India should play role in Nepal peace process: Former PM Bhattarai

New Delhi, March 2 (IANS) Amid political instability in Nepal, former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai said on Monday that India should continue to play a role in Nepal's peace process, but added that New Delhi "should not be directly involved".

Addressing a roundtable on "Current Developments in Nepal", Bhattarai - leader of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) - who is meeting political leaders in India, said that if there was instability in Nepal, it will adversely affect the geo-politics of the region and therefore it was in India's interests to see a peaceful and stable Nepal.

He said the "key role should lie with Nepalese actors and political parties" in resolving the political imbroglio over drafting a constitution.

Bhattarai, who is vice chairman of the UCPN-Maoist, said India "as a big neighbour has always played a positive role for the peace process, and should continue to play that role in the interest of the people of both countries, not for its own self- interest".

Speaking at the roundtable, organised by think tank Society for Policy Studies at the India Habitat Centre, Bhattarai said India should through "official and unofficial channels" help complete the peace process in Nepal, and added that his party would do whatever it can to push it through.

He said keeping in mind the "changing dynamics of the region", it was important for the peace process in Nepal to be completed.

"Nepal will make some difference if there is instability and conflict", especially with the country positioned between India and China, he said.

"Indirectly, Nepal can turn into a vortex of conflict, and to avoid that too, it is in everybody's interest," he said, appealing to "friends in India" to take an "active role to avoid anther conflict in Nepal".

While appealing to India to play a role, he clarified on the degree of involvement.

"Though India should not be directly involved, has not been directly involved, we don't want any foreign power to get directly involved, but the reality is in the present day globalised world, what happens in the neighbourhood cannot be just missed out; what happens in Nepal will have some impact in India, and what happens in India will have an impact on Nepal," he said.

Bhattarai said India's degree of involvement should be to "create a conducive atmosphere so that political parties come together and honour past agreements and draw a constitution agreeable to all, which caters to demands of all sections of the people of Nepal and ensures peace and stability and development in Nepal and contributes to the national interests of India as well".

The political parties in Nepal missed the January 22 deadline to draft a constitution.

Nepalese political parties are divided over issues of the new proposed constitution that include forms of governance, names and number of federal units, electoral system and judicial system.

Bhattarai said his party, which led a massive rally in Kathmandu last Saturday to press the government over its demand of drafting the constitution through consensus, said the UCPN-Maoist wants to resolve the issue through peaceful, democratic means through dialogue as soon as possible.

Former foreign secretary Shyam Saran, who chaired the talk, said though the Nepali party has appealed for help, "the dilemma for India remains... there is request to provide support and also maintain a distance".

He said India will continue to confront the dilemma on "how far it should go in intervention".

He recalled that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal in November last year and appealed to the parties to forge consensus on drafting the constitution and conclude it as soon as possible, there had been criticism of the move.