NC Vice-president Ram Chandra Paudel criticized the government´s act as an attempt to discredit the importance of Democracy Day. "Democracy Day is a watershed in Nepal´s political history. The country entered the democratic era on this day, but the government did not celebrate the day. NC has strong reservations over this," said Paudel. [break]
Paudel alleged that the government is attempting to push the country back to the pre-democracy Rana days. "This will disturb the environment of national consensus and sour relations among parties," he further said.
CA´s Constitutional Committee Chairman Nilamber Acharya said the movement in 1951 that abolished Rana regime was the foundation for the 1990 and 2006 popular movements. "Democracy Day is the mother of all political changes," he said.
Though the government announced Democracy Day as public holiday, it did not organize any functions to mark the day this year as per the directive of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. "There was no formal celebration of the day this year as the cabinet did not make any decision to this effect," said a top official at the Home Ministry.
Until last year, the government would organe various formal events to celebrate the day, which marks the abolition of the 104-year Rana oligarchy and advent of democracy in 1951.
The present Maoist government has also decided to scrap the holiday that was being given on 11th of Baisakh, the day that marked the success of 19-day long people´s movement.
The CPN-UML has meanwhile termed the government´s not marking the Democracy Day as a "mistake. "The government has made a mistake by not marking the Democracy Day. The day is important in democratic history of Nepal," said UML´s publicity department chief Pradeep Gyawali.
Gyawali argued that though the importance of Democracy Day might have lessened in the changed political context, the relevance of the historic day has not lessened. "We are now a federal democratic republic as a result of the achievements we made over the years. We should celebrate Democracy Day as commemoration of all the historic achievements made thus far," he further said.
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