Nepal’s Maoist leader Pushpa Kumar Dahal as the 39th Prime Minister of Nepal last week caused a little bit dismay in New Delhi. Because Dahal, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda (the fierce one) from his days as the leader of Maoist insurgency that wracked Nepal from 1996 to 2006 , leaving more than 16,000 people dead, had often positioned himself against India in the past. Especially during his first nine month stint as Prime Minister in 2008-09 which ended on a bitter note when he resigned over differences with the then president over firing of the Nepal army chief who had refused to induct Maoist rebels into the country’s army. But Prachanda, by his own admission, has mellowed down a lot over the last few years. He is no longer virulently anti-Indian like he was before. He has repeatedly stated in recent interviews that he has become “politically mature” and understands the “compulsions of competitive politics”. Before stepping down in 2009, he had launched a vitriolic diatribe against India, accusing it of “remote-controlling” the then president Ram Baran Yadav, who had overturned Prachanda’s order asking the army chief to resign. However today the newly installed PM admits that he acted in haste and that his charges against Indian intervention were “inappropriate”. He has, since those days, gone to great lengths to emphasise the close cultural and religious bonds between India and Nepal while pointing out that Nepal does not have such ties with China. Even at the height of the blockade (from late September 2015 to early February 2016) of vital transit routes along the Indo-Nepal border by the Madhesis in support of their demands to amend discriminatory provisions in the country’s new Constitution that led to severe shortages in Nepal, Prachanda refrained from censuring India. - See more at: http://www.kantipurvdo.com/videos/pushpa-kamal-dahal-prachanda-and-prem-baniya/#sthash.VFbYthY5.dpuf
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