Kathmandu, December 31

The Nepali Congress today celebrated the 43rd National Unity and Reconciliation Day across the country organising various programmes.

The Nepali Congress has been observing the 16th day of the Nepali month of Poush as National Unity and Reconciliation Day marking the return of the party’s founder BP Koirala and other Nepali Congress leaders from exile in India with a proposal of reconciliation with the then king Birendra to safeguard the country’s sovereignty.

The party’s Maha Samiti meeting that concluded on December 29 in Kathmandu had decided to observe the day this year in all 77 districts organising rallies, mass gatherings, corner meets and seminars.

The party had deployed members of its Central Working Committee in all 77 districts for the event.

Addressing the event in Kathmandu, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba said that the government was trying to interfere in the activities of government agencies. He said the communists were hell bent on bringing the state agencies under their party.

“The government is interfering with the bureaucracy through the civil servant adjustment ordinance. It will gradually move towards the police, army and other institutions,” he said. “This is how authoritarianism begins.”

NC President Deuba warned that his party would resort to agitation if the government did not correct itself.

Speakers at the event stressed that BP Koirala’s policy of national unity and reconciliation was still relevant.