India pulls out, Saarc meet off

'Nepal events reason for decision'

The two-day South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) summit scheduled to have been started in Dhaka on February 6 was today postponed indefinitely after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that he would not attend the meeting of the seven-member group.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran said the decision that India would stay away from the meeting had been taken at the "highest level", while making it clear that the "political turmoil" (in Nepal) as well as "violence" (assassination of Bangladesh Finance Minister SAMS Kibaria) in the neighbourhood were both responsible for the cancellation of the Prime Minister's visit.

This indicated that India was in no mood to grant any kind of legitimacy to the Nepal King's actions, even if it meant bad blood in the Saarc, anger of the other neighbours at India being able to scuttle yet another summit-level meeting and loss of face by Bangladesh, which was hosting the summit.

In its statement, India explained that it "wishes to reiterate its continuing and consistent commitment to the Saarc process and to increase regional cooperation among member states."

Bangladesh had been requested for fresh dates for the summit, the statement said.

The decision came as the UK and the US strongly criticised King Gyanendra's action of usurping all political and executive powers unto himself.

Both countries demanded an "immediate" move towards the "restoration of multi-party democratic institutions".

While the US said it wanted democracy to be restored under a "constitutional monarchy", the British statement left out even this caveat, indicating the depth of international isolation that King Gyanendra was facing.

Even India has not demanded "immediate" restoration of a parliamentary democracy.

There is no reaction to the event from Pakistan. Nepal-based human rights groups say information flowing in from Europe, the US and the UK suggested no one knew the King was going to take such a drastic step, although rumours of some kind of royal intervention had been circulating for the past one month in Kathmandu.

Britain has also announced that it will "have to assess the impact of this move on our security and developmental assistance". Britain is providing military training and non-lethal weaponry to the Royal Nepal Army to meet the challenge posed by Maoist guerrillas.

In New Delhi, the Prime Minister thought it prudent to cover all the bases and held meetings with his predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief LK Advani.

The BJP has a special relationship with the king on account of his being an "avatar of Vishnu" and the constitutional monarch of the only Hindu kingdom in the world.

But in the face of his arbitrary action, even the BJP was unable to defend him.

After their meeting with the Prime Minister, the party said the events in Nepal had "seriously affected the cause of legitimate democracy."

India has been consistently supporting the development of a political system that truly reflects people's aspirations. The king's draconian actions have caused a serious setback to this process".

The BJP asked the government to demand the release of political leaders, restoration of freedom of speech, guarantee of protection of civil liberties of the Nepalese and the earliest possible return to a democratically elected government in the nation.