Nepal's two communist parties to merge: What it means for 'friend' India

In 2016 India's aid to Nepal saw a 30% cut even when the country was recovering from earthquake of 2015 and was looking for more help from friend India

The long-awaited unification of Nepal’s two big communist parties, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), has concluded. The two parties have signed a seven-point agreement that accepts Marxism and Leninism as guiding principle and calls for establishing the party’s hegemony through peaceful means.

According to the agreement, the Maoist Centre leader Prachanda and UML leader K P Oli will hold party president and prime minister’s posts by turn. This marks an end of official Maoism in Nepal, one of the most exciting chapters of the country’s Left history. Now there is