According to the Nepalese newspaper Kathmandu Post, the Nepalese Ambassador had a brief meeting with the Indian Foreign Minister and the Foreign Secretary but no formal detailed meeting has been held yet. An official of the Nepalese embassy in Delhi said, “For a long time we have written dozens of letters to various ministries of India to give an appointment to our ambassador. Till now we have not received any reply from any Indian ministry. On the contrary, within a month of India’s new Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava taking over, he has met from the President of Nepal to the Prime Minister.
‘India reluctant to make contact through diplomatic channels’
Not only this, the Indian Ambassador has also met leaders of all parties and various ministers. Nilambar Acharya, former ambassador of Nepal to India, says that this attitude of India clearly indicates that our neighboring country is reluctant to establish contact through diplomatic channels. “It is clear that meeting our Ambassador is not on the priority list of the Government of India,” he said. Questions have also been raised in the report that the External Affairs Minister has given enough time to Prachanda but is not giving time to the Nepalese ambassador.
Earlier, the Indian External Affairs Minister had met Prachanda on Saturday. Not only this, the Indian External Affairs Minister was also present during the meeting between BJP President JP Nadda and Prachanda. Nepal’s foreign affairs experts say that the Indian leadership is ignoring the diplomatic channel with Nepal as it is directly dealing with political leadership. At the same time, some experts say that the Nepalese leadership is responsible for this diplomatic failure.
‘Need to take Nepal ambassador’s issue too seriously’
Nilambar says I am not going to hold India responsible. We have to look within ourselves whether our government has given the importance to our diplomatic missions for which they are responsible. He said that Nepal should test Indian steps. If we had not given an appointment to the Ambassador of India, it would have put pressure on India. Even after three months, there has been a cold response from India to the new ambassador. On the other hand, Professor of Political Science in Nepal Vijay Kant Karna says that there is no need to take it too seriously. There is a huge difference between a big power like India and a small country like Nepal and there is no comparison between the two.
