation crucial.

The terrible floods in India's Bihar state were caused when a river in Nepal burst its banks.

Treaties oblige the two countries to work together on maintaining the man-made structures which channel such waterways. India is also Nepal's sole supplier of fuel.

Prachanda's Maoist party is wary of India. Its ideological soulmates, known as Naxalites, are waging insurgency across a swathe of India.

On the other hand, Maoist leaders spent a lot of time in India while still underground.