According to Nepali Congress´s former lawmaker Amresh Kumar Singh, who has been involved in numerous informal talks with the Maoists since the peace process began, Nepal resigned three days after he struck a verbal deal with the Maoist party chairman on June 27. [break]
In his interview with myrepublica.com after his resignation on June 30, the prime minister had stated that he talked to Dahal over dinner in Baluwatar area three days back, but did not disclose anything about the deal.
"Why I have been compelled to disclose the deal is that the Maoists have not any shown willingness to begin the process of implementing it. Instead they have tried to bypass the agreement seeking to form a government hastily," Singh said.
According to Singh, it was agreed that Dahal would welcome the prime minister´s resignation within 30 minutes of its coming and both parties would immediately begin works on peace process and the new democratic constitution. After this, they had agreed to form a Maoist-led national consensus government.
"I had facilitated the talks in which both held on to their respective stances: Dahal did not want to take initiatives for political consensus without the prime minister´s resignation, while the latter did not want to step down without consensus," said Singh.
In the secret talks, both the leaders had agreed to integrate 5,000 Maoist combatants into the state forces -- Nepal Army, Civilian Police and Armed Police Forces -- and give a golden handshake with attractive economic packages to the rest.
It was also agreed that the combatants to be integrated would be kept in one camp under the command of Special Committee for Integration and Rehabilitation and those to be given golden-handshake in another before bidding them farewell.
According to Singh, Nepal and Dahal also agreed to adopt press freedom, independence of judiciary (not under the direct control of parliament) and competitive multi-party democracy to ensure a democratic constitution.
"Under my own initiatives, it was also agreed that six provinces -- four in the hills and two in the Tarai -- would be created while restructuring the state," Singh added.
He also revealed that both agreed to complete the process of integration and rehabilitation in four months, within the current tenure of UNMIN and promulgate the new constitution before February.
"The political deadlock has protracted as the Maoists are for forming a government first and go on forging agreements afterwards," he said, adding, "This same government was to table the annual budget, which meant it would take time to begin the integration process and form the new government."
Singh said there was no fourth person present when the deal was struck at a private house and both Nepal and Dahal were there without their security guards and official drivers.
"Both had not met even when the Constituent Assembly (CA) term was extended," he said, "the meeting on last Sunday was very important to give an outlet for the protracted political crisis and the prime minister resigned for that reason."
The top-level meeting between the Nepali Congress and the Maoists ended inconclusively on Saturday after the Maoists stated that they wanted to the form the new government immediately and discuss the issues of peace process and constitution drafting afterwards.
"The prime minister said the Maoists are not moving ahead as per the deal agreement. I talked to Dahal yesterday and also today," said Singh, "Dahal could not be honest on implementation of the pact."
Nepali Congress (NC) leaders Krishna Prasad Situala, Shekhar Koirala and Singh are meeting the top Maoist leaders including Dahal, Mohan Baidya and Dr Baburam Bhattarai on Monday.
According to Singh, the prime minister had also proposed to form a government under the leadership of Nepali Congress or CPN-UML for five or six months, and let the Maoists head another government to conduct the general elections. But he withdrew from his stance later.
"In that meeting, both leaders had talked with open hearts," said Singh, "A Maoist-led government could be formed if the Maoists had really begun the process to implement the pact."
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