Baidya-led parties for talks, protests in tandem

KATHMANDU, Aug 20: While concluding that both the government and the High Level Political Committee (HLPC) were not honest toward its demands through negotiations, the agitating alliance of over three dozen parties led by the CPN-Maoist has decided to intensify protests against the upcoming Constituent Assembly (CA) elections.



During a review meeting held at the CPN-Maoist head office in Buddha Nagar, Kathmandu on Tuesday, the meeting also said the talks with the government have not been productive and decided to sit for one or two more rounds at most.



"We have come to the conclusion that the government and the four parties are not serious about resolving the problems through talks. So, we hae decided to stage more stringent protests," K B Gurung, standing committee member of CPN (Unified), told Republica. [break]



Earlier, the alliance had decided to sit for talks only with President Ram Baran Yadav arguing that the government and HLPC are unconstitutional but later it changed its stance and decided to negotiate with the government.



So far the alliance has held two rounds of talks with the HLPC and three rounds with the government. The alliance has flouted 18-point demands. The next talks with the HLPC is scheduled for Thursday.



The last talks between the government and the alliance held on Monday failed to make any headway as the government side insisted on holding polls on the scheduled date of November 19 while the alliance strongly objected to the government´s stance. The agitating alliance accused that the talks couldn´t move in positively as the government remained rigid over the election date.



"The talks are not heading positive way so we have decided to sit for one or two more rounds at most," Mani Thapa, general secretary of Communist Party of Nepal, told Republica. According to him, the alliance will hold talks and stage protests simultaneously for now.



The alliance has alleged that the government and HLPC are showing inflexibility during the talks.



"We are ready to participate in the scheduled November 19 elections but the elections should be held only after forging national consensus through a roundtable of all political parties," added Thapa arguing that the new CA should be acceptable to all. "That is our bottom line."



According to Gurung, the alliance will accept November 19 for election date if it is the decision of the roundtable.

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