Bogati raps NC for breaking consensus

Kathmandu, November 8:

CPN-Maoist leader Posta Bahadur Bogati today came down heavily on Nepali Congress, accusing it of breaking the politics of consensus.

“The NC’s reluctance to forge electoral alliance and pressure to incorporate simple majority provision into the constitution to form a government were the evidences of the NC departing from the politics of consensus,” Bogati said at an interaction here today.

He also objected to the NC president Girija Prasad Koirala’s ‘inflammatory speeches.’

“By integration of Maoist combatants into security bodies, we mean the merger of all eligible combatants into the national army. Even other parties know what we mean. Koirala also knows it. But the NC is now giving a different interpretation on integration,” he added.

On the criteria of army job, Maoists are not at odds not only with the arch rival NC but also with its coalition partner UML.

“We need to have new standards for army job because the standards that were formulated during Prithvi Narayan’s time cannot guide the process anymore,” Bogati said.

Last week Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister Bam Dev Gautam said the existing standards should not be changed.

UML leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari said NC’s demand of equal representation of major parties in the newly formed Special Committee was genuine and therefore the Maoists should address the former’s concern. He also backed NC’s stance on terms of reference of the special committee and said that the parties should stick to the previous ToR.

Stating that a confrontation between the NC and the

Maoists could lead to a dangerous situation, Adhikari urged both the parties to find solutions to the problem with maximum flexibility.

MJF leader Sharad Singh Bhandari reiterated that the Maoists army were politically indoctrinated army and therefore they could not be integrated into the national army. He said his party could quit the government if the latter did not implement the agreement signed between the previous government and the then United Democratic Madhesi Front.

NC CA member Gagan Thapa said the main problem between his party and the Maoists was

the crisis of confidence and that the Maoists should be flexible to settle differences between the two parties.