KATHMANDU, Oct 27: The main opposition party, CPN (Maoist Center), took to the streets of Kathmandu after a long gap with a vigilance rally against the government on Saturday. Thousands of leaders and cadres of the third largest party in the federal parliament assembled from various districts of Bagmati Province at Kathmandu Mall at 11 am on Saturday for the protest. The ‘vigilance rally’ marched through Ratnapark and Bagbazar before converging into a corner meeting at Bhrikutimandap.
The Maoist Center organized the vigilance rally demanding the government to promptly address the problems of the recent disaster victims. The party demanded the search for the missing, relief distribution, treatment for the injured, and the construction of temporary shelters, citing the government’s insensitivity, irresponsibility, and lack of planning in disaster management. The party also accused the Oli government of facilitating corrupt activities that weakened the erstwhile Maoist Center-led government’s campaign of good governance. The protest was the first occasion that the party has hit the streets with a protest after it was ousted from the former government four months ago.
The rally led by the party’s chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was attended by most of the top leaders of the party including Senior Vice-Chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha, vice chairpersons Agni Prasad Sapkota and Pampha Bhusal, General Secretary Dev Gurung, deputy general secretaries Barshaman Pun and Janardan Sharma, along with other officials and leaders of the party.
Alert, more alert
Addressing the corner meeting in Bhrikutimandap, former Prime Minister Dahal claimed that the party will contest the next general election on its own, without seeking electoral alliance with any other parties. “We are adamant of contesting the next election without an electoral alliance with the ruling parties CPN-UML or Nepali Congress,” he said, “We will not seek ministerial portfolio or the position of prime minister in a coalition government.”
He also stated that this vigilance rally was not organized as an attempt to topple the government. “We are concerned that the ruling parties have exhibited tendencies of capitalists, brokers, middlemen and corrupt people of this country,” he said, “We are in serious soul-searching for collaborating with them in previous coalitions.”
Speaking at the corner meeting, senior vice-chairman of the party Narayan Kaji Shrestha demanded equal treatment for all alleged cooperative frauds, expressing support for the investigations into corruption and fraud by the coalition government.
Currently, Rabi Lamichhane, the chairman of another opposition party, Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), is in police custody for investigation into a co-operative fraud case. However, some leaders from the ruling coalition of the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML who have also been accused of involvement in cooperative frauds have not been arrested. Referring to this situation, Shrestha demanded equal treatment for all accused in cooperative fraud cases.
“We want anti-corruption actions, anti-fraud actions to proceed as per the law,” Shrestha told the corner meeting, “What we are saying is that such investigations should be clean and fair and should not discriminate on the basis of political inclination.”
Shrestha also objected to Prime Minister KP Oli accepting the donation of land from businessman Min Bahadur Gurung for the construction of the ruling UML's party office. Gurung was convicted of being involved in the Lalita Niwas land grab case. “The prime minister should not accept gifts from a person who has been found guilty by the Special Court.”
