"The government must conduct an investigation and testing of the voices and make the truth public," reads a statement issued by the NC, Saturday. [break]
In the tape leaked to media on Friday, a voice, allegedly that of Mahara, asks a Chinese official for Rs 500 million for the Maoist party to buy 50 lawmakers to win the prime ministerial election. The NC party said the tape controversy shows the extent of "dangerous conspiracies" being hatched in Nepali politics.
“Anyone who can invest such a huge amount of money in Nepali politics cannot be an ordinary person and that´s what the masses feel,” reads the statement.
The NC said the tape controversy should be linked to the claim made by Chairman of CPN-ML CP Mainali that the Maoists proposed to offer him Rs 50 million for the party´s votes and when he declined, it led to a split in the party.
Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal had also claimed that he would extricate the party from the current mess over the prime ministerial election at any cost.
“The scandal unmasks the real picture of the Maoists who are launching a movement for national self-esteem and castigating others as puppets," the statement added.
The statement, however, said that China as a good neighbor does not interfere in the internal affairs of this country.
Similarly, UML Spokesperson Pradip Gyawali termed the episode mysterious and demanded an investigation.
“The way the report has been brought out and if true shows the extent of moral erosion in Nepali politics and how powerful countries are turning Nepal into a battleground,” he said.
He said the government and parliament should be serious about the issue and carry out an investigation. “Disowning the tape would not be enough for the Maoists. The party should bring out the truth in public,” he said adding that if the tape proves to be genuine, it will indicate a very grim picture of Nepali politics.
Meanwhile, the Maoists have claimed that it is an attempt at character assassination against the party leaders.
“Such rumors might have been spread by some power centers that don´t want political stability in Nepal,” said Maoist standing committee member Dev Gurung while speaking at a talk program in Kathmandu, Saturday.
Gurung said the election of the prime minister is linked to “nationalism” and claimed that “some elements” conspiring to cause political instability in Nepal might be misusing media against the whole election process. “Maoists are against the dirty games of parliamentary politics. So we don´t have any interest in such shenanigans,” he said.
Similarly, Maoist politburo member Shakti Basnet, who is close to the party establishment faction, stated that the voice in the tape was not that of Mahara. “Why should we go to China to fetch money if the deal was real as the money could have been transferred to Nepal with a flick of the finger?”
Chinese embassy reacts
China always follows non-interference policy, and has never intervened into PM election of Nepal in any form. The slanderous report about China funding UCPN (Maoist) is totally baseless.
-- Shan Yuduo, Chinese embassy spokesperson
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