Constituent Assembly was dissolved just because the NC and UML had never wanted identity-based federalism said DAHAL
KATHMANDU: Chairman of Unified CPN Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal today accused Nepali Congress and CPN UML of promoting communal violence by denying rights to disadvantaged groups including women, indigenous nationalities, Dalits and minorities.
“Isn’t the feelings that everything will be finished if the disadvantaged group are given their rights, communal?” he questioned at an interaction organised by Tamang National Liberation Front.
Dahal questioned the kind of democracy they (NC, UML) are advocating by denying the rights of minorities and said the people should understand their intentions. He said all disadvantaged groups should be empowered to ensure internal nationalism in the country.
He also said the Constituent Assembly was dissolved just because the NC and UML had never wanted identity-based federalism.
“The NC and UML, who were dragged to republicanism and federalism by the people, didn’t accept rejected both consensus as well as voting, thus leading to dissolution of the CA,” he said.
Dahal said he would never accept a Constitution brought by either a commission, round table conference or any other way and would write the new constitution even if he had to holding CA elections three more times.
“We have done what NC and UML had demanded and handed over both arms and armies, but we have now understood that it was never their intention to draft the Constitution,” he said adding that they ditched the Maoists in the last hour. Dahal added it was necessary to pressure the NC and UML to draft the new Constitution through a mass movement.
He also claimed that his party wouldn’t need weapons as long as it had people’s support . Commenting on an NC leader’s comment that Maoists have already taken the Nepali Army into confidence, Dahal said NA cannot be a force of the NC and UML only.
“If anybody is thinking of cutting the Maoists to size with help of NA they are daydreaming. NA will never take any step against a power elected by the people,” he claimed.
Dahal said the government was forced to announce the date for CA election after NC and UML refused to go for any other option — state of emergency, giving continuity to CA, or identity-based federalism.
Dahal claimed that the NC and UML had proposed to go for fresh election but now they are protesting against the government for declaring election. Addressing the same function, UML politburo leader Prithvi Subba Gurung also said rightist leaders of the NC and UML were responsible for the dissolution of CA. Upendra Yadav of Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum-Nepal alleged the NC and UML had accepted federalism only for public consumption but were never for it.
Former general secretary of Nepal Bar Association Raman Shrestha blamed the Supreme Court for the demise of the CA, claiming that the Supreme Court’s political verdict was responsible for dissolution of the CA. “SC killed CA not the PM,” he claimed. Vice-chairman of Brahmin Samaj Rubaiya Nath Koirala and rights activists Kumar Yonjan also blamed the NC and UML for the demise of the CA. THT
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