Munu Mahawar, an additional secretary at India’s Ministry of External Affairs who is in charge of Nepal and Bhutan desk, arrived on a four-day official visit to Nepal on Sunday. The stated goal of the visit is to see the progress made in different projects funded by the government of India.

He will also take stock of ongoing election preparations in Kathmandu. He is the senior most Indian official visiting Kathmandu after the Gen Z uprising in early September in Nepal.

On Tuesday, he will call on Prime Minister Sushila Karki, Finance Minister Rameshore Khanal, Commerce Minister Anil Sinha, and Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal, among other officials, and will discuss India’s support and cooperation for the March elections, according to officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He will also meet Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai and discuss the status of various India-funded projects in Nepal and overall Nepal-India ties, said the officials privy to the visit.

There have been several senior level visits from Kathmandu to New Delhi at the ministerial and head of security agencies levels but Delhi had not been sending such officials to Kathmandu after the Gen Z movement citing the sensitivity of the time and political situation in Kathmandu.

According to officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nepali Embassy in New Delhi, Mahawar will visit Lumbini on Monday, inspect the Integrated Check Post (ICP) in Bhairahawa and attend a cultural event in Lumbini. India is building a Buddha Stupa inside Lumbini.

He will also take stock of the progress being made in several India-funded projects in Nepal including High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP).

The primary objective of his visit is to understand how election preparations are advancing in Nepal and to assure Nepali authorities of India’s full support for the March elections, said officials both in Kathmandu and New Delhi.

According to them, he will communicate New Delhi’s cooperation for Nepal’s elections and its support to Nepal in all possible ways.

The government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has already sought over 600 units of vehicles of different types with India for the March 5 parliamentary elections. Indian authorities have communicated to the Nepali side that the procurement process of the vehicles of different requirements is underway and they will be delivered on time.

The Election Commission and security agencies in Nepal will use the vehicles for their election purposes.

There is a tradition that whenever the senior Indian officials or leaders visit Nepal, they meet party leaders and get updated on various aspects of Nepali politics.

But, this time, Mahawar, a key man in India’s Ministry of External Affairs handling Nepal Affairs in coordination with the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu, different agencies and interlocutors, will not meet top leaders of any political party, sources said.

“As of now, we have not heard about his meetings with party leaders,” a source knowledgeable about the visit told the Post. “They want to refrain from courting any controversy in the changed political context in Nepal following the Gen Z movement.”

Also Indian leaders are refraining from meeting Nepali leaders in New Delhi due to the sensitivity of the political situation in Nepal.

On the other hand, “no senior [Nepali] leaders are visiting India after the Gen Z movement and even the middle-rung leaders who are visiting are not meeting their Indian counterparts,” said a Nepali diplomat based in New Delhi.

According to several officials and diplomats, India has limited its engagement to the official level and is trying to skip meetings with party leaders due to the changed political situation in Nepal. But bilateral meetings and engagements are on an upward trajectory, they said.

This is Mahawar’s second visit to Kathmandu this year. Earlier, he had visited Kathmandu at the end of January and held talks with senior Nepali officials and leaders.