Category: Nepal

The Nepal SC has formalised the split in the Nepal Communist Party

NCP split came a setback to Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda who used to be the Chairman of CPN-Maoist Center…reports Asian Lite News

With the Supreme Court’s ruling, top UML leaders who used to side with Prachanda against Oli started returning to the mother party from Monday evening itself…reports Asian Lite News

A day after Nepals Supreme Court invalidated the decision of the 2018 party merger between the Nepal Communist Party-UML and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has fallen apart politically and technically.

The NCP was formed after the merger between UML and Maoist Center.

On Sunday, the Supreme Court affected the split along the CPN-UML and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) and took them to the pre-unification stage which will ultimately make Prime Minister Oli a bit stronger because he was elected to the post from CPN-UML.

But Monday’s party split came a setback to Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda who used to be the Chairman of CPN-Maoist Center.

The court also invalidated the NCP that was registered under Oli and Prachanda in June 2018.

With the Supreme Court’s ruling, top UML leaders who used to side with Prachanda against Oli started returning to the mother party from Monday evening itself.

Former Prime Ministers Madhav Kumar Nepal, Jhalanath Khanal among other top leaders and parliamentarians started returning to the UML.

As per the constitutional provision, lawmakers cannott change the political party on an individual basis. If they do so, they will lose the parliamentary seats.

“Our heart is big and we have decided to join UML,” Nepal said on Monday evening after bidding adieu to Prachanda.

Prachanda had called a last meeting with Nepal and other leaders to discuss what to do next.

Oli vs Prachanda

“We have decided to honour the Supreme Court’s decision and are going to return the UML,” Nepal said, adding “but our struggle will continue for democracy and communism”.

After the court’s decision, Nepal’s Elections Commission is going to ask the UML and Maoist to re-register their party, its spokesperson Rajkumar Shrestha said.

Oli after becoming the Prime Minister in 2018 with the support of the Maoist Center, had been sharing very rough ties with Prachanda, Nepal and Khanal.

They were raising voices against Oli’s way of ruling the government and leading the party.

Then those dissatisfied with Oli inside the ruling party that had 64 per cent support, started organising under Prachanda’s leadership but Oli kept on sidelining them.

Prachanda and his faction demanded Oli’s resignation but the latter kept on denying saying that he was mandated to rule the country and party both.

In the midst of division and dispute in the unified communist party, Oli on December 20, 2020, abruptly dissolved the house and declared snap polls.

But on February 24, the Supreme Court overturned his decision.

With the new equation, Prachanda will npw have 53 of the Maoist lawmakers and the Nepal side, along with around 43 lawmakers, would return to the Oli-led UML.

These 43 lawmakers will join the mother party led by Oli.

With the court decision, Dahal’s Maoist Centre is now reduced to the third party in Parliament.

In the 2017 elections, the UML won 121 seats and Nepali Congress, the primary opposition, had 63 seats.

With new political situations emerging, parties are in talks to form a new government by removing Oli but the roadmap is yet to be decided upon.

Also read:Nepal’s embattled PM takes jab

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has also added that he was not given a chance to fulfil the promises he had made to the people….reports Asian Lite News

Nepal PM Oli said that dissolution of Parliament was the most viable option to prevent the country from falling into the deep pit of instability and political conspiracies.

He said this while presenting the government’s achievements in the past three years in office, The Himalayan Times reported on Tuesday.

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has also added that he was not given a chance to fulfil the promises he had made to the people.

The Prime Minister said that it was a matter of utter despair that the party’s Co-chair Pushpa Kamal Dahal had accused him of criminal offences in the letter of no trust motion.

“There was not even a single formal complaint or constructive criticism against me at the parliamentary party or against the party’s whip or chief whip. The letter was filled with negativity and to make matters worse they printed the letter and circulated it across the country,” The Himlayan Times cited Oli as saying.

Addressing members of the Cabinet and government officials at his office in Singha Durbar, Oli said he had tried his best not to make the Parliament a victim of his party leaders’ vested interest.

“The leaders neither let me appoint people in key posts nor did they allow me to work smoothly. They almost ran a parallel government and this compelled me to dissolve the House.”

He, however, admitted that his government could not do much due to the pandemic, which affected the economic activities across the world.

He said the country’s Human Development Index was constantly rising, and it showed that the country was gradually developing.

Also read:India crush England, level series

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Monday said that the ongoing border disputes with India will be resolved through diplomatic talks.

Although Nepal and India held ministerial level talks in New Delhi last month, the two sides sides could not hammer out the differences after the Himalayan nation unveiled a new map in May 2020.

He made the remarks at a seminar titled, ‘Nepal’s International Border Security and Areas of Coordination among Border Management related Agencies’, organised by the Nepal Army.

Oli, who is also the Defence Minister, argued that relations with neighbouring nations could be made cordial and emboldened only on the basis of facts, equality, respect and justice and not on hegemonic measures.

“In order to consolidate the Nepal-India ties in a cordial manner, we had to print the map and talk to India. Our relations could turn cordial by only returning our territory through dialogue. Border disputes are prevailing in Susta and Kanchanpur,” he said.

Nepal and India has had boundary rows since long in the Susta and Kalapani area and during the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Nepal in 2014, both sides had delegated to resolve the dispute at Foreign Secretaries levels but they could not meet.

In November 2019, New Delhi came up with a new political map incorporating Kalapani in its territory.

Nepal objected to the Indian move and offered talks at diplomatic level but India suggested face-to-face talks only once the Covid crisis was over.

But in May 2020 after India opened up a new 80 km link road in Uttarakhand via Lipu Lekh that Nepal claims its own, the Himalayan nation once again objected the move and offered talks.

After New Delhi failed to respond to the repeated calls, Nepal on May 20, 2020, unveiled the
new political map of the country incorporating the disputed territory.

India immediately rejected the decision calling it as a “cartographic assertion”.

Addressing Monday’s seminar, Oli further said that open and friendly dialogue would be held with India regarding the issue of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani based on facts and evidences.

“We must retain our territory. Both the nations should consider fact and truth in maintaining
relations. Are both the countries in position to claim other’s territory?” he queried.

“There have been some historically-unsolved border problems. The issue of Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani has remained unaddressed for the past 58 years. We were forced to get displaced silently when the then ruler did not dare to speak up against the intrusion.”

It is also true that our move has increased misunderstanding with India, Oli said, adding: “We need to assert claim on our territory at any cost.”

The border security agencies should be highly cautious when the border affairs become more sensitive, noted the Prime Minister.

“We have been admonished and warned while claiming our territory,” he said, adding that “there would be a dialogue in future to resolve the border disputes”.

He also directed the concerned authorities to pay special attention towards preventing the intrusion of Nepali territories and misusing the no-man’s land.

Border security is an integral part of national security, Oli said. “How can a nation remain secured when there is no border security? We have framed a working policy to implement security policy to that end.”

Also Read-Former US Secretary of State George Shultz dies