KATHMANDU, July 24: While criticizing the Nepali Congress (NC) for extending support to the agitating Dr Govinda KC, Prime Minister and Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) Chairman KP Oli and fellow-Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal have spit venom against the main opposition party and Dr KC for their ongoing protests. 

Addressing a function organized to mark the 40th anniversary of the demise of founding general secretary of Nepal Communist Party Pushpa Lal Shrestha, the Oli-Dahal duo alleged that the NC was catching at the straw of the hunger-striking Dr KC to salvage its politics. They accused NC of inciting Dr KC’s protest for their petty political interests.

Prime Minister Oli said he was ready to involve himself in rational dialogue to bring about reform in the medical sector. “Dr KC has only tried to create a problem rather than resolve it,” the prime minister alleged, while offering to let the agitating Dr KC to head a commission that will be mandated to recommend ways to bring reforms in the health and education sectors.

Prime Minister Oli also alleged that although it was Dr KC staging the fast-unto-death it was some other forces that were making him do so. “Dr KC is taken ill. But others do not allow him treatment. Is it justifiable to deprive someone of medical treatment for their petty political interests?” he asked.

Oli said it was inhumane and illegal on the part of Nepal Medical Association (NMA) to shut down hospitals in the name of protests. “I have not asked any doctor out in the street to go to work. Is it justifiable for those in government service to ignore their regular duty?” he further asked.

Remarking that NC will soon see its demise if it continued with its politics over the ‘petty issue’ of Dr KC, Oli also said the government was ready to amend the National Medical Education Bill as it had been just tabled in parliament.

Oli accused those taking to the streets in the name of human rights of themselves violating human rights. “Anyone who inflicts pain on himself is also acting against human rights,” he argued. 

The prime minister asked Dr KC to realize that some political forces in the country were trying to revive their political fortunes on the back of his protests.

Also speaking on the occasion, Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said it was nothing surprising to see Dr KC staging a hunger strikes again. “Nepali society is used to the hunger strikes of Dr KC. He keeps staging this kind of protest time and again,” he said.

Dahal alleged that although the government was trying to save the life of Dr KC, some ‘undemocratic forces’ were trying to kill him. He also argued that there was no point having a government and parliament if these are dictated to by the protests of one individual in the street.

Echoing Oli, Dahal also did not fail to accuse NC of engaging in politics in the name of Dr KC’s protest. Dahal asked if the NC was trying to go for macabre politics over a dead body of Dr KC.

Arguing that NC had piggy-backed onto Dr KC as the ammunition of its own agenda was all but used up, Dahal said that some ‘counter revolutionists’ had tried to raise their head over Dr KC’s protests.

 
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