Kathmandu, August 8:

Youth leaders belonging to the major political parties today urged their respective leadership to come out with a new ideology and strategy to meet the new challenges facing the country.

They asked their leadership to come out with a clear stance on the institution of monarchy which, they argued, was the root cause of political instability. Former president of the ANNFSU Shankar Pokharel, at an interaction, said the monarchy and political parties both were required to justify their relevance in the changed political scenario. “The monarchy should justify its traditional utility and the parties should also come up with a new vision, ideology and strategy for their political relevance.” The utility of the present institution of monarchy cannot be justified by harping on the role played by King Prithvi Narayan Shah during the period of national unification. Major political actors such as CPN-UML and NC, he said, need to grasp the demand of justice, inclusive and total democracy being vigorously raised by the young generation.

Pointing out that peace could not be restored without returning to democracy, Pokharel said parties should also analyse the root causes of the repetition of authoritarian regime. Former general secretary of the NSU, Chandra Bhandari, said the younger generation, sympathetic to the NC, wants parties to remove the long-held concept of constitutional monarchy from their policy documents. RPP leader Bhuwan Pathak said the youth who played leading roles in the 1990 movement were sidelined after the restoration of democracy. Anil Kumar Jha, former president of the Nepal Bidhyarthi Manch, said the old guard in all political parties had failed to lead the nation.