Former premier and chairman of RJP Surya Bahadur Thapa (File Photo)
Former premier and chairman of RJP Surya Bahadur Thapa (File Photo)
Former Prime Minister and president of Rastriya Jana Shakti Party (RJP), Surya Bahadur Thapa, has said the arms of the CPN (Maoist) must be managed before bringing the rebels into the interim government.
In a statement issued on Monday, former premier Thapa said since the date for elections for the Constituent Assembly (CA) had almost been finalized, management of arms had become urgent in order to facilitate the parties to take part in the CA elections. “It’s not appropriate or rationale to manage the arms just ahead of the elections,” Thapa said.
Thapa said the eight-point agreement reached between the top leaders of the ruling Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and the CPN (Maoist) had given no basis or reason to dissolve the House of Representatives that was reinstated with much hopes. Various reactions that have become public from within the SPA constituents regarding the eight-point agreement have given rise to suspicion, he said.
Central leaders of the major constituents of the SPA– Nepali Congress, CPN (UML) and Nepali Congress (Democratic)—took their top leadership to task regarding the eight-point agreement saying that they signed into the agreement without proper consultation within their own parties.
They also alleged that the SPA top leadership had been ‘bullied’ by the Maoist chairman, Prachanda alias Pushpa Kamal Dahal, on the issue of premature dissolution of the reinstated House. They further said the SPA leadership failed to get any credible assurance from the Maoist supremo on the issue of laying down of his arms.
Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) led by Pashupati Shumsher Rana also criticized the document saying that it didn’t refer to the death of nearly 14,000 people during the decade-old Maoist insurgency in its eight-point agreement.