PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ is faced with an enormous challenge—having to strike a balance between his radical rhetoric and pragmatic approach—to ensure the survival of his coalition government. However, the signs that his government is being pulled in different directions are fast becoming apparent.

In an interview with BBC’s Nepali service, Prachanda said ,”the 1950 Treaty of Peace and Friendship with India must go through a clear revision”. He, however, declined to give the kind of revision he is seeking during his visit to India later this month saying, “since the issues to be raised during bilateral talks are being studied at the moment, it would not be appropriate to reveal them here”.

However, the rank and file of the Maoist party that has a radically anti-American and anti-Indian stance wants the treaty scrapped altogether saying it is ‘unequal’ and clearly loaded in India’s favour. Yet , the Prime Minister’s demand is quite a climb down from the strident demand of the Maoists during the insurgency and in the run up to the elections that the treaty be scrapped altogether.

Moreover, his demand is at odds with the position taken by his own Foreign Minister Upendra Yadav who has taken a cautious approach to the demand for revision of the 1950 treaty during his recent visit to Delhi to attend the ministerial level meeting of BIMSTEC.

Yadav who apparently tried to dispel India’s ‘misgivings’ over Prachanda’s first visit to Beijing and negotiated a date for Prachanda’s official trip to Delhi, has advised the PM to first be clear about the changes he wants in the treaty before making public utterances. “I am convinced that India is prepared to accept the changes that Nepal would want in the treaty. We have to decide what kind of change, but we also must keep in mind the interest of the Nepalis living in India,” he said.