Kathmandu, October 23:

Constitutional experts today said holding election to a Constituent Assembly is the sole way out of the current political mess.

One of the drafters of the Constitution of 1990, Daman Nath Dhungana, said people should start planning something that would compel the ‘autocratic government’ to listen instead of complaining about what it has been doing. He was speaking at an interaction on ‘right to information and organisation,’ organised by the NGO Federation of Nepal and the Federation of Nepalese Journalists.

“The political parties and civil society should jointly issue an ultimatum to the king telling him that a massive protest programme would be launched if he fails to announce elections to a Constituent Assembly,” he said. According to him, civic society and the political parties have agreed to the demand of a Constituent Assembly, a demand also made by the Maoists. “The king may not agree to it, so pressure should be mounted on him,” he said, adding that an international mediation might be necessary for it.

Laxman Aryal, another drafter of the constitution and former justice of the Supreme Court, said the government has shown its ‘autocratic’ character by attacking a private company. “The attack on Kantipur FM has made me feel that statelessness is at its worst. So why cannot we say that we have only gangsters in the government?” he said. He added that the government has done a lot to prove that it is a failed state instead of some international authority declaring the country so.

He also said the king is issuing new ordinances very frequently though the constitution has given him no right to issue them. “All the ordinances are unconstitutional and illegal.”

Former law minister Nilambar Acharya said the constitution clearly mentions that no ordinance should be issued against the statute, but could be promulgated only to implement the constitution’s provisions.

“The king is issuing ordinances just like the British King Henry the VIIIth used to issue verbal laws in the 16th century,” he said, adding that each ordinance kills the existing laws in the country.

Editor of Kantipur Daily Narayan Wagle said the government took action on the Kantipur FM station in a “hunting-style.” It waited for the appropriate time and attacked,” he said.

The publisher of Himal Newsmaganize, Kanakmani Dixit, said, “We are yet to see what the NGO activists will do to bring back democracy.”

Chairman of Nepal Bar Association, Shambhu Thapa, said the people should fight against the king to save “Constitutionalism” and “Populism”. The chairman of NGO Federation, Dr Arjun Karki, said the government is trying to curtail rights of the NGOs by issuing a Code of Conduct for them. “The NGOs will cease to exist in the absence of democracy,” he said.