Prez move a coup of sort: Bhattarai

KATHMANDU: Senior leader of Unified CPN-Maoist Dr Baburam Bhattarai today claimed that the President's move to reinstate the sacked army chief Rookmangud Katawal in the midnight was a kind of coup backed by Nepali Army and national and international forces.

"Action against the army chief was intended to establish civilian supremacy which even Nepali Congress leader late BP Koirala was fighting for long ago," Dr Bhattarai told reporters at a programme organised by Jana Sanchar Abhiyan here. He said late Koirala had even regretted for failing to establish civilian supremacy during his time.

"This isn't the beginning of the movement but a continuation only," he said. "We just wanted that the president's unconstitutional move be corrected so as to ensure such actions are not repeated in the future."

He also claimed that unless the Nepali Army is kept under the grip of elected government republic will never be safe.

Bhattarai charged that the representatives of the incumbent government do not have right to decide using their own conscience and they are directed from somewhere else. He also warned that this government possessed no rights to sign any deal with any other country.

He also accused the the government of decreasing the number of people died due to the diarrhoeal epidemic in mid and far-western districts. "Our leaders there have claimed that more than 500 people have already died in Jajarkot but the government claims very less," he said. "It's an irony as more than 3,500 quintals of rice is rotten in food depots but people were dying of hunger."