Kathmandu, March 28 (Inditop.com) Ram Chandra Poudel, leader of the parliamentary party of the Nepali Congress (NC), Sunday said that his party would support the Maoist bid to return to power “if they gave up violence and disbanded the Maoist army”.
Poudel told the visiting Indian media: “If the Maoists try to move a no-confidence motion against the government and manage to prove their majority, then my party would support them if they gave up violence, disbanded the Maoist army and enable them to join the social mainstream.”
He said the overt political ambition of the Maoists has been their undoing. “They had to quit the seat of power because of the haste with which they acted. They have to win back the confidence of the people.”
Poudel said the Maoists had to “remove suspicion from the minds of the people that it was not acting in their interest”.
“It has to return the land and homes of the people that it had taken over from the people during the days of armed struggle and instill confidence in people that it will pursue politics of peace. Nepal cannot maintain a parallel Maoist army and the civil war like situation has to end,” he said.
Poudel’s statement came a day after a meeting between the ruling Nepali Congress and the main opposition Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) ended on a positive note with both the sides agreeing on nominating a coordinator of the High-Level Political Mechanism through consensus and settling its agenda for timely promulgation of the new Constitution.
At the end of the meeting here at the Hotel Shangri-la, leaders of both the sides said they were moving towards a positive direction on the role of the high level mechanism on peace and the Constitution drafting process.
“The deadline to draft the Constitution is May 28, but I am not concerned whether the deadline can be met. What matters most is that the new Constitution has to be a democratic one,” Poudel said.
He said “his party was in the process of constituting a core executive committee of nearly 75 members for better governance.”
“The void created by the death of Girija Prasad Koirala cannot be replaced. There are some instances like this in history, where one has no option but to live with a tragedy. Koirala’s death was one of them. The coordination committee will carry on his legacy.”
“Majority of the members in the committee will be elected, while 20 will be nominated after being ratified by the elected members. There will be no arbitrary selection.”
