Ending a political deadlock, Nepalese Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on Saturday invited the Maoists to form a government, more than a month after they emerged as the biggest party in the Constituent Assembly polls.
"We have an organisation being placed on the list of designated foreign terrorists organizations. (It) has legal requirements that are placed on us. We have to honour those legal requirements and we'll certainly do so in the case of Nepal," State Department's Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey said.
Maoist supremo Prachanda, whose party has registered a surprise victory in recent Constituent Assembly polls, on Sunday declared that he would lead the next government in Nepal.As the interim constitution does not have the provision for electing a President, he is expected to head the government as Prime Minister. Prachanda also assured the voters that Nepal would be declared a republic in the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly.
With the Maoists sweeping the Constituent Assembly polls bagging 106 out of the 190 declared so far and leading in 11 others, the party has initiated serious consultations including a meeting with Prime Minister G P Koirala on modalities to form the new government. Results for 50 seats are awaited out of the 240 at stake in direct elections. The Maoists are on track to become the single largest party.
The Maoists in Nepal spearheaded by Prachanda today surged ahead in the landmark constituent assembly polls, winning 14 seats and leading in 65 of the remaining 240 constituencies. Prachanda, 53, chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist who led a decade-long insurgency in the country to overthrow the monarchy, defeated his closest rival Rajendra Kumar K.C of the Nepali Congress in Kathmandu.
Polling started at 0700 hours (0645 IST) and will end at 1700 hours (1645 IST), election officials said. Some 6,000 candidates are contesting the election under proportionate voting system while 4,021 candidates are in the fray under direct voting system. The country has witnessed a violence-marred campaign for the crucial elections to elect a body that will rewrite the Constitution and decide the fate of the 239-year-old monarchy.
53-year-old Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda was administered the oath of office by President Ram Baran Yadav during a function at the Rastrapati Bhawan in Kathmandu.
Koirala told the former rebel that they should wait until the constituent assembly elections expected in June.
To mark the end of the 240-year-old monarchy, Nepalese Premier G P Koirala will hoist the national flag during a grand function on Sunday at the Narayanhiti palace, which has been vacated by the ousted King Gyanendra. The deposed king left the palace on Wednesday honouring the decision taken by the Maoists-dominated Constituent Assembly to abolish monarchy and declare the country a republic.
'What is at stake is not one mosque or temple, it is the question of the principle of secularism which is part of the basic structure of the Constitution as declared even by the Supreme Court of India.'
"I don't think there's any change. There's no change in their status," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, commenting on the issue in the backdrop of a meeting between a top American envoy in Kathmandu Nancy Powell and Maoist leader Prachanda.
Prachanda also insisted that elections to the Constituent Assembly in Nepal be held in November or December, failing which his party would walk out of the government and launch a peaceful agitation.
A three-member Supreme Court bench of justices Anup Raj Sharma, Ram Prasad Shrestha and Gauri Dhakal upheld the two-year-old declaration of the House of Representatives to strip the king of all powers and bring the Nepal Army under the purview of the legislature.
CPN-Maoist leader Ram Bahadur Thapa 'Badal', who was the party's chief military strategist during the time the party's decade-long war with the State, made it clear that the Maoists were not in favour of retaining cultural king or any other form of monarchy, affirming that their 'struggle against feudalism' was also aimed at destroying all the remnants of the institution of monarchy. 'It would be good if he peacefully, leaves the palace after the first assembly sitting.
This is the meaning of the victory of the Maoists in the elections to the first popularly elected constituent assembly in south Asia. This is the victory of the Nepali people against their feudal oppressors, the triumph of popular sentiment over the malicious propaganda of the media, the success of the republic over the kingdom, the attainment