Himalayan News Service

Pokhara, May 10:

Nepali Congress president and former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala said the agitation could not take a firm direction as political parties are trying to find a democratic way out amidst two forces holding guns.

Speaking at a press conference organised by the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) Kaski today, he said, “The stir has begun from Sunday. We are preparing to form a working committee to give it a firm direction.”

Koirala said the agitation schedule will be made public within two or three days after the formation of a working committee consisting of representatives of all the seven political parties which have agreed to launch the agitation for achieving full democracy.

Claiming that the activists of all the seven parties will fight without fear, he said that everything will be decided through the agitation.

He reiterated that the final leg of the agitation will be centred in the capital.

“The movement will be decisive just like the People’s Movement of 1990.”

He said that his party is ready to go for constituent assembly and stressed that the King should restore full democracy and revive the parliament for handing over the power to people’s representatives.

Stating that Emergency though lifted in paper is still there in practice, Koirala said the government, which is blocking the movement of political activists, cannot stay for long. He claimed that free and fair elections are not possible at a time when the constitutional arrangement and people’s rights have been completely ignored due to the King’s direct rule.

He said that only an all-party government can bring the Maoists to the table. He informed that an agreement has been reached among the parties to include social, financial and state structures to bring the Maoists to the table.

“The parties have agreed to include Dalits, ethnic community and women in the state structure,” he said.

Koirala said the King cannot be successful unless he wins the people’s confidence. The King should return to his symbolic stature, governance is the job of people’s representatives.