Quote Unquote (Spotlight Weekly)

"There is no credibility to what he (Girija Prasad Koirala) says. When in power, he said the Maoists should be shot. Now he is saying there should be dialogue. A person exhibiting such blatant double standards cannot be a true Congressman."

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, reacting to Koirala's accusation that he was using the king as a shield, while talking to reporters in Biratnagar, in Kantipur.

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"If there is any force that will protect the monarchy in Nepal, it is only the Nepali Congress. So nobody who believes in monarchy and democracy should hatch a conspiracy against the Congress. If the Congress is finished, so will be monarchy and democracy."

Girija Prasad Koirala, former prime minister and president of his faction of the Nepali Congress, in Kantipur.

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"By the beginning of October, the government will have accumulated the required strength. Therefore, the Maoists' claim that they can defeat the government is like Nepal saying it can defeat India or China."

Khum Bahadur Khadka, Home Minister, saying the government will break the back of the Maoists soon and clear the way for the November election, in Nepal Samacharpatra.

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"Poverty will become more rampant and unemployment will rise further in the days to come."

Bharat Mohan Adhikary, former finance minister and senior leader of the Unified Marxist-Leninist, commenting on the budget, in Drishti.

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"The ideology and the path taken by the Nepali Congress is right. But the challenge is to ascertain whether those responsible for advancing its ideology are right or not."

Shailaja Acharya, former deputy prime minister and Nepali Congress leader, in Himalaya Times.

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"Those who have rights should learn to exercise them responsibly."

Surya Bahadur Thapa, president of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party, accusing Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba of abusing his constitutional right to dissolve parliament, in Spacetime daily.

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"At present there are two Congress parties. The one that gets the four-star party flag andsymbol [tree] will be the real one."

Beni Bahadur Karki, former National Assembly chairman, in Bimarsha.

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"I am not a pessimist, but this time my heart burned. I feel I have failed in teaching civilized behavior and culture to my students."

Professor Abhi Subedi, head of the English department at the Tribhuvan University (TU) who resigned from his post (the resignation was subsequently rejected by the TU vice-chancellor) after a few students accused the department of irregularities in exam results, ransacked the office and set it on fire, in Kantipur.

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"We haven't been able to provide them relief since nobody has approached us. They will get `general relief' as soon as they come here."

Dhruva Raj Wagle, Chief District Officer, Banke district on why the administration had done nothing to the victims of Maoist atrocities at Akalgharuwa in the ditrict in which two local people were killed, in Kantipur, four days after the incident.

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