Newly appointed Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives, Keshar Bahadur Bista, has said the government is ready to discuss what he called ‘positive proposal’ aimed at resolving the nine-year-old Maoist insurgency.

Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Keshar Bahadur Bista

Minister for Agriculture and Cooperatives Keshar Bahadur Bista (File Photo)
Addressing a `Face to Face’ programme in Kathmandu on Friday, Minister Bista, however, said the rebels should lay down their arms to create a conducive environment for talks.

Responding to a query on the crisis of confidence between the king and the opposition parties, Minister Bista said he would take personal initiative to facilitate talks between the seven party opposition alliance and His Majesty the King.

He, however, urged the opposition parties to be flexible towards proposed municipal polls. “The only way to return to constitution is through polls. The government is committed to conduct free and fair polls. We are ready to sit for discussions if the opposition parties have any doubt,” he added.

Minister Bista, who also heads the newly launched Democratic Nepal party, said there were only two forces in the country: those who believed in the parliament and those who were outside the parliament. “The tendency to identify the king as a separate power is wrong,” he added.

The minister said he was not surprised at the call for boycotting elections by the Maoists who were outside the parliament. “But similar calls from the seven-party alliance is a matter of concern,” he added.

He said he had joined the government as “there was a conducive environment for conducting polls in the country.”

Earlier, Bista had said he would not join the government as it could not hold polls for the municipalities as well as the parliament.