Baidya wants its demands reconsidered

KIRAN PUN

KATHMANDU, Sept 17: Alleging that foreign hands were behind a decision of the government and the major parties to forward the poll related ordinances without bringing dissenting parties on board the election process, the agitating alliance of 33-poliitcal parties led by the CPN-Maoist on Tuesday asked the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) to reconsider their demands in the broader interest of Nepal.


Organizing a press conference at CPN-Maoist head office, Buddhanagar, the alliance also made it clear that the alliance would not participate in the scheduled November 19 polls without changing the political system. They argued that the current political process ran against the multiparty system.

The alliance argued that to participate in election meant associating with such a political system and that following the 25-point ordinance to solve constitutional difficulties and 11-point deal among the parliamentary parties Nepal has an autocratic system. The multiparty political system was scrapped with the formation of the Chief Justice Khila Raj Regmi-led election government and there was no chance of participating in the election without reviving the multiparty system. It compared this with elections under the Panchayat regime and monarchy.

"The chief justice-led government and the election held by it would invite conflict. The parties [HLPC] have made a big mistake. We urged them to rethink for the sake of political consensus," said Dev Gurung, coordinator of the CPN-Maoist led 33-party alliance, at the press conference.

The talks between the HLPC and the alliance failed on Monday after the rejection of the alliance´s four-point agenda. The alliance has decided to give continuity to its protests while keeping the door for talks open.

With the failure of the talks, the participation of the CPN-Maoist led 33-party alliance in the election is under question.

"Our participation in the election depends upon the political system. There is no point participating in the election under the status quo", Gurung said.

"It is no different from the autocratic monarchy. The 17 cases against the government were scrapped overnight by the Supreme Court. It is sign of autocracy," added Gurung.

With the formation of the Regmi-led government, the executive and judicial powers rest with Regmi while the parliamentary parties have been advocating separation of powers all along as one of the major elements of democracy. Interestingly, the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist), which claim to be democratic parties, are silent on the issue of separation of powers while the CPN-Maoist led alliance has been advocating the concept.

The alliance also claimed that the talks failed through the interference of foreign forces. Indicating the visit of Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh, the alliance claimed that the talks failed under the guidance of India.

"The leaders [UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhes based parties] do not have the key to the lock. Therefore they could not take a decision themselves," added Gurung. He claimed that the leaders of the 19 parties [including UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress and CPN-UML] had taken his alliance´s 4-point agenda very positively at the meeting. He further said that after Sujatha Singh´s visit, the leaders changed totally.

Singh had met all top leaders of the major parties during her visit. According to Gurung, the talks of August 22 failed after the hosting of a dinner for political party leaders by a foreign agency. At a meeting of August 20, the HLPC and the alliance had agreed to hold a roundtable.
He argued that national sovereignty was becoming weaker day by day.
from Republica