Category: Nepal

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.

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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.”

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The ruling party is now divided into two factions — one led by Prime Minister Oli and another by Prachanda. Both were chairmen of the unified party until Monday…reports Asian Lite News

Nepal’s ruling party is witnessing high drama since Sunday ever since Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli dissolved the House of Representatives and proposed to hold midterm elections on April 30 and May 10.

After Oli recommended dissolving the House, President Bidhya Devi Bhandari swiftly approved the proposal, creating political ripples in the Himalayan nation.

After Oli’s decision to dissolve the House, Nepal’s ruling Communist party is functioning as two political parties which were united just two years back. Until they unified in 2018, Oli was the chairman of Nepal Communist Party (UML) while Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ used to lead the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist). After their merger in May 2018, both were chairmen of the party until Monday.

The ruling party is now divided into two factions — one led by Prime Minister Oli and another by Prachanda. Both were chairmen of the unified party until Monday.

Both factions have now constituted their own central committee members, standing committee members and party committees following the dissolution of the House.

On Thursday, a central committee of the Oli faction removed Prachanda from the party chairman’s post. With this decision, the faction led by Oli has one chairman but another parallel faction has two chairmen — Prachanda and former Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.

Oli said the party’s central committee meeting on Thursday took action against Prachanda for violating the party statute and for his involvement in anti-party activities. From Thursday, only Oli’s signature will work as that of party chairman.

In this row, the Prachanda-led Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) had already removed Oli from the party chairman’s post earlier this week for taking “unconstitutional” and “undemocratic” decisions, replacing him with Madhav Kumar Nepal.

It then unanimously elected Prachanda as parliamentary party leader replacing Oli on Wednesday. The Oli faction has also removed Narayan Kaji Shrestha as spokesperson and replaced him with Pradeep Gyawali.

Over one dozen cases have been filed in Nepal’s Supreme Court against the House dissolution move while the opposition parties have announced fresh agitation against Oli’s move.

On the other hand, both factions have claimed themselves as the official party and kept on sending their decisions to the Election Commission. Only the Election Commission gives a verdict which the CPN holds with authenticity in this row. At present, the Election Commission is studying and probing the documents submitted by both sides.

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