CPN-UML’s foreign affairs department head Rajan Bhattarai, who is contesting for a parliamentary seat from Kathmandu-4, has said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains reluctant to receive the report of Eminent Persons Group (EPG) on Nepal-India relations. Bhattarai was a member of the EPG.

The EPG was formed in January 2016 with four members each from Nepal and India to suggest a new blueprint on Nepal-India ties amid the changed regional and global context, and on what to do with the 1950 peace and friendship treaty.

Speaking at a function organised by a UML sister wing in Kathmandu, Bhattarai said his party will call for implementing the EPG report after forming the new government following the upcoming elections.

The eight-member panel of distinguished persons from Nepal and India had prepared the EPG report in 2018. The panel had planned to submit the report first to Indian Prime Minister Modi and then to Nepali prime minister.

But the Indian prime minister has so far refused to receive the report despite repeated requests by the Nepali members of the EPG.

In May, after Indian reluctance to receive the report, Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, the coordinator of the EPG from the Nepali side, announced that Nepal would unilaterally make the report public, but he later shelved the plan.

In 2011-2013, when then Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai was the prime minister, he floated the idea of forming a group of noted personalities from both the countries to review the bilateral ties and make recommendations in the form of a joint report. Indian Congress’ leader Manmohan Singh was prime minister then.

In March 2013, Bhattarai was succeeded by Khil Raj Regmi, while in May 2014, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Narendra Modi took over from Singh as Indian prime minister. The plan remained on the drawing board.

The EPG was formed only in January 2016 during the tenure of Prime Minister KP Oli. Delhi did not dismiss the idea as it was in a bid to mend fences with Kathmandu after its border blockade fiasco the previous year.

The members from the Nepali side were Nilamber Acharya, former ambassador to India; Rajan Bhattarai, former foreign relations adviser to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli; and Surya Nath Upadhyay, former chief commissioner of the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority.

The Indian side was led by Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, a BJP leader, with Jayant Prasad, former Indian ambassador to Nepal, Mahendra P Lama, a university professor, and BC Upreti, a scholar, as members.

Bhattarai said that after the UML comes to power, the issue will be raised through diplomatic channels and emphasis will be placed on implementing the recommendations of the report.

“The Indian members of the EPG were unable to obtain an appointment with the Indian prime minister, so the report remains in limbo,” he said. “It is in limbo also because the Indian side has not shown the needed sincerity.”