Kathmandu, June 28 

Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba today threatened to topple the government if it continued to display authoritarian tendencies and undermine democracy.

Speaking at a programme in Kathmandu, Deuba said introduction of controversial bills that tried to curtail civil liberties, and interventions in National Human Rights Commission, Public Service Commission and the independent judiciary proved that the government was heading towards authoritarianism. “We’ve toppled the Rana and Panchayat regimes. If need be, we will topple this government too,” he said.

Deuba said the government was trying to curtail the freedom of expression and freedom of press through Media Council Bill and Information Technology Bill. He said the NC firmly believed in and fought for democracy and civil liberty. Deuba warned that the party was ready to fight once again against authoritarianism.

Deuba accused the government of trying to intervene in the functioning of National Human Rights Commission through the introduction of the NHRC Bill that seeks to render the rights body a department of the government. He said an independent and autonomous NHRC was a prerequisite of democracy. “Nowhere in the world there’s political intervention in the jurisdiction of human rights commission,” he said. “Wherever there’s no autonomous and independent human rights commission, there’s no democracy.”

He said the NC would never allow the passage of the bills from the Parliament in their current forms. Deuba also accused the Nepal Communist Party (NCP) of trying to make the judiciary, bureaucracy, NHRC and the army committed to the ruling party. “In a nutshell, democracy is again at risk,” he said. “We should be ready to fight for it.”

Deuba expressed commitment that the party would strongly oppose the government’s authoritarian tendencies from both the Parliament and outside.

On the occasion, senior NC leader Ram Chandra Paudel said the government must effectively investigate corruption in the procurement of two wide-body jets for the Nepal Airlines Corporation, and take strong action against those involved. Paudel also said the country was headed towards troubles because of the government’s failure to control and discourage corruption.