Rautahat, March 17:

Chairman of Constitutional Committee of the Constituent Assembly and former UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal today accused the Maoists of heading towards dictatorship.

Speaking at a press meet in Gaur, he said, “As the Maoists are heading towards dictatorship, the country is facing a constitutional crisis.”

“Nepali people provided the Maoists a chance to lead the government. However, the country is facing crisis as the Maoists are are misusing the power and running the government with a dictatorial mind set,” he said.

Accusing the Maoists of discouraging the Nepali Army, he said the Maoists “will have to face grave consequences as they are hatching conspiracies to affect all systems in the nation”.

Claiming that people were dissatisfied with the Maoists, he said the government was unable to meet the task of drafting the constitution within 15 months. He said the government would have succeeded had it focussed itself on constitution-writing.

Saying that he was committed to draft the statute as per the aspiration of the people, he said the preliminary draft of the statute would be finalised by April 23.

He said the constitution will be drafted at any cost despite Maoist hindrances. He also added that good points of the erstwhile constitution would also be incorporated into the new constitution.

He also accused the Maoists of running a propaganda machine against the visits by several leaders to India for health check-ups. He said the Maoist leaders were scared when the leaders of other political parties went to India at a time when the Maoists themselves were trying to impose dictatorship.