Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 18:

Former envoys and foreign affairs experts today raised concerns over ‘selfishness’ of the political parties and suggested it is high time all Nepalis forged a unity to save the country’s sovereignty.

Chairman of the World Hindu Federation and former ambassador, Bharat Keshar Singh, said political parties are making selfish and baseless demands at a time when the country is facing crisis. “I should not hesitate to concede that the people are fed up of the parties,” Singh told journalists at the Media Group Nepal.

Terming the King’s February 1 move as a compulsion, former ambassador to China, Yuwaraj Singh Pradhan, lambasted the political parties’ demand for the restoration of the House of Representatives (HoR) as baseless. He urged leaders to cooperate with the King to resolve the crises and suggested them to face the Royal Commission for Corruption Control to prove their innocence “if they are clean”.

Saying that foreign powers play when “we are divided”, foreign affairs expert Dr Mohan Lohani raised concern over some foreign countries’ comments on Nepal’s affairs without understanding the ground reality. He blamed parties for failing to fulfil their responsibilities while in power.

Former envoy Khilendra Prasad Pandey said the King should be the centre of power to establish peace and stability. Reacting to the US stance on the country’s current situation, Pandey said: “Since the US does not have any idea on monarchy, it does not know the value of the institution.”