Chief whips of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML and Minister for Law and Justice Narahari Acharya at a meeting in Singha Durbar insisted that the stalled CA proceedings should be resumed simultaneously while holding interparty negotiations for forging consensus.KATHMANDU, March 4: Leaders of the ruling and opposition parties on Tuesday stood divided over resumption of Constituent Assembly (CA) meetings that have remained stalled for three weeks.
Chief whips of the ruling Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML and Minister for Law and Justice Narahari Acharya at a meeting in Singha Durbar insisted that the stalled CA proceedings should be resumed simultaneously while holding interparty negotiations for forging consensus.
But chief whips of the UCPN (Maoist) and Madhes-based parties strongly opposed the proposal.
Leaders from the ruling and opposition parties stood divided on the issue during a meeting convened by CA Chairman Subas Nembang at his chamber in Singha Durbar.
UML Chief Whip Agni Kharel said the CA meeting deferred on February 12 until further notice shouldn’t be stalled further. “The parties were for taking only 10 days to forge consensus but 19 days have already passed since the last CA plenary,” Kharel told reporters. “Now, both the CA meetings and interparty negotiations should be taken ahead simultaneously.”
According to the participants of the meeting, Minister Acharya and NC Chief Whip Chinkaji Shrestha also pushed for resuming the CA sittings while making consensus efforts.
However, UCPN (Maoist) Chief Whip Girirajmani Pokharel strongly opposed the idea. He said the CA meeting should be convened only after major contentious issues are resolved through interparty negotiations.
“If the ruling parties resume CA meetings in haste, it will only force us to begin second and third phase of protests,” Pokharel told Republica. “Our efforts should be aimed at result-oriented talks and not at beginning the majority course yet again.”
He also urged Nembang to take initiatives to convene a meeting of top leaders of major political forces.
Pokharel explained that he has clearly informed the CA chairman that the opposition parties can’t join the CA if it is to resume the majority course.
He also proposed that the parties should be ready to reactivate the CA’s Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC), which is headed by UCPN (Maoist) leader Baburam Bhattarai, and to entrust it with preparing the report of consensus on contentious issues.
Chief Whip of Madhesi People’s Rights Forum-Democratic (MPRF-D) Ramjanam Chaudhary hailed Nembang’s initiative for consensus. “Today’s meeting was very fruitful and NC, UML leaders and minister have come up with very positive proposals,” said Chaudhary. “We are hopeful that a meeting of top leaders will be held within a couple of days.”
Nembang said he took the initiative as the CA plenary can’t be postponed for a long time.
“I have told the chief whips and minister to play a positive role in settling disputes through political understanding and prove the relevance of deferring the CA meetings,” said Nembang. “I had deferred the CA meetings on the request of political parties and civil society members.”
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