KATHMANDU, March 18: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his commitment to providing all types of support to the government of Nepal for conducting local elections scheduled for May 14.
Modi expressed the commitment during a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bimalendra Nidhi, who called on the Indian prime minister at his official residence in New Delhi on Friday.
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“He [Modi] expressed his readiness to provide all types of support to conduct upcoming local elections,” read a press note issued by Nidhi’s Press Coordinator Ramjee Dahal. Modi said this after Nidhi sought logistical support from the Indian government to hold the elections.
During the meeting, Nidhi raised the issue of the killing of Nepali national Gobinda Gautam by Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) of India on Nepal-India border in Kanchanpur last week. Modi assured that the Indian government was ready to punish the guilty in Kanchanpur incident, according to Nidhi. “He said a detail investigation has been taking place into the Kanchanpur incident and that the Indian government is ready to punish the guilty,” read the press note.
Nepal’s ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay accompanied Nidhi during the meeting.
Also, Indian Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj during a meeting with Nidhi on Thursday, had committed herself to punishing the guilty in Gautam’s killing.
Swaraj had sought Nepal government’s support in the investigations and emphasized that such incident mustn’t be repeated in future.
Nidhi discussed the Kanchanpur incident also during his meetings with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh and security advisors of the Indian government.
