KATHMANDU, Aug 22: Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala has decided to ignore a call by the Nepali Congress Parliamentary Party to appear before it at 1 p.m. Saturday to furnish reasons behind her last minute decision not to accompany the prime minister to India. [break]
"I won´t attend the meeting since I have not been formally asked to attend it," Koirala told myrepublica.com. "If the party asks for an explanation, the Foreign Ministry will provide the explanation." She also said that she has not received any letter from the party.
She took the decision after her father and NC President Girija Prasad Koirala went to meet her at her residence at Mandikhatar on Saturday.
Koirala, who seemed unruffled by the strong condemnation from all quarters including from within her own party, has decided to challenge the party after the meeting with her father.
Meanwhile, NC parliamentary party (PP) speaker, Nabindra Raj Joshi, said the NC lawmakers are holding discussion on the matter. "We will discuss the issue in the PP meeting, which is scheduled at 1 p.m. Saturday," Joshi told myrepublica.com. The meeting was called yesterday itself to seek her clarification.
On Friday, the NC Parliamentary Party asked the party president´s daughter to explain her eleventh hour pull-out. The foreign minister has insisted that she was compelled to skip the trip due to sudden illness. Initially, she and her aides maintained she was afflicted with ´vomiting´ and ´diarrhea´ but on Friday she said she had been down with a sudden bout of ´acidity´ just before the trip.
On the other hand, sources close to Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal said that the NC president Koirala during a meeting with the former on Tuesday had demanded that the PM name his daughter as deputy prime minister. The prime minister refused, saying he would think about it. It was then that Sujata Koirala dropped out of the bilateral tour, PM´s aides maintained.
The NC president, said the minister, would speak on the controversy "soon". He also has reportedly called a meeting of party leaders at his residence on Sunday. The nature of the meeting is not known yet.
akanshya@myrepublica.com
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