NEW DELHI: Maoists in Nepal have always been known for having close links with their comrades in China because of ideology and a common resentment of India. It now appears that the fraternal ties were strengthened by something else as well: solid cash. The Chinese have allegedly been bribing the Nepalese leadership in order to get construction contracts. The most recent deal to come under the scanner is the construction of an international airport at Pokhara. The specific allegation against Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) leaders - Prachanda, finance minister Barsa Man Pun and PM Baburam Bhattarai's wife Hisila Yami - is that they were paid kickbacks by the Chinese firm to allow the bid at an unrealistically high cost. An MoU for construction of the airport was "quietly" signed between the government of Nepal and China CAMC Engineering Co Ltd, owned by the People's Republic of China, on September 20, 2011. But the deal got embroiled in controversy after the public accounts committee red-flagged the deal, asking how the project cost was raised to $305 million when the government had estimated it to cost only $180 million. India suspects that Prachanda and UCPN (Maoist) will leave no stone unturned to rescue the deal with China CAMC. They even have a seemingly valid reason: the local agitation in Pokhara demanding an international airport to help promote tourism and boost the economy. However, Indian intelligence agencies report a possible role of the Maoists in propelling the people's stir, so as to build pressure on the government to revive the "stuck" project. For New Delhi, the questioning of Chinese investments in Nepal has only exposed Beijing's practice of bagging key projects in India's neighbourhood by offering inducements to government functionaries in the host countries. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/w...w/16717682.cms
