Kathmandu, August 12:

CPN-UML leader Pradip Gyawali today said any attempt to form a government based on numerical strength would not help bring the peace process to a logical end and write a new constitution.

Speaking during Special Hour in the parliament today, Gyawali said, “Maoists, as the largest party, need to play a greater role but should not try to push any party into the corner. Nor should the NC choose to be a spectator when the house is set on fire,” he said and urged the Maoists to give up arrogance.

Gyawali said the Maoists should not alienate any partner of the peace process. “In the name of communist or non-communist alliance, none should try to forget the stick that helped us cross the river as we are still in the middle of the river,” Gyawali said.

NC CA member Pradip Giri urged both the NC and the Maoists to show flexibility.

“I emphatically say that a new constitution can not be framed if the parties failed to form a consensus government,” he said and added that the new constitution could survive only if that became a common document. “Only those constitutions that are based on the ideals of life, compassion and emotions have lived for long. Those constitutions that were based on political ideology, be that of post-revolution of French or Russian constitution, have ceased to exist,” Giri said.

Saying that the Maoists would not be handicapped just because it did not get the defence portfolio, Suresh Ale Magar of CPN-Maoist said the Maoists still wanted to retain that portfolio as it was an ethical issue. He also accused the NC of not playing its part in implementing the peace process. Laxman Lal Karna of SP said the parties had failed to form a consensus government due to their unnecessary greed for power. Bodh Narayan Sardar of NC said the writing of a new constitution might suffer if the CA did not take momentum.

Chitra Bahadur KC of RJM said the unity between the partners of the popular movement of 2006 should continue until the new constitution was formed.

Almost all the CA members that spoke in the house today emphasised the formation of a consensus government.