GORKHA: Chairman of the Unified CPN-Maoist Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has said that the constitution drafting and the peace processes will come to a logical end only if a new government was formed under their leadership. He also claimed that the Maoists should lead the constitution drafting process as they had initiated the demand for a new constitution through the Constituent Assembly (CA).

Speaking at a mass meet in Arughat Bazaar of Gorkha, Prachanda said that the High-Level Political Mechanism (HLPM) was also moving ahead in forming a new government.

Prachanda said, “The new constitution cannot be drafted unless the government is formed under the leadership of the largest political party in the CA.”

Prachanda further said that they have no alternative but to protest if they are not allowed to lead the government. “If the government is not formed under our leadership, we will resume our agitation,” he warned.

Stating that those who fixed bounties on Maoist leaders’ heads during the war are now in the government, he said that the current government was incapable of drafting the new constitution in people’s favour.

Arguing that leaders who were defeated in the CA election had defamed the constituent assembly by participating in the government, he said the current government was operating through a “remote control” and “voices from the sky” (akashbani).

Meanwhile, Prachanda reiterated that former king Birendra was killed in order to impede unification among nationalists. Madan Bhandari, too, was killed for the same reason.

Earlier, after arriving in Arughat in a helicopter he interacted with local residents. He was a teacher at the Bhimodaya Higher Secondary School 33 years ago.

Meanwhile, the school felicitated Prachanda as a former teacher of the school. Head teacher Krishnakaji Shrestha and school management committee chairman Ganesh Kumar Shrestha felicitated him. Accepting the felicitation, Prachanda said, “The environment of the school at that time has made me ‘Prachanda’.”