RSP announces second phase of protest

KATHMANDU, Nov 9: The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) has announced to hold the second phase of protest against the arrest of its chairman Rabi Lamichhane.

A meeting of the central committee of RSP held at the central office in Kathmandu on Saturday took a decision to this effect although the party is yet to reveal the date of the protest.

The meeting decided to hold a joint struggle with massive participation from its supporters across the country in the next phase, terming the former Home Minister’s arrest as political vendetta.

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“The action taken against chairman Rabi Lamichhane is a despicable act of political vendetta and the RSP strongly condemns this action,” said a statement released by the party's acting spokesperson Manish Jha after the meeting. The meeting concluded that Lamichhane will only get justice if the government is pressurized through protests, the statement added.

The statement further claims that no evidence was found to confirm the involvement of Lamichhane in the entire process of transferring money from any cooperative to Gorkha media in the report submitted by the Parliamentary Inquiry Committee. The RSP claimed that since its chairman was arrested on the charge of embezzling funds of cooperatives even though he was not found to be involved in the financial process of the cooperatives, the real purpose of the arrest was to politically prohibit the growth of the party. 

Referring to the ruling parties, the statement said that the parties that once fought for political freedom are now hell bent to suppress innovative ideas and voices, and such arbitrary and oppressive tendencies of the state are against Nepal's democracy, constitution and rule of law.

The RSP has also appealed to all of its supporters to join the second phase of its protest. The statement read, “We appeal to all the justice-loving Nepali people to support the second phase of joint movement that is going to be conducted against the authoritarian tendencies of the state, focusing on common national issues.”