New Delhi, April 24, 2005 (PTI)

Reacting sharply against any reported move to resume arms supply to Nepal, CPI(M) today termed it as a "wrong and unjustified step" and demanded a clarification from Government on the issue.

"There should be no question of resuming arms supplies to a despotic King who suppressed the elementary democratic rights of the people.

The UPA Government must realise that the appreciation and goodwill it earned with its firm stand in defence of democracy and popular Government in Nepal will disappear and it will be held responsible for abetting King's authoritarianism," a Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau statement said.

Pointing at the reports that Nepal King Gyanendra had announced that India had agreed to resume military supplies to Nepal after Meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a CPI(M) Polit Bureau statement said "UPA Government clarify the situation immediately."

Highlighting that the King had in his speech at the Asian African Summit in Jakarta strongly defended his authoritarian action, the Party said all that the King had asserted in his talks with Prime Minister was that democracy would be restored "sooner rather than later".

It said that municipal elections, which have been announced, are farcical and "cannot be a substitute for the full restoration of Parliamentary democracy and having an elected Government".