NSU CWC gets two-month extension

Kathmandu, November 18

The Nepali Congress today extended the tenure of the Central Working Committee of its student wing — Nepal Students Union — by two months on the basis of majority despite strong objections from rival factions led by senior leader Ramchandra Paudel and Krishna Prasad Sitaula.

With the union’s statute provisioning only a three-month CWC tenure extension, which expired today, a day-long meeting of the NC CWC that ran till late evening amended the statute with a provision whereby the student union’s committee can be extended by five months if the general convention cannot be held by the end of the body’s tenure of two years.

While the Sitaula camp had sought a six-month (total nine months) extension to the NSU CWC tenure, the Paudel camp had sought dissolution of the committee replacing it with a general convention organising committee.

Factional politics in the mother party has resulted in a delay in the holding of the general convention of the NSU. Student leaders have also been divided into three camps — those close to the establishment faction of the mother party led by NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba, senior leader Paudel and Sitaula.

In today’s CWC, Sitaula and Gagan Thapa argued that two months were not enough for the NSU to hold its general convention and that it needed at least six months for preparations.

On the other hand, Paudel, Arjun Narsingh KC and Nabindra Raj Joshi, among other leaders representing the Paudel camp, said a neutral organising committee should be formed to ensure timely and fair general convention.

However, the establishment camp got the proposal to extend the NSU CWC tenure by just two months endorsed on the basis of majority, said Joshi.

Joshi said it was not a question of by how many months the NSU CWC tenure was extended, but whether the general convention could be held.

He said it was impossible to hold the general convention in the next two months, with winter vacation starting in education institutions after a month.

“Statute is not something that you amend as per your convenience. You need to follow due process,” Joshi told THT. “Four leaders wrote notes of dissent in the last CWC, but the president did not even bother to ask what was wrong. The party cannot run this way.”