Nepali Congress (NC) Central Working Committee (CWC) member Narahari Acharya
Saying that the central committee meeting could not take decision in the issues of democratic republic and restructuring of state, Nepali Congress (NC) Central Working Committee (CWC) member Narahari Acharya on Saturday filed a proposal calling for the meeting of the party’s Mahasamiti.
The written proposal emphasised the need to convene a Mahasamati meeting to deliberate over the current political scenario and the expediency of going for a democratic republican order.
Talking to journalists after Saturday’s central committee meeting, he said that CWC couldn’t decide on issues regarding the republican order alone.
“It is necessary to convene the Mahasamiti meet now to discuss the issues of a republican order and the restructuring of the State. Only the CWC’s decision may not suffice,” Acharya added.
Acharya, a noted hardliner in the party has been stressing to go for the democratic republic through the election of the constituent assembly.
Sunday’s central committee meeting will discuss the issue.
Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has asked Maoist chairman Prachanda to stop collecting donations and intimidating industries.
State run Radio Nepal quoted sources as saying that the leaders held a telephonic conversation on creating environment for resumption of operation of the industries along the corridors of Bara and Parsa districts.
Koirala urged the Maoists to allow Dabur Nepal and 10 other industries to operate as early as possible and not to collect donations forcefully.
In response, chairman Prachanda assured to send a circular immediately to party agencies to stop collecting donations forcefully and create conducive environment for operation of the industries.
Meanwhile, issuing a public notice on Sunday, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) has urged the Maoists to immediately stop extortion.
The umbrella body of entrepreneurs have expressed serious concern over the demands of Maoist affiliated trade unions and urged the Maoist to immediately stop the act of creating terror in industries.
The FNCCI also appealed to the trade union to immediately start dialogue to resolve the problems pertaining to the industrial sector.
Political analysts and constitutional experts have said the election to the Constituent Assembly (CA) must be held as per the rule of law and the principles of political, socio-economic and legal constitutionalism.
Speaking at an interaction programme organised by Nepal Council of World Affairs in the capital on Saturday, they said the declaration of the House of Representatives (HoR) on May 18 must be made a part of the 1990 Constitution, adding the proclamation should be in effect until the interim constitution is formed.
Presenting his paper on the occasion, former chief election commissioner, Surya Prasad Shrestha said, “We must head to CA polls as per the regulations of the existing constitution and the declaration of the revived HoR.
He said the King’s proclamation reviving the HoR on April 24 and the HoR’s declaration on May 18 were as per the 1990 Constitution.
Presenting his paper on the road to the CA polls and the restructuring of the State, legal expert Chandra Kant Gyawali stressed the need to incorporate all principles of constitutionalism in the CA election.
Gyawali stressed the need to constitute a commission that ensures the election to constituent assembly is inclusive.
Gyawali said principles of political, social, cultural, economic and legal constitutionalism must be followed in drafting a new constitution.
Commenting on the papers of Shrestha and Gyawali, former Bar Association President Radheshyam Adhikari said there are still some contentious issues that need to be sorted out before going for the CA polls.
Another legal expert Devendra Lal Nepali stressed the need to proceed with the CA election in a scientific manner, which can be achieved through geographic, population, and socio-economic distribution of communities.
In a historic decision, the reinstated House of Representatives on Thursday declared itself “supreme” and for the first time in the country’s history– drastically curtailed the royal powers.
Welcoming the historic declaration of the House of Representatives-2063, the annual general assembly of Nepal Bar Association (NBA) has emphasized on its successful implementation.
“The Jana-andolan-II uniquely demonstrated to the whole world that a peaceful movement can also bring a historic revolution,” the 17-point Janakpur declaration of the NBA issued at the end of the annual general assembly said.
The assembly also vowed to stand in favor of the HoR declarations.
The NBA also stressed for the implementation of the 12-point agreement between the parties and the Maoists.
The NBA also urged the concerned authorities to take strict action against those involved in suppression of people’s movement and in the support of the then royal regime.
Likewise, NBA urged the Maoist rebels to immediately stop extortions.
Ending bullish surge of the past three weeks, the index of Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) started its downward trend posting 1.78 points loss over the week.
The Nepse index had increased by impressive 13.02 points the previous week. Nepse posted 5.36 and 11.4 points growth over the previous two weeks.
The index of country’s sole secondary market opened at 385.89 points on Sunday and closed at 384.11 points on Thursday, the last day of the trading under a regular lot due to weak performance of commercial banks.
A total of 255,839 units of shares worth Rs 152,717,592 were traded through 2,270 transactions during the week as compared to 391,864 units worth Rs 188,255,901 from 2,404 transactions the week earlier.
The index of commercial banks declined over the week, however, manufacturing, insurance and finance groups showed a steady growth.
The index of commercial banks group declined by 3.563 points to 442.37 points from 445.80 points.
Manufacturing group’s index maintained a growth of 2.53 points. It climbed to 292.34 points on Thursday from opening at 289.81 points on Sunday.
Similarly, the indices of finance and insurance groups’ also posted a growth of 0.79 points and 3.58 points respectively.
The indices of trading, hotel, other and the development banks groups remained static throughout the week.
Of the total transactions, the commercial banks group continued to dominate the Nepse floor by capturing 95.72 percent of the total transaction.
The shares of finance group had 1.95 percent share, while the development bank group had 1.17 percent, followed by the insurance group with 1.05 percent and the manufacturing group with 0.05 percent share.
Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Prachanda has said that they are not saying they should lead the interim government.
Earlier, politburo member of the party, Matrika Yadav, had said that Maoist should lead the interim government.
