RPP doesn't favour monarchy: Rana
Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) chairman Pashupati Sumshere Rana has asked the Maoists not to take his party as a "party of pro-monarchs" and said his party doesn't follow a "royalist line".
"RPP's position is similar to that (the "position") of the interim constitution," he told media persons in Pokhara Saturday, "RPP would accept whatever decision the constituent assembly would take on the fate of the monarchy and would stick by it."
Saying that the decision taken by the first meeting of the constituent assembly would be acceptable to his party, Rana said that the Maoist proposal of declaring the country a republic before the election would only put the election in jeopardy.
Inaugurating the district convention of the party in Syangja, Rana said that his party had to endure the wrath of the King's regime more than any other party when it was in force.
"We never supported the king's February 1 coup, we had been calling it a step against democracy right from the start, " he said, "because we were the most vocal in protesting it we had to pay a huge price for it… the party suffered a vertical split."
Meanwhile, reports add that the RPP convention was delayed after pro-Maoist student activists tried to foil it by holding demonstrations in front of the convention venue. nepalnews.com ag Aug 19 07
