Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, July 22:

Senior leaders of agitating parties say they will never become PM or ministers under Article 127.

Terming the monarchy a “destabilising factor” in the country, senior leaders of the agitating parties said at a programme today that the movement launched by the seven-party alliance will decide its fate. They also vowed that they would not become “prime minsiter or minsiters”

to be appointed by the King under Article 127 of the constitution. “Monarchy is the destabilising factor,” said the CPN-UML general secretary, Madhav Kumar Nepal, at a meeting organised by the party’s Valley Coordination Committee to mark the 27th death anniversary of Pushpa Lal Shrestha, the founding leader of the Nepal Communist Party. “History is witness to the fact that the monarchy has always stood against democracy,” Nepal said. Stating that he, too, was offered the premiership twice, Nepal said he rejected the offer, saying he didn’t want to be a scapegoat. Saying the “palace has threatened to ban the parties if they took any stance against the monarchy,” Nepal said, “Such warnings won’t scare us.”

Addressing the function, senior leader of Nepali Congress Ram Chandra Poudel, said the parties must not expect any reconciliation with the King, who, he said, will not abide by the Constitution. Krishna Pahadi, a human rights activist, said the people think the February 1 takeover was a “rape of the 1990 Constitution” but the royalists term it was a “wedding night.” Violation of the Constitution is also a kind of terrorism, he said. CPN-UML leader Jhanath Khanal, United Left Front chairman CP Mainali and NC leader Chakra Prasad Bastola said 1990’s movement became successful because of late Pushpa Lal’s ideology, which stressed the need for a joint movement of the leftists and democratic forces to defeat a despotic monarchy. Speaking at another programme on the ‘Seven-party Movement and Comrade Pushpalal’ today, chairman of the United Left Front CP Mainali said a trustworthy and popular leadership is a must to make the joint movement against autocracy successful. He asked the parties not to discontinue their movement as professional organisations, civil society, among others, had backed the movement. Stating that the parties should apologise for their mistakes and vow not to make such mistakes again, Mainali said figures leading the movement were unpopular and unreliable. NC (D) leader Homnath Dahal said the Maoists should join the peaceful movement if they want to restore the rights of the people. “They have to make the environment conducive to peace talks,” he said, adding: “Only then can we team up against the autocratic system.”