HEADLINE NEWS THE RISING NEPAL (DAILY)

PM for party unity, asks Koirala to reverse action

By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, May 31: Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba today said he was committed for party unity and that it was up to the party President Girija Prasad Koirala to take steps to save the party from breaking apart.

He said that he was waiting for the party to make a decision, adding he was running out of patience. He said he was unjustly expelled from the party and demanded the withdrawal of the expulsion. He said he was willing to do anything for the unity of the party, but that unity should be real and justified.

"I want the party President to make a decision very soon." He said he wanted the party go to the elections united.

"It would be a great insult for me - who was jailed for nine years during the panchayat days - to say that I am conspiring to give away democracy me," he said at a gathering of the NC General Convention representatives, Mahasamiti members, MPs and ministers at Baluwatar.

He also said that His Majesty the King was committed to multi-party democracy and had said that he would work to strengthen democratic system.

The Prime Minister said the party had done a great injustice to him by expelling him. "I could not sleep for three/four days after the party took action against me," he said.

Premier Deuba even revealed that he was willing to relinquish the post of Prime Minister after party President Koirala began opposing him. "What I wanted was to let me work for a few more months," he said.

The Prime Minister said that he had always supported Girija Prasad Koirala.

"When Kishunji and late Ganesh Man Singh had wanted to expel Koirala from the party, I had told them that if they went ahead with that action, I would side with Girijababu," he said.

The Prime Minister also said that the party President had been badly surrounded by people who were not doing good either for the party President or for the party.

"No one else has got more chances than Koirala, and every time he failed," said Deuba.

"There is no reason to believe that he would succeed if he gets another chance."

Talking about his decision to extend the state of emergency, Deuba said that the Maoists had been defeated but they were not cleared up. "There has been some relief after the emergency was declared and the army was mobilised."

"I had even gone to the party President and had told him that the emergency needed to be extended for six more months and he told me to go ahead. Then, I called an all party meeting and the opposition parties were not against it. The security forces wanted some more time to defeat the Maoists."

"When the whole world is against terrorism and they have fully backed us in the Central Working Committee of the Nepali Congress made a mistake by not extending the emergency proposal of the government," he said.

At the meeting Minister for Agriculture and Co-operatives Mahesh Acharya said that the Nepali Congress was facing a crisis now and he appealed to all not to be swayed by emotion. He said everything had been done in haste without giving much thought to the repercussions.

He demanded that the action against the Prime Minister be withdrawn. "Now that the dissolution of the Parliament cannot be revoked, there is no alternative but to go to the polls united."

He said the Prime Minister’s decision of dissolution of the Parliament had only two exits – to conduct the poll peacefully and to lead the NC to majority once again.

Bijaya Kumar Gachhadhar said that democracy was in peril. "If NC is to survive this crisis, the party President has a decisive role to play."

He also accused the NC of being confined to a room where decisions are taken behind the closed doors. "It is now the responsibility of the party President to take the party out of this crisis," he said.

He said the decision to call the meeting of the NC’s General Convention was not intended to split the party but to create unity.

He said that wrong elements had prevailed in the party adding those elements must be rooted out to make the party kicking.

Another speaker Khum Bahadur Khadka said any unity in the party should be real. "The first condition for unity is that the action against the Prime Minister should be withdrawn and there should be a package programme for a broader unity of the party."

"If no attempt is made by the party President, we will be forced to take any kind of unpalatable step for saving it, which my include expelling the party President."

He said the attempt to mud-sling the Royal Family was deplorable.

Chiranjibi Wagle said that the action of the party CWC had pushed it to the verge of split. He said the onus of saving the party from split lay on the party President.

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