Defence minister Bidhya Bhandari has said the Unified CPN (Maoist) cannot stake claim on government leadership unless they turn into a "fully democratic party".

Defence minister Bidhya Bhandari

Speaking to journalists in the capital Saturday afternoon, Bhandari said it is possible that the country might see dictatorial regime if a party with arms takes over the government leadership during the current transition period.

She further said the recent activities of the Unified CPN (Maoist) has proved that the ultimate mission of the former rebel party is to capture state power and that constituent assembly, peace process, constitution writing are just means to achieve them.

She also argued that the Maoists have only declared ceasefire but have not changed their mentality to transform into a democratic party and accept peaceful politics.

In another context, Bhandari said the government was not in mood to wait any longer for endorsing the budget from the parliament. "We had planned to endorse it by today but deferred it at the request of the Unified CPN (Maoist), but now we are going for another option in a day or two," she said.

She expressed doubt that the political parties would be able to write constitution and promulgate it, which needs two-third majority, when minor things like budget cannot be passed in the parliament, which only needs simple majority.

She also rebuffed the Maoist claims that the current government is likely to be replaced by a new one as the result of the meeting between Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala in Singapore. nepalnews.com

Write comment

Name: Email:   Title:   Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.