Kathmandu, June 18:Former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba who heads the High Level Maoist Problem Resolution Recommendation Committee (HLMPRRC) today said that the content of the letter he received from the Maoists had nothing unacceptable to initiate dialogues.

Deuba however declined to outline the details of the letter that he said had been handed over to Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala over a week ago. “I have to ask the PM as well as Maoist leader Prachanda before I make it public,” Deuba told an interaction programme on Government-Maoist Talks: Problem and Prospects of Solution here this afternoon organised by Citizen Concern Society.

Deuba said that he had yet to consult the PM to know the government’s response and to move ahead. “I can send a letter to Prachanda tomorrow asking them to put forward their agenda.” This expression came a day after Prime Minister Koirala said that the government had not received any official response from the Maoists about their agenda.

Deuba said that the Maoists understood the government’s stance on constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy. “They are more concerned about people’s immediate problems of poverty, unemployment and exploitation.”

Deuba said that there was a consensus nationally and internationally that Maoist problem should be solved through dialogue, adding, HLMPRRC was an outcome of and guided by this spirit.

“It is a matter of happiness that the Maoists have shown initiatives to come to table,” said Deuba adding, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai himself could be the representative of the Maoists for the talks.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist) Bam Dev Gautam said that the government should give full authority to the HLMPRRC.

Gautam demanded that the government make public the whereabouts of the arrested Maoist cadres, adding both the parties should come to the table unconditionally. “Dialogue is the first step toward solving the problem.”

CPN-UML Central Member Bhim Acharya expressed surprise over the government’s concern over the agenda of the Maoists. “The government’s concern should be to initiate dialogue with its agenda, not with that of Maoists.” Acharya said that the problem would not be solved unless both the parties came forth positively.

Human rights activist Padma Ratna Tuladhar said that the government should fulfil Maoists’ demands to create an environment for talks. The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-M) has demanded that the government make public the whereabouts of its arrested activists, dismiss the false cases against its cadres, investigate Khara incident (in which police allegedly set fire in the western hilly village to round up Maoists) and stop state terror to initiate talks.

Former Prime Minister Kirti Nidhi Bista said that the nation would be at loss if the government delayed in initiating talks with the Maoists.

Rastriya Prajatantra Party’s Central Committee Member Buddhi Man Tamang, Bar Association President Harihar Dahal, President of Federation of Nepalese Journalists Suresh Acharya, senior communist leader Bhakta Lal Shrestha and human rights activist Gopal Shivakoti Chintan said that the government should give a go ahead to the talks proposal of the CPN-M that has come for the first time during its five-year long “people’s war” that has claimed over 1,300 lives.