Kathmandu, June 24:

The president of Nepal Tarun Dal (NTD) today criticised the comments made by a Nepali Congress leader Khum Bahadur Khadka, who had reportedly said that the Nepal Students Union (NSU) and NTD would be scrapped to form the Peace Army.

“We believe that resorting to militarisation, to retaliate any attack, would only help establish the idea of the Maoists,” NTD president Binod Kayastha told this daily.

He said the party should formally declare the decision of the party rather than letting the party leaders say whatever they think. He also termed Khadka’s comments as personal and not an official one.

Kayastha said the NTD has been launching various programmes to protest the excesses of the Young Communist League (YCL). “Many of our cadres have been injured in clashes with YCL members in different parts of the country,” he said. Khadka was reportedly accusing NSU and NTD of shying away from the YCL atrocities. NSU Pradip Poudel said the union cannot act like a militant force as it has to fight for the rights of the students within the educational organisations.

Meanwhile, Poudel welcomed the government’s decision to conduct constituent assembly polls on November 22.

He said the NSU would begin a campaign for the CA polls from June 29 by organising a mass meeting.