Indian Maoists threaten to assassinate Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh

Kathmandu, 22 July: India’s Maoist guerrillas Tuesday threatened to kill the country’s prime minister and ruling party leader in what analysts said was the most aggressive threat from an increasingly lethal and widespread insurgency, agencies report out of the Ranchi.
The warning comes a month after the government listed the Communist Party of India (Maoist) as a terrorist group, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared them India’s largest internal security threat.
The Maoists targeted Singh and Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, and invoked the memory of the 1991 assassination of her husband, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in a suicide blast blamed on Sri Lanka’s now defeated Tamil Tiger rebels.
“Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh have dared to ban the Maoists, little realizing that they would meet the fate of Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed by LTTE ,” a statement released in Hindi says.
The statement, issued in the eastern state of Jharkhand, also gave local Congress leaders a week to resign or ‘be taught a lesson’,.

(Note: The threat is noted in Nepal because India refuses to also talk with its Maoists while bringing Maoists into the Nepali mainstream politics through the 12-point New Delhi peace in 2006. Apparently, what is good for others isn’t good for India, according to official Indian thinking.)
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Congress relations with PM Nepal chilling

Kathmandu, 22 July: Relations between Nepali Congress and head of the coalition government Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal have been cooling of late, Ghatana ra Bichar reports.
Congress President Girija Prakad Koirala expressed his dissatisfaction at a meeting with Nepal Monday and advised the prime minister not to go out of the way to develop relations with Maoists.
Prime Minister Nepal has prioritized dialogue and understanding with Maoists; Koirala opposes it.
Koirala is dissatisfied with the dialogue and secret understanding at Godavari.
Koirala is also unhappy with Nepal’s decision to reject a suggestion not retire police personnel who completed 30 years of service.
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President too wants a chief secretary

Kathmandu, 22 July: The race to pick a new Chief Secretary of Nepal Government is creating much debate in political and bureaucratic circles, The Kathmandu Post reports.
The President’s Office has forwarded a proposal to create an additional post, that of a Chief Secretary for the Presidents Office too.
The President’s Office on Tuesday sent a formal request to the Prime Minister’s Office and Council of Ministers to decide on the matter at the next cabinet meeting.
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