NC veep compares PM Dahal's views with that of Late King Mahendra
Nepali Congress vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel on Monday lashed out at CPN (Maoist) and United Marxist Leninist (UML), the two main ruling partners, for publicly speaking against the existing parliamentary system, cautioning that it would only contribute to making the Prime Minister "authoritarian".
Comparing the remark made by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal against the parliamentary system to the stance adopted by late king Mahendra against it which ultimately led to him dismissing the first elected government of Nepal in 1960, Poudel said both these remarks were "anti-democratic".
PM Dahal had a few weeks ago said that his party neither has faith in "formal parliamentary democracy" nor can it establish a communist state immediately.
Although UML general secretary Jhala Nath Khanal had not dismissed the parliamentary system as strongly as Dahal did, he had said that the country has achieved nothing through it in the past one and half decade, most of which saw parliamentary practice.
Poudel, who was speaking at a programme in Kaski district, claimed that UML was also afflicted with the tendency to oppose democracy much like the Maoists.
On Sunday, he accused the Maoists of still continuing with their parallel governments, a clear sign, he said, the country has not been freed from the state of civil war.
Speaking at a press meet organised by the Press Union Kaski, Poudel said that the Maoists' lust for weapons and combatants shows that they are still "war-minded".
He demanded that the Maoist take immediate initiative for the implementation of past pacts and understanding to end the conflict situation and return the properties they had seized to date. Failing this, he said, the NC will start a massive movement against the Maoists.
Poudel has of late upped the ante against the Maoists and the coalition government it leads, in very much the same manner as his party president Girija Prasad Koirala.
Former prime minister Koirala had on Friday warned Maoists against undermining democracy.
"Prachanda (PM Dahal) and some Maoist leaders have started saying that parliamentary democracy has failed. I want them to look at the example of United Kingdom - the mother of parliamentary democracy," Koirala said addressing a function organized in the capital by NC student wing Nepal Students Union (NSU).
"They have started attacking democracy. I want to say that I accept this challenge. We will now fight back," he added. nepalnews.com ag Sep 29 08
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