Prajatantra-jee, Regarding Indian policy vis-à-vis Nepali Maoists, I think 'inconsistency' rather than a 'double standard' would best describe it. India generally has been liberal to Nepali Maoist's movement (आवत-जावत) in India. However, at times, it has arrested them and even extradited some to the custody of Nepali government. Indian policy has been inconsistent not only vis-à-vis the Maoists, but for just about everything regarding Nepal. I am not an expert. However, I think several factors contribute to make Indian policy to Nepal inconsistent. The first and foremost and determining one might be -- it might be unthought of to a Nepali, but I think it is the case -- that Nepal is not really a terribly important country for India to remain alert, vigilant and thoughtful all the time, let's say, as much as in case of Pakistan or Bangladesh or even Shri Lanka for that matter. A little bit of carelessness or inconsistency toward Nepal does not make India a poor player. The same would be unthinkable in case of, let's say, Pakistan. And the actual inconsistency in policy comes from the inconsistency, or rather lack of incentive to correct inconsistency, in thinkings among political (both central and states), diplomatic and security wings of Indian establishment. Indian security wing is less sensitive to the issue of democracy in Nepal than it's political and diplomatic wings are. Nepali Maoists were terrorist in eyes of one wing, but freedom fighters in eyes of the other wing. That's what gave whole range of bewilderingly inconsistent policy of India vis-à-vis the Nepali Maoists, I think. The case with the US policy is different. The US policy is uniform and more or less consistently pro-monarchy (constitutional monarchy). The US views the King as some sort of a balance to the extreme left in Nepal. Some senators appear to up to rethinking about it. However, this is very recent development and it is not yet influencing the US policy that is in place. Now the reason the US is not hard on the King is it's assessment that the political parties' leadership are too weak to rely on for stopping the Maoists from coming to/sharing power. The idea of transformation of the Maoists is not in it's thinking system yet. And it will not get in any time soon either. My dui suka worth of views. Nepe