Days after their party chairman left for Rolpa to “sleep in bunker” and get reenergised to launch another struggle, two senior UCPN (Maoist) leaders clarified on Thursday that they were not running away from the Constitution-writing process.
Holding a press conference in the capital, former Prime Minister and senior leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai and party vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha said there is no difference within the party about the Constitution being drafted by the Constitution Assembly (CA). “We urge everyone not to doubt our commitment and desist from saying things to the contrary,” Mr. Shrestha said. He urged other party leaders not to take recent utterances of UCPN (Maoist) chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’s seriously.
Mr. Dahal has been making threats against the two ruling parties — the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML — for their stated resolve to settle disputes of the new Constitution through voting in the CA. Many observers have dubbed the Maoist chairman’s remarks as disparaging.
At the press conference, the two Maoist leaders said that the NC and the UML should table their recent proposal in the Constituent Assembly (CA), arguing it could not be registered at the CA’s Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC), a body headed by Mr. Bhattarai. The NC and the UML have argued that the CA regulations allow it.
If the proposal is registered, it would have to be discussed and if there is no consensus among parties, the PDCC has to prepare a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ questionnaire which would then have to be tabled at the full CA for voting.
