Kathmandu, March 30

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli today said the best option for the Nepali Congress was to join his government and not to look for other options.

Addressing a programme organised at 18th anniversary of Reporters Club here today, the PM urged the NC to stick to its pledges and correct its past mistakes.

The PM said he wanted to lead the government to bring relations with India back on track and take Nepal’s relations with China to a new height and he succeeded in his mission.

The PM said the new constitution was endorsed by 92 per cent of the Constituent Assembly members and yet some forces were saying that the constitution-making process was unnecessarily fast tracked.

He said some forces were trying to create rift between the people of different regions and ethnic communities but they would not succeed in their attempt.

Speaker Onsari Gharti Magar said parties needed to seek settlement of constitutional issues through dialogue.

UML Vice Chair Bhim Rawal, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence said the new constitution was promulgated after eight years and therefore those who said the framing of the statute was unnecessarily fast tracked were wrong.

“India passed its constitution with 65 per cent majority. The US passed its constitution with 55 per cent majority and we passed our constitution with almost 90 per cent majority,” he said and added that overwhelming number of Madhesi and Janajati lawmakers ratified the constitution. Senior UML leader Jhalanath Khanal said the new constitution was a result of a long effort and the promulgation of the constitution had paved the way for the resolution of socio-economic, ethnic, regional and caste issues, through dialogue.

Former speaker Subas Chandra Nembang said the new constitution was Madhesi-, Janajati- and people-friendly constitution and participation of Madhesi forces in the prime ministerial election indicated that no one had boycotted the constitution. He, however, said efforts should be made to resolve genuine demands of agitating Madhesi forces.

Earlier, Chairperson of Federal Socialist Forum-Nepal Upendra Yadav said the new constitution was unnecessarily fast-tracked so as to enable somebody to become the prime minister and hence Madhesi people could not accept the constitution.

He said the constitution was discriminatory and regressive. “Some people say our constitution pledges to become a socialist country. How can a country, which literally begs for assistance, become a socialist country?” he wondered.

“How can peace be restored in the country when the prime minister terms the citizens of his own country as foreigners and separatists?” Yadav wondered.

Chair of Nepal Sadbhawana Party Anil Kumar Jha said the major parties claimed that the new constitution was endorsed by over 90 per cent of CA members, implying that the concerns of the remaining 10 per cent should not be addressed. “If there was no genuine grievance against the constitution, then people would not have taken to the streets during Madhes agitation,” he argued.

He said the Madhesi forces had given in writing that 110 articles of the constitution needed changes and now the ruling parties are saying that they did not know what changes the agitating forces wanted in the constitution.

President of Nepali Congress Sher Bahadur Deuba said there was no issue that could not be addressed through dialogue.