National
Recalling me from Delhi was a mistake: Upadhyay
Nepali Congress leader Deep Kumar Upadhyay on Wednesday said that the previous government led by KP Sharma Oli was wrong to recall him, claiming that he was putting on line his political career by returning to India as an ambassador for the second time.Sarin Ghimire
Nepali Congress leader Deep Kumar Upadhyay on Wednesday said that the previous government led by KP Sharma Oli was wrong to recall him, claiming that he was putting on line his political career by returning to India as an ambassador for the second time.
At a parliamentary hearing of ambassadors nominated to India and China on Wednesday, Upadhyay said that he had always put the nation’s agendas before his political inclination. “Though I will always have a special affinity towards Nepali Congress, I will not let that affect my diplomatic duties. The embassy is not only of a specific party,” Chin Kaji Shrestha, a member of the hearing committee, quoted Upadhyay as saying.
Upadhyay, who was appointed by the Sushil Koirala-led government and had taken up the diplomatic assignment in New Delhi in April 2015, was recalled by the Oli-led government this May. CPN-UML leaders had then accused him of working against national interests. But the current government on September 1 had again nominated Upadhyay as ambassador to India, along with former chief secretary Leela Mani Poudyal to China.
During the hearing, opposition lawmakers accused him of “suspicious behaviour” while traveling with Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae to the Farwest without informing the Foreign Ministry during his ambassadorial tenure. He was also alleged of “taking part” in talks to topple the Oli-led government while in New Delhi.
Responding to queries made by UML lawmakers, Upadhyay said that he never crossed his diplomatic lines while at the helm of the Nepali mission in New Delhi. “I was recalled for no apparent reason. Being appointed again now serves justice to me,” he said. Upadhyay also termed the cancelation of Preisdent Bidhya Devi Bhandari’s visit to India as a wrong move of the previous government. President Bhandari’s visit scheduled to start on May 9 was cancelled at the last moment. Even as the government maintained that the visit was cancelled due to “lack of preparations and other pressing domestic issues”, rumours of a change of government were rife in Kathmandu at the time. Acknowledging challenges facing him this time around, Upadhyay said: “I will play my part to take relations between Nepal and India to new heights.”
Also speaking during the hearing committee session, Poudyal expressed belief that Nepal could benefit a lot from China. “We have not made the most of being a neighbour of such a giant country,” he said. “My priority would be to reap benefits from such a giant economy.”