There is strong suspicion in Nepal that the revivalist demand for abandoning secularism and restoring Nepal as a Hindu Rashtra is being encouraged by the Hindutva forces in India.
Nepal’s politics has once again taken an unexpected turn with Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka Prachanda, breaking his alliance with the Nepali Congress. Prachanda’s Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) formed an alliance government with the Communist Party of Nepal – United Marxist Leninist (UML), which is led by K P Sharma Oli.
With this, the alliance between CPN (Maoist Centre) and the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led Nepali Congress, formed in December 2022, has ended. Overnight 32 MPs from the CPN(Maoist Centre) formed a new coalition with the 78 MPs of the CPN-UML, 21 MPs of the Rashtriya Swatantra Party, and 12 MPs of the Janata Samajvadi Party — giving him 138 seats in a house of 275. Prachanda is further trying to bolster his majority by bringing Madhav Nepal’s CPN (Unified Socialist) into the fold.
Refusing to recognise the ground reality of Nepal politics, some Indian observers have opted for the easy explanation that the ‘left unity’ between the CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre) is the handiwork of China. India has been blind-sided by China so often of late in Nepal that the ‘Chinese influence’ has become a go-to explanation for any political changes that may not be of India’s liking. However, Prachanda’s actions have more to do with the attitude of the Nepali Congress than efforts by China…
https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/not-china-nepali-congress-forced-prachandas-hand-2927877
After the truth-shower 