Kathmandu, Jan 2 (Inditop.com) A former Nepali MP who reportedly used his political clout to get his wife, a film student at a Pune institute, deported from India remains untraceable.
Amresh Kumar Singh, former MP of ruling Nepali Congress (NC), returned to New Delhi last month, according to politicians from Nepal’s Terai plains, from where Singh hails.
However, since a furore began in India over the deportation of Neetu Singh from Pune where she was studying editing at the Film and Television Institute of India, the politician has been out of contact.
Singh, an ambitious go-getter from Sarlahi district, shot into limelight during the start of the pro-democracy movement in Nepal in 2006 when the political parties buried the hatchet with the Maoist guerrillas to launch a united protest.
Based in New Delhi, where he is a doctorate student at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, he became close to top underground Maoist leaders like Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and Baburam Bhattarai and acted as a mediator between them and the political parties.
However, when King Gyanendra’s army-backed regime collapsed in April 2006 and parliament was reinstated, it was not the Maoists who named Singh as their representative in the house but the NC led by former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
Singh was among the 10 new MPs Koirala sent to parliament, causing deep resentment in the party.
According to NC members, Singh was neither a member of the party nor ever involved in its activities and his nomination raised questions.
Despite the resentment, Koirala again named Singh as a contestant during the historic constituent assembly election in April 2008.
Singh fought from Sarlahi and was defeated. The NC suffered a humiliating defeat as well with most of Koirala’s family members, including his daughter Sujata and nephew Shekhar Koirala, losing the polls.
After the poll debacle, Singh married Neetu, who comes from the tea garden district of Jhapa near West Bengal. According to many, the marriage broke up and the couple are separated.
Singh received a public drubbing from his former mentor Koirala after he boasted in a popular chat show that he was very close to Koirala.
The octogenarian leader ticked him off during a meeting of the NC parliamentary party, saying he was not entitled to be present since he was not a member.
Journalists remember seeing him in Kathmandu in August 2009, on the eve of Sujata Koirala, now Nepal’s foreign minister as well as deputy prime minister, going to India on her first official visit, when he attended a lunch for journalists.
Prachanda’s aides said he has not been in contact with the Maoist supremo and the party was not aware of the allegations against him that he engineered the deportation of Neetu using his political clout.
The NC too said the only information they have about the incident was from the Indian media.
Neetu, though she sent a letter to a women’s rights organisation in India after returning to Nepal saying she was not involved in any anti-Indian activity but was victim of a conspiracy, has, however, not approached any Nepali organisation for help.
