Gyanendra faces threat from kin, says Maoist leader

Kathmandu, June 7:

A Maoist member of the Constituent Assembly said today that federal states will be carved out on the basis of nationality, not ethnicity.

“The basis for federalism will be nationality — the people, who share the same language, culture, geography and mentality,” Khimlal Devkota said at an interaction.

Asked to comment on the cabinet decision to let the deposed king live in the

Nagarjun Palace temporarily, Devkota said, “My party may have agreed to let the deposed king live in the palace temporarily for the sake of consensus.” “Personally, I am against this decision,” he said.

“At the same time, I believe that the deposed king faces threat even from members of his family. It will be better for the country to keep the deposed king in a safe place for the time being,” he said.

UML Constituent Assembly member Ramchandra Jha said he was against the demand to recognise Madhes as a state and recognise Hindi as the common language of the territory. He said the UML and the Maoists’ ideas of social evolution and economic transformation are quite similar. Our stance on human rights and press freedom match more or less with the stance of the NC, Jha said.

Advocate Bhimarjun Acharya criticised the parties and others for advocating the representation of all ethnic groups in the CA.

“This idea might turn the Constituent Assembly into an ethnic assembly,” he said.

Acharya said the constitution cannot placate all sectors and communities. “There are expectations of all kind — communal, group, common, ethnic, regional and so on. We cannot meet them all,” he said.