Former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh to visit Nepal

NEW DELHI: Former External Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh would be visiting Nepal for three days beginning April 24 in the midst of the current political crisis there.

Singh, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, would be meeting King Gyanendra and other political leaders during the visit, which comes close on heels of the visit by India’s Special Envoy Karan Singh and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran, party sources said.

The BJP has been consistently supporting constitutional monarchy with multi-party democracy in the world’s only Hindu kingdom. The party has also been demanding that India provide military assistance to Nepal to counter the Maoists, who it alleged were actively associated with the Naxalites operating in several states of the country.

The Sangh Parivar too has been an avid supporter of monarchy, which they say was the sole guarantor for maintaining the Himalayan state’s Hindu identity.