PM BHATTARAI ATTEMPTS TO DOWNPLAY MAOIST ‘SURRENDER’ OTERTURE TO INDIA Kathmandu, 4 Aug.:In the wake of controversy surrounding the Maoist position vis-a-vis India, Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai on Friday said the Maoist party had written letters to India, just as it had to other international actors, in 2002 as per the party's policy "to develop cordial relationship with them.", Kamal Dev Bhattarai writes in The Kathmandu Post. The contents of the letter to India were identical to those sent to the US and the United Nations, he told a select group of reporters invited to Baluwatar, his official residence, to explain his and his party's position on the letters. In his recent article in the book titled "Nepal in Transition: From People's War to Fragile Peace," Indian Professor SD Muni claimed that the Maoists had written the letter to India expressing their commitment to transform themselves into a democratic political party and safeguard India's national interests. The PM claimed that the letter was an open one and was published as far back as in 2002 in newspapers, including the Maoist party's then mouth piece "The Worker." Bhattarai had then passed on the letter to Prof Muni, who handed it over to the then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Though in the early stages of the "People's War" the Maoist party had taken a hard-line position on India, the party made an important policy shift in 2001 after the royal massacre and decided instead to develop cordial relationship with India as well as other international actors, Bhattarai said. "Until that period, the Maoist party had directed most of its offensive against the parliamentary parties while the monarchy was spared, but the royal massacre led to a fundamental shift towards New Delhi and towards the monarchy. "We dispatched letters to many countries, including India, which was never a big and confidential issue," Bhattarai said. He urged the media "not to unnecessarily politicise an open issue." nnnn