A meeting of the opposition parties held at the call of NC at its headquarters in Sanepa on Monday afternoon decided to launch protests concluding that the ruling alliance is bent on prolonging its stay in power. [break]
"We are forced to take the decision as the ruling parties started preparing protest programs instead of forging consensus," NC Vice President Ram Chandra Paudel told after the meeting.
Paudel said their next meeting scheduled for Thursday at UML headquarters in Balkhu will unveil a series of protests against the government. "We had expected to form a national consensus government comprising both Prachanda [Pushpa Kamal Dahal] and Baburam. But now that has become impossible as they have decided to hold protest rallies in different parts of the country by forging an alliance [Federal Democratic Republican Alliance] of ruling parties," he further said.
The decision of the opposition parties comes two days after the ruling Federal Democratic Republican Alliance announced hold rallies in five different towns "to put across its views." The meeting of the ruling alliance also decided that the Bhattarai government would not step down until there as a package deal on all contentious issues.
Top leaders of various parties including UML, CPN-Maoist, Madhesi People´s Rights Forum-Nepal, National Madhes Socialist Party, Rastriya Prajatantra Party, CPN-ML, Rastriya Janamorcha, Chure Bhawar Ekta Party Nepal, Samajbadi Janata Party, Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Aanandi Devi) and CPN (Masal) participated in the meeting. Chairman of CPN (Samyukta) Chandra Dev Joshi, who recently resigned from the post of Minister for Land Reforms and Management, was also at the meeting.
Speaking in the meeting, CPN-Maoist Vice Chairman C P Gajurel had argued that UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was a ´social fascist´ and that parties need to understand his intention before it is too late. "Despite his professed commitment to democracy and parliamentary system, everyone should realize that Dahal is a social fascist. This we have learnt from our long association with him," a leader present in the meeting quoted Gajurel as telling in the meeting.
Gajurel also argued that there was no alternative except stepping up protest against the current government. "If we fail to see through Dahal´s ploys, he will continue to prolong the current situation. The need of the hour is to launch a stringent protest against the Bhattarai-led government," the leader quoted Gajurel as further saying.
NC and UML leaders had reaffirmed their commitment to federalism as some leaders including Gajurel and Dev Gurung raised the issue of the participation of Rastriya Janamorcha Chairman Chitra Bahadur KC, who is championing anti-federalist movement. "Our commitment to federalism is unfazed. KC´s participation in our alliance would not change our commitment," both NC and UML leaders had reiterated in the meeting.
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