Hot on the heels of a dazzling drama of regime change, the government on Friday decided to recall Nepal’s Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay—the first casualty of the cancellation of President Bidhya Devi Bhandari’s planned visit to the southern neighbour.

Highly placed sources in the government told the Post that the Cabinet decided to recall Ambassador Upadhyay after his brief conversation with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Friday morning following the cancellation of President Bhandari’s scheduled visit to India. 

Upadhyay was appointed ambassador from the Nepali Congress quota in April last year. President Bhandari’s visit, which was scheduled to begin on May 9, was cancelled by the Nepali side on Friday. 

Following the development in Kathmandu, Ambassador Upadhyay rang up PM Oli and expressed his displeasure at the cancellation of President’s visit, according to the sources. Upadhyay is learnt to have told PM Oli that “cancelling the scheduled visit of the Head of State at a time when Nepal-India ties are back on the track does not leave a good impression”. The sources said that Upadhyay had also expressed his dissatisfaction over not being informed about the cancellation of President’s India visit. 

The PM, according to the sources, then told Upadhyay that if he had such reservations about the cancellation of the visit, he could quit. 

On government move, Ambassador Upadhyay told the Post that “it was natural on the part of the government to recall its representative when it does not feel comfortable working with him/ her”. 

Stating that he had got the hint of the government move on Thursday itself, Upadhyay said since he was yet to receive a formal letter from the government, he was not in a position to say anything about the charges levelled against him.

During the Cabinet meeting on Friday, sources said, Prime Minister Oli instructed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Kamal Thapa to recall Upadhyay immediately. Upadhyay has also been accused of “prompting Madhes-based political parties to stage agitation”. 

A top aide to PM Oli said that the prime minister was not happy with the role Upadhyay had been playing and the executive chief felt that some of Upadhyay’s activities were unbecoming of an ambassador.