Maoists ready to rethink on monarchy
A top Maoist leader has said his party is ready to reconsider its opposition to the monarchy if the king holds free elections for a constituent assembly.
In an exclusive interview with BBC Nepali Service on Sunday, Maoist chairman, Prachanda, said the verdict of free and fair elections would be acceptable even if it meant the retention of the monarchy. He, however, said elections to the constituent assembly should be supervised by foreign monitors, preferably the UN.
Some 12,000 people have died in nearly ten-year-old insurgency.
The rebels and the seven party opposition alliance entered into a 12-point memorandum of understanding reportedly in Delhi, which was publicized last week.
When asked about it, Prachanda said he felt that Indian authorities may have been aware about their meeting but said they were, in no way, involved in facilitating the meeting.
In his first-ever radio interview, Prachanda said the rebels would reconsider their opposition to the monarchy if King Gyanendra agreed to the election of a constituent assembly.
"If [the] monarchy comes with that kind of position [acceptance of constituent assembly] we can think about the new situation. But right now we feel that this is not the case in our country," he said.
In theory, Maoist leaders continue to insist that their aim is to turn Nepal into a republic.
But the word "republic" does not feature even once in the 12-point MoU his party signed with Nepal's major opposition political parties.
“Prachanda's statement may give the government an opportunity to rethink their own position as well,” wrote Rabindra Mishra, desk editor with the BBC Nepali Service who interviewed Prachanda from an unknown location over phone. “The monarchy in Nepal has lost much of its popularity after the king seized direct power this year. But many still believe that it is saving Nepal from a complete collapse,” he added.
Meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with Sunday’s Naya Yugbani weekly, senior Maoist leader, Dr. Baburam Bhattarai, said to term the understanding between the parties and Maoist as ‘Delhi Understanding’ would not only be wrong and illusory, but also harmful. He said the understanding was an outcome of months long efforts at various level and that no international force was responsible for it.
Commenting on one of the major demands of the seven party alliance for restoration of the dissolved parliament, Bhattarai said the demand had now been dated. “It will create more problems rather than resolving it,” he said.
When asked if he saw any possibility of rapprochement between the major parliamentary parties and the king, Bhattarai said he believed that the parliamentary parties “would not bow down” before the king as they had been deceived time and again in the past.
In response to another query, Dr. Bhattarai said his party had not yet decided whether to extend its three-month-long ceasefire. “A decision in this regard will be taken soon,” he added.
The unilateral ceasefire comes to an end on December 2. nepalnews.com by Nov 28 05
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