Sitaram Yechury at the first session of the reinstated parliament in Kathmandu. (AP)

Kathmandu, April 28: Sitaram Yechury has replaced Chandra Shekhar in Nepali folklore about democracy. Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has replaced Benaras.

In 1990, it was Chandra Shekhar who brought a group of Indian politicians to attend the first open meeting of the banned Nepalese political parties at the residence of Ganeshman Singh, the father figure of Nepali Congress. That was the beginning of the end of King Birendra’s managed democracy.

Today, it is Sitaram Yechury of the CPM and D.P. Tripathi of the Nationalist Congress Party who are playing a similar role.

Chandra Shekhar had met the grand old man of the Nepalese democratic movement, B.P. Koirala, in Benaras. Yechury and Tripathi met Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai in JNU where they were student leaders.

Today, when Yechury and Tripathi entered the reinstated parliament, it was left to former foreign minister and a good friend of India, Chakra Prasad Bastola, to send a note to deputy speaker Chitralekha Yadav. He wanted her to recognise their presence in the House. She did it to wild clapping by the MPs.

“This is purely a victory of the Nepalese people,” an overwhelmed Yechury told the media. “Often India is viewed as the big brother. India and Nepal are brothers but they are twins. The agony of one is reflected in the other. The victory of one is celebrated by the other,” he said.

Yechury and Tripathi, along with Rahul Barua of the South Asia Foundation, set up the Nepal Democracy Solidarity Committee in India last year. But their association with Nepal goes back to 1990.

Yechury and Tripathi's role in supporting the return of democracy has been complimentary. While Yechury has been able to use his influence with the Maoists, Tripathi is close to the Nepali Congress and its breakaway faction led by Sher Bahadur Deuba, the Nepali Congress (Democratic).

Yechury is believed to have been approached by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to use his influence with another JNU alumnus, Maoist ideologue Baburam Bhattarai. Tripathi also knows Bhattarai well but has the additional advantage of knowing the Nepali Congress leaders.

It was Yechury’s involvement that apparently facilitated the 12-point agreement between the Nepalese political parties and the Maoists.

The CPM leader, however, is dismissive of the media dubbing the agreement “Yechury formula”.

“I am against this kind of branding. It is a Nepalese formula and this what the Nepalese political parties wanted. My name came to be associated with it after the Karan Singh fiasco because I was saying exactly what the Nepalese wanted,” Yechury explained.

Welcoming the restoration of the parliament and the process of organising a Constituent Assembly, the CPM leader said: “Nepal must embark on a new democratic path. The political process must not remain limited to restoring what was gained in 1990. This is important because it is this understanding that will bring the Maoists into the democratic mainstream.”

Yechury arrived here today, just in time to attend the first extraordinary meeting of the reinstated Nepalese House of Representatives. He apparently talked to the Maoist leadership before leaving Delhi.

“Their point is very clear. Twice the Nepalese people have been betrayed on the question of a Constituent Assembly ? first in 1951 and then in 1990. They don’t want a repetition. This is a fair pre-condition for them to enter what they call the ‘new democratic evolution of Nepal’,” he said.

Yechury said that, for India, there was “an additional incentive” in supporting this process. “This will have a salutary effect on the ultra-left in India. Revolutions today must factor in people’s yearning for democracy,” he said.

Yechury and Tripathi, here on the invitation of Nepali Congress President Girija Prasad Koirala, had a meeting with leaders of the seven-party alliance tonight. They are scheduled to meet Koirala tomorrow morning. They will stay till Sunday when Koirala is sworn in as Prime Minister.