Sushma Swaraj suggested the debate on the Nepal blockade be converted into a short-duration discussion after several members felt too little time was allotted for the debate.
Sushma Swaraj suggested the debate on the Nepal blockade be converted into a short-duration discussion after several members felt too little time was allotted for the debate.
The Chair agreed after taking into account the sense of the House.
Ms Swaraj said India had advised Nepal’s top political leadership of tangible solutions to end the looming crisis.
“Regrettably, these cautions passed unheeded,” she said, adding that India had always stood for a peaceful end to Nepal’s ongoing political transition after decades of instability and violence and has at the request of Nepali political parties actively facilitated that process for early promulgation of a broad-based, inclusive and durable Constitution.
Ms Swaraj asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a consensus and broad-based ownership, conveyed during his two visits to Nepal in August and November 2014, was strongly and consistently conveyed by India, both before and after the draft Constitution was put out for public consultations from June to August 2015.
“Our advice was reiterated on several occasions... I personally reemphasised our advice during my visit to Nepal in June 2015, and the Prime Minister restated it during his phone conversation with PM Sushil Koirala in August 2015.
“Our ambassador in Kathmandu was also in regular touch with Nepali political parties in this matter. Therefore, any suggestion that our position lacked clarity or that there was lack of engagement simply has no basis,” she said.
The external affairs minister said India’s foreign secretary had also travelled to Nepal on September 18 and 19 as the PM’s special envoy and advised the Nepalese leadership on some tangible solutions to end the looming crisis.
