By IANS
Kathmandu : Two days before a battle on the floor of parliament, Nepal’s Maoist guerrillas Tuesday warned that the government would fall if the raging dispute over King Gyanendra and the election was not resolved.
“If the impasse continues, the current constitution will become a scrap of paper,” Maoist chief Prachanda warned. “The government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala will also fall.”
The Maoist warning comes even as Koirala’s own coalition partners, opposition parties and Nepal’s human rights organisations are holding the octogenarian premier responsible for the failure to hold a crucial election in November and are demanding a change in leadership.
Prachanda sounded his warning before journalists in distant Dipayal town in far west Nepal Tuesday, a day after he had made the threat at a public meeting.
Prachanda said he had conveyed the warning to Koirala, whom he had met Sunday. He also said his party would try to find a new prime minister through a roundtable conference and lead a new revolt.
“While talking about his meeting with Prime Minister Koirala Sunday, Prachanda warned that if the situation remained unchanged, Koirala’s government will not continue,” rebel mouthpiece Janadisha daily said Tuesday.
The Maoist warning bolsters fears that Thursday’s parliament session may not be able to resolve the growing feud between the Maoists and the parties that resulted in the rebels quitting the government last month and announcing protests to prevent the November election.
The Maoists are now demanding that King Gyanendra’s crown be abolished before they allow the election. They also want a fully proportional election system that will increase their chances at the hustings.
However, the two major parties in the government have ruled out conceding either demand. Both Koirala’s Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist are instead proposing an election that will choose a special assembly with the mandate of writing a new pro-people constitution.
After a constituent assembly is elected, it will also decide King Gyanendra’s fate at its first meeting.
When the Maoists ended their 10-year guerrilla war last year and signed a peace pact, they too had agreed to the proposal.
However, after the election was postponed to November from June and the Koirala government failed to implement most of its pledges, they began resisting the election.
Prachanda has also said if the parliament session fails to find a way out, his party would start a fresh protest movement.
On Thursday itself, the rebels announced a nationwide campaign, including a mass demonstration before parliament, to keep the house under pressure.
Unless something unforeseen occurs, indications are that the house session will only prolong the crisis.
The Maoists will not accept a verdict that goes against them and since they don’t have the strength in the house to swing the vote in their favour, they will start new disruptive protests.
They have already floated the demand for holding a referendum to decide if Nepal should abolish its 238-year monarchy, another proposal rejected by Koirala.
Meanwhile, the Koirala government is fast losing support at home and abroad.
The international community said it was disappointed at the decision to indefinitely postpone the November election while India has declared that the government was losing its legitimacy.