KATHMANDU: Home Minister Dharma Bahadur Thapa has strongly denied any possibility of direct talks between the monarch and the Maoists.
Speaking at the Face to Face programme today, Minister Thapa said that he did not see any possibility of talks with the constitutional monarch by avoiding the government.
He said that the process for peace talks is still in priliminary stage, and the Maoists have not come forward with their agenda.
He said the government has opened the doors for peace talks but the Maoists have not responded to the government’s offer. Minister Thapa added that until and unless the government receives authentic proposal from the Maoists, the government cannot declare its agenda for the talks.
The government would make its vision clear considering the need of hours and ‘the dialogue would be on the basis of give-and-take strategy’.
“If the Maoists are political force, they should prove it by stopping their terrorists and distruptive activities,” he said. He called those involved in violence to come forward for talks and peaceful resolution of the problem.
On whether there would be any mediator, Thapa said that the government have not yet received any proposal in this regard.
He also informed that the government had not thought about constituent assembly or the demand of round table conference. It may be reminded that the Maoists have been raising the issue of a round table conference and an all-party government to resolve the existing crisis.
“As we have identified the Maoists problem as a national problem, why do the political parties differ in this regard?” he asked. Commenting on the expressions of the leaders of the political parties, Thapa said that they have been making the situation more confused because of their ideological deviations. The leaders of the political parties should not spread rumors and propaganda against the monarchy and the government, he said, adding they should instead work to resolve the problem. “No one will benefit by dragging the monarchy into controversy or by trying to mislead the people about the Royal institution,”he pointed out.
“While the nation is seeking cooperation of the political parties and the individual to find a way out of the current crisis, no one should play a negative role to worsen the situation,” he said.
However, Minister Thapa declined to reveal the government’s policies regarding security, saying that the government was functioning smoothly within the mandate given by the Royal address. He said the government was serious to hold the election as soon as possible. “The government has been working to provide law and order to the people in its own way,” he replied.
He blamed the previous governments for the frailty of the administrative sector by politicising the bureaucracy.
He said the three-phase talks between the government and the Maoists failed because the then government of Sher Bahadur Deuba failed to put forth its agenda clearly. “The present government will not make such a blunder,” he emphasised.