Nepal’s former PM urges Oppn to shun agitation

Nepal’s former Prime Minister and senior leader of the CPN-UML Madhav Kumar Nepal on Wednesday appealed to the 30 party opposition alliance led by the Maoist party to shun the path of agitation and come to the dialogue table for the early drafting of the constitution.

Blaming the UCPN (Maoist) for the failure to promulgate the new constitution on the stipulated date, Nepal said that only a constitution promulgated through collective efforts of all would be long lasting. “So I appeal to the alliance to take the path to a consensus,” he said.

Speaking to journalists at the Rupandehi district in western Nepal today, he said twelve months were wasted in the name of consensus, and argued that though Nepali Congress (NC) and Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) were positive about drafting the new constitution the UCPN (M) and other agitating parties did not exhibit a liberal attitude for the same. He stressed on the need to set aside the politics of confusion and uncertainty and move forward through the process of dialogue and consensus.

Meanwhile, Vice president of UCPN-Maoist Baburam Bhattarai said that the new constitution could be promulgated only by forging consensus among the four major parties -NC, CPN-UML, UCPN (Maoist) and Madhes-based parties.