Deuba photo morphed, no need to teach one-China: Nepali Congress

KATHMANDU: The largest party, Nepali Congress, has dubbed the media reports on the alleged meeting between its president and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba with the chief of the Tibetan government in exile, Lobsang Sangay, as false and premeditated propaganda.

It further claimed a photograph that showed Deuba sitting next to Sangay was morphed.

In a statement today, the chief secretary at the Nepali Congress central office, Krishna Prasad Paudel, said Deuba, who was the chief guest of the Democracy Development and Dissent event at the Third India Ideas Conclave in Goa, shared the stage with Amit Shah of Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian railways minister Suresh Prabhu and spiritual leader Swami Tejomayananda; but left the venue after the inaugural session.

Earlier, Deuba, who expects to succeed to Pushpa Kamal Dahal as the Prime Minister, had already denied meeting any Tibetan leader in Goa and reiterated his party's commitment to the one-China policy.

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After the photograph, which shows Deuba, Sangay, Swami Chinmayananda and Amit Shah among others sitting together, surfaced on the Nepali media outlets raising questions over veracity of Deuba's claim, the Nepali Congress apparently felt the heat today to forge more clarification on its leader's engagements in Goa.

The photograph was first posted by Avinash Photograph on Facebook and shared by India Ideas Conclave. It, however, does not appear on Facebook now.

"He (Deuba) doesn't have any information and it was not necessary to acquire information either on who were present in the audience and where they were seated," the statement said.

In this photograph released by Nepali Congress, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba is seen addressing the Third India Ideas Conclave in Goa. Photo: Nepali Congress
In this photograph released by Nepali Congress, NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba is seen addressing the Third India Ideas Conclave in Goa. Photo: Nepali Congress

The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama had addressed the function via video messaging.

Notwithstanding this, the party said, it was unfortunate to disseminate falsehood by morphing photographs to show the duo sitting together and claiming that they held interaction as well as Deuba was insensitive to the one-China policy.

Nobody has to teach Nepali Congress party and its President Deuba the perspectives on one-China policy, the statement said, "One-China policy is our belief. Nepali Congress is committed to the theory of Panchasheel."

It further said the party deplores the misleading and fictitious information dissemination on Nepali Congress' relation with China.