In an interview this morning with Milan Timilsina in Kaya Kairan, a current affairs radio programme of Communication Corner, Prachanda said, “What Matrika has said is theoretical and he had talked only about the international trend,” adding, “We are not claiming leadership in the interim government.”
He further said that they will discuss their role in the interim government to give progressive outlet to the country during the talks with the government.
“We will not participate in the coalition government of the seven party alliance but participate in the interim government formed after political conference,” Prachanda added.
He expressed dissatisfaction over the delay in the talk process and said, “We suspect that the delay might be a ploy of the seven political parties to give credit of the achievement of the people’s movement to themselves.”
On recent proclamation of the parliament, Prachanda said, “The proclamation will contribute for the democratic movement of the country so we supported it, but if it is considered that the goal is achieved with this proclamation, it will not help to resolve the current problems of the country.”
He said that the environment for talk is positive this time as compared to previous two round of talks as the main political agenda for talk was already fixed and the country is moving towards unconditional election of the constituent assembly.
He however cautioned that some foreign power centers, which are against the 12-point understanding between parties and Maoists, are trying to disturb the environment for talks, and added that all people should be cautious in this regard to make the talks successful.
On the issue of extortion, Maoist Supremo said that they are collecting donations to feed thousands of their cadres, but strictly ruled that they are extorting people. He said that they had taken back extortion threats made by their cadres, but did not state any instances.
However, quiet contrary to his claim, Maoists have been extorting large amount of money from many industries forcing them to closure.
On the threat to independent media of the country, Prachanda said that they did not have such policy against media and added they will investigate any cases of threat issued against independent media by their fraternal organizations.
He further said that there is a need of mediation of the United Nations or any other international agencies to hold the election of the constituent assembly in a free and fair manner.
Representatives of the Professional Alliance for Peace and Democracy (PAPAD) have urged the probe commission formed to investigate the atrocities committed to suppress people’s movement to suspend all officials involved in it.
They made the request during the meeting of the representatives of PAPAD with the officials of the commission on Sunday.
Talking to Nepalnews after the meeting, president of Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Bishnu Nisthuri, informed that they recommended to take immediate action against officials involved in suppressing the people’s movement.
He said, “We have expressed dissatisfaction over continuation of jobs by officials who suppressed people in Jana Andolan, and urged the Commission to immediately recommend to suspend them.”
The Commission was also cautioned that their report should not go unnoticed as of the Mallik Commission, he added. He quoted officials of the commission as saying that they will recommend action against those found guilty.
The commission officials urged the heads of professional organisations to give evidence and documents to the commission if they have any. We also expressed our readiness to provide assistance to the commission in its investigation work, Nisthuri added.
The government arrested five former ministers on the recommendation of the commission in the charge of holding secret meetings to thwart the people’s movement.
The government also suspended Chiefs of the Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and National Investigation Department on the recommendation of the Rayamajhi commission.
India’s main opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BPJ), has ‘regretted’ the transformation of Nepal into a secular state from the world’s only Hindu nation after a declaration of the Nepalese parliament.
BJP leader Jaswant Singh told the Rajya Sabha, the lower chamber of the Indian parliament, on Friday that he “feels diminished” to see the death of the Hindu Kingdom and called the transformation “unfortunate”, official news agency PTI said.
PTI quoted another BJP leader VK Malhotra as saying, “While it is for the people of Nepal to decide on the kind of government they want. What was the need to scrap the word Hindu from its name?”
“Nepal’s Hindu identity has nothing to do with the monarchy. The Nepalese Parliament should not have omitted that word. There are over 50 countries in the world who proudly call themselves as Islamic Republic,” Malhotra insisted while addressing a press briefing.
On a question if he questions the secular status of India, Malhotra said there is “no difference between Hinduism and secularism” and that “nobody can deny that India is a Hindu-majority state”, PTI said.
The Indian opposition party’s reaction comes at a time when the parliamentary proclamation declaring Nepal as a security state is welcomed by all sides including the international community.
The BJP, which is supported by various semi-political fundamentalist Hindu religious groups, is the only prominent Indian political party to officially criticize the Nepalese parliament’s decision on Thursday to turn Nepal into a secular state.
The Maoist negotiation team, led by party spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara, has arrived Kathmandu on Sunday, reports said.
The other members of the team include party leaders Dev Gurung and Dinanath Sharma.
Details were not immediately available.
Addressing a mass meeting in the eastern town of Biratnagar on Saturday, Sharma had said the CPN (Maoist) would not return to jungle and would continue taking part in the open politics even if negotiations with the government did not succeed.
The CPN (Maoist) chairman, Prachanda, has said he will arrive Kathmandu to take part in what he called “summit meeting” with the government after preliminary talks between the negotiation team from two sides.
The government has designated Home Minister Krishna Sitaula as coordinator of the government negotiation team but is yet to appoint other members of the team.
The CPN (Maoist) had announced its negotiation team after the government reciprocated its call for three-month-long unilateral ceasefire last month.
First time after the historic parliamentary proclamation that massively clipped the King’s power, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala met with King Gyanendra at the Nayanhiti Royal Palace Sunday evening and discussed the present political scenario of the country.
The King and the Prime Minister discussed the political scenario for nearly an hour, reports said. No details were immediately available.
The House of Representatives on Thursday stripped the King of most of his power, scrapping the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the army hitherto held by the King, kept him away from parliamentary affairs and renamed His Majesty’s Government as ‘Nepal Government’ and the Royal Nepalese Army as ‘Nepali Army’, among others.