Rabi Lamichhane Given Grand Welcome in India; Meeting with PM Modi Expected

Kathmandu. Chairman of the ruling party Rastriya Swatantra Party, Rabi Lamichhane, has been given a grand welcome in India. During his visit to India, Chairman Lamichhane, who went to the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday, was given a grand welcome with music. Lamichhane held a meeting with the President and other officials of the BJP. It is said that Lamichhane will also meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the visit. A meeting between Indian Prime Minister Modi and Chairman Lamichhane is scheduled for Wednesday. However, the time and place have not been fixed yet. A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party said, 'There is a meeting program, but the place and time have not been fixed yet.' He said that after meeting with BJP President Nitin Naveen and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar, the place and time for the meeting between Modi and Lamichhane will possibly be decided. Earlier, in the last week of Bhadra 2079, when the then CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman Prachanda went to India at the invitation of the BJP, the meeting program with the Prime Minister of India, Modi, was postponed at the last moment. At that time, a time was set to meet with Indian Prime Minister Modi on July 1, 2079. In the meeting held at the BJP headquarters on the same day, Prachanda was assured that he would meet with Indian Prime Minister Modi. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar was also present at that meeting. While going to meet Indian Prime Minister Modi, Prachanda received news on the way that the meeting would not happen due to Modi's busy schedule. He returned to his hotel disappointed. He returned to Nepal the same day. Responding to journalists' queries at the airport after returning to Nepal, Prachanda had said, 'I don't know why Prime Minister Modi did not want to meet.' However, when the BJP invited him for a visit to India, Prachanda had said that he would come only if he met Prime Minister Modi. He had gone to India for a visit only after the meeting with Modi was confirmed, but he returned to Nepal in the evening when the meeting did not happen at the last moment. Now, there is growing interest as to whether the same will happen in the case of Rabi Lamichhane. Many things will become clear during Lamichhane's visit to India for five days. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was about to come to Nepal with an invitation from Indian Prime Minister Modi. However, his visit to Nepal was postponed after Prime Minister Balen Shah refused to meet Misri. This had chilled the relationship between the two countries. It is in this situation that the visit of RSP Chairman Lamichhane to India has taken place.