Kathmandu, July 30 (Inditop.com) A 72-year-old history scholar and a former student of India’s elite Doon School is being considered for the post of Nepal’s new ambassador to Nepal.
Rukma Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, a scion of one of the oldest and best-known families of Nepal, could be Nepal’s new ambassador to India, a post that fell vacant almost eight months ago after the then Maoist-led government of Nepal recalled ambassador Durgesh Man Singh.
“Our family is not like the (commonly perceived) Rana family of Nepal,” Rukma Shumsher told Inditop.
His father Subarna Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana was the first finance minister of Nepal and one of the founders of the Nepali Congress party that led the pro-democracy movement of 1950 against the all-powerful Rana prime ministers.
Rukma Shumsher has close ties with India.
“My family was exiled thrice,” he said. “We lived in Kolkata.”
After studying in the prestigious Doon School, Rukma Shumsher graduated from Kolkata’s St Xavier’s College run by the Jesuit fathers, followed by a Masters degree in modern history from Calcutta University.
He was also the past president of the Nepal Olympics Committee and current managing director of Dabur Nepal, Dabur India’s subsidiary in the Himalayan republic.
After the Maoists recalled Singh last year, they first proposed one of their top leaders, Surendra Karki, also known as Partha Chhetri, who was arrested in India during the Maoist insurgency and handed over to Nepali authorities.
However, New Delhi objected to Karki on the ground that he had links with underground organisations in northeast India and subsequently, the Maoists named another associate, former teacher Chandra Kant Poudel for the post.
Soon after the nomination, the Maoist government fell after a clash with the chief of the Nepal Army, Gen Rookmangood Katawal, and Poudel’s nomination was put on hold.
Though India remains Nepal’s biggest trade partner and one of the biggest donors, the key post has been lying vacant for almost eight months due to political reasons.
The Maoists are not likely to accept the new nominations with grace.
To add to their anger, the new government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is said to be trying to appoint the controversial army chief and the Maoists’ arch enemy Gen Katawal as the new ambassador to France.
After India had objected to Karki, the Maoists had named him ambassador to France and the French government had agreed to the proposal.
