KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 11
CPN-Maoist Centre Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal today called CPN- UML Chair KP Sharma Oli and requested him to postpone the parliamentary ratification of the Millennium Challenge Corporation Nepal Compact until after general elections. Dahal asked Oli to take a decision on the MCC deal by rising above party politics. He also asked Oli to clarify his and his party's stance on the MCC deal and build a national consensus on the issue.
Dahal made a phone call after Donald Lu, US assistant secretary of state for Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, called Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Dahal, and Oli reminding them of the February 28 deadline for securing the parliamentary ratification of the MCC compact.
UML leader Rajan Bhattarai said Oli told Dahal that he and Deuba had assured the American side that they would ratify the MCC deal, now keep the word, "why try to deflect the blame".
"Our party chair reiterated our stance on the MCC deal that the ruling coalition has comfortable majority to pass it. We'll take a call only when the issue comes up in the Parliament and the ruling coalition makes its stance clear," Bhattarai added.
Oli also said that the UML would not let the House function unless 'non-lawmakers were allowed to remain in the House'.
He was referring to 14 former lawmakers from the UML, including Madhav Kumar Nepal, who were expelled by the party but Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota refused to confirm their expulsion.
Dahal's Personal Aide Ramesh Malla wrote in his Facebook post yesterday evening that the MCC compact was not just a general financial aid project, but had become a national issue with divided opinion in the country.
According to Malla, Oli was being irresponsible when he said the ruling alliance had the majority and they could pass the MCC.
A version of this article appears in the print on February 12, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
