Kathmandu, August 30 :

The Nepal Federation of Indigenous Nationalities Students (NEFINS) today opposed the newly drafted interim statute. The organisation said the draft ignored issues of the indigenous nationalities and other marginalised communities.

The students said the statute would not last long and the country would have to face dire consequences if some 70 per cent marginalised and disadvantaged population, including the Janajatis and the Dalits, are left out in the statute.

Addressing a function, Maoist leader Suresh Ale Magar said the draft could not address the aspirations of the people as ‘Brahmanism’ influenced the members of the committee.

Tanka Rai of the CPN-ML said the country will not split even if all the ethnic people are given the right to govern themselves.

According to the convener of the Interim Constitution Drafting Committee (ICDC), Laxman Prasad Aryal, Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai rightly said that the interim constitution was like “an empty bottle.”

“However, now it is up to the seven political parties and the Maoists to fill the bottle,” he said. He further said that the ICDC had waited for around a month for a consensus among the seven parties and the Maoists on some major issues, but in vain.

NEFINS president, Chandra Bikram Rai, read 16 points of the draft that the students have opposed. Among other things, the NEFINS has demanded both the government and the rebels to change a provision that restricts registration of a party on the basis of ethnicity, language and religion.