Nepal should learn lessons from AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal's success in his experiment of participatory democracy, former prime minister and senior Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai said today.
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal has started a new experiment of participatory democracy in India and raised voice against corruption which is a new deviation from the traditional political concept, he said.
Nepal should learn lessons from AAP leader Kejriwal's success, said Bhattarai, who has just returned from a week-long visit to India.
"It has inspired us and in Nepal we are also trying to develop an inclusive democracy by drafting a Constitution through the Constituent Assembly," Bhattarai said while talking to a select group of mediapersons here.
He said that he had exchanged views regarding the political issues of both India and Nepal with Kejariwal.
"Kejriwal has succeeded in developing an alternative political force by deviating from traditional politics, which I consider as positive development," Bhattarai said.
"I found goodwill among all political parties in India regarding the latest political developments in Nepal," he said.
The political parties in India have in one voice said that their Nepalese counterparts should also collaborate and cooperate to find a way out of the current political crisis, he said.
They said that Nepalese people themselves should find a solution to their problem in their own way, Bhattarai said.
"It is natural that Indian leaders have shown interest in resolving Nepal's political crisis as I think that both peace and war always becomes the matter of concern for international forces, and I don't consider the concern shown by India as interference to our internal affairs," Bhattarai asserted.
"But we don't want others to dictate our ways of handling the situation," he said.
Bhattarai said that he is optimistic about finding a way out of the current political stalemate in the country.
Both the ruling parties and the opposition should show flexibility to resolve the crisis, he said.
Bhattarai expressed the hope that the political parties would be able to forge agreement on key issues of the Constitution by mid-March.
The new Constitution should be drafted on the basis of consensus among the political parties rather than through a majority vote, he said.
During his week-long visit to India, Bhattarai had met President Pranab Mukherjee, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the Prime Minister's security advisor and other senior leaders including BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, senior communist leader Prakash Karat and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh.
Asked about the change in India's Nepal policy under the new government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bhattarai said the "present government has shown more concern about the political developments in the neighbourhood.
