• MCC RATIFICATION

KATHMANDU, MARCH 1

CPN-UML Chair KP Sharma Oli said the process of ratifying the Millennium Challenge Corporation was wrong, but as the House of Representatives had already ratified the deal, there was no question of not implementing it.

Organising a press conference here today, Oli said his party would now see whether the MCC deal would be implemented in the right manner.

"We want the deal to be implemented in consonance with national interest," he added.

In response to a journalist's query, Oli said he had received a call from US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, but there was no pressure, inducement or threat from the American minister with regard to ratification of the MCC deal.

Stating that interpretative declaration on the MCC deal was nothing but an attempt to confuse people, Oli said the CPN (Unified Socialist) and CPN-Maoist Centre had violated the law by inciting their cadres to protest against the deal. He accused CPN-MC Chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal of applying double standard. On the one hand, he assured the MCC that the Parliament would ratify the deal, while on the other, he incited party cadres to protest against the agreement.

Coalition partners were saying they would not accept the MCC deal without amendment, but finally they passed it without any change, Oli said.

He said Madhav Kumar Nepal had no political future, and added that his party wanted to maintain cordial relations with all development partners and countries.

Oli said it was no secret that his party wanted to break the present coalition. "This is nothing new. We first tried to prevent the formation of this government as it was formed on the strength of a mandamus order," Oli added.

Without naming the CPN- MC, Oli said there was one force in the ruling coalition that had tried to sabotage democracy in the past but when it did not succeed, it joined the democratic process. "That force has still not embraced the spirit of democracy."

In response to a query about grievances against Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota, Oli said, "I am neither saying that we won't bring an impeachment motion against the speaker nor are we saying that we will bring impeachment motion against him." He said his party wanted Speaker Sapkota to resign.

UML has accused Sapkota of bias in not confirming the expulsion of 14 UML lawmakers.

A version of this article appears in the print on March 2, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.