Yami says NC’s ‘mischief’ triggered thought

Kathmandu, December 8:

Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Hisila Yami today said Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal threatened to quit the government in mid-January “out of frustration” after main opposition Nepali Congress put a spoke in the wheel of peace process.

While addressing separate functions in Chitwan and Dhangadi on Saturday, the PM said his party might pull out of the government if the coalition partners and the main opposition continued non-cooperation with the government’s efforts on bringing the peace process to a logical end.

“He made this remark out of frustration as the NC has not been cooperating with the government in the peace process and has been demanding equal representation in the Special Committee on the Maoist combatants,” Minister Yami said at a function held here.

She said when NC president Girija Prasad Koirala was the PM the Peace Minister used to be an ex-officio member of all the committees related to the peace process. “I wish Koirala lived 100 years to bring the peace process to substantial conclusion,” she said.

She also refuted media reports that she called for the dissolution of her party’s youth wing — Young Communist League. “My statement was misinterpreted when I made it in Dhankuta a couple of days ago,” Yami said. She said she had said that the youth wings of all the political

parties should be pressed into development activities at a time when the entire world is passing through economic recession.

She accused the CPN-UML of provoking the YCL by forming the Youth Force. “We are trying to transform the YCL into a political youth force. While the UML has created the YF to intensify conflict in society,” she added.

Gokarna Bista, a UML youth leader, accused the YCL of taking law and order in its hand through its paramilitary structure. He said the YCL was still staying in camps despite an agreement to restructure its militia-style organisation.

NC chief whip Laxman Prasad Ghimire said that his party would join the Special Committee provided that the government agreed on an equal representation in the panel integrating the Maoist combatants.

“It’s wrong to point fingers at the NC for the government’s non-performance,” Ghimire said, adding: “Prachanda did not become PM on our backing.”

Whether the government would survive or not would largely depend on the Maoist itself and its coalition partners. He also alleged that the YCL was not only taking law and order in its hand, but also taking control on all government contract deeds in all 75 districts.

“People had expected that rule of law will prevail in the country after the Maoists come to power,” Ghimire said: “But honeymoon period of the government disillusioned the people.”