Proving beyond doubt that the Maoists of Nepal are holding the Girija Prasad Koirala government of Nepal hostage, the Government of Nepal has conveyed to India that the signing of the new extradition treaty between the two countries, which was to take place in the first week of October, has been postponed indefinitely.
Although no official announcement has been made about the reason for the postponement, it is obvious that the Maoists of Nepal are against this agreement with India for reasons not specified but obvious to those who are familiar with the objective of the Maoist parties in this region to carve out a ?red corridor? from ?Pashupati to Tirupati?.
The Maoists, who have been frequently coming to Indian territory since last February for meeting journalists and political leaders, despite they being branded as terrorists, fear that the treaty might lead to a joint operation by the Governments of India and Nepal (the legitimate government of Nepal, that is), which will seriously hamper their activities to spread Naxalism in larger areas of India. The areas include Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, where there are already large settlements of Nepalis, some of whom might be inclined to join the Maoist brigade.
Apart from this, there is a recent agreement between various Maoist parties in South Asia to improve their co-ordination, which might turn this region into a ?flaming field of people'supsurge?.
This decision was taken at the fourth conference of the Co-ordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) held in Nepal during August. Among the parties present was a fledgling ultra left party from Sri Lanka.
Notwithstanding the forceful assertion of Nepal Maoists that they would not meddle with the Indian Maoists? movement and that it would be treated as the country'sinternal security concern, the political resolution passed at the conference asserted that the coordination committee would deepen and extend the links between genuine Maoists of the region and increase the coordination to fight back the enemies in the respective countries.
Three Maoist parties from Bangladesh too attended the meeting as also one Maoist party from Bhutan.
The Government of India , one hopes, will take these developments more seriously than they had done in the recent past, violating certain provisions of the Security Council Resolution No.1373 of September 2001 adopted immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attack in the United States.
Had the Nepalese Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sithaula come to India, another agreement apart from the extradition treaty would have been signed between the two governments. That would have been the Mutual Legal Assistance agreement to enable the two countries locate, restrain and confiscate the proceeds of crime, take evidence of statements, execute requests for search and seize the information, documents and records.
The opposition to the signing of the treaty by the Maoists is understandable because it was aimed at checking the criminal nexus between the Maoists of the two countries.
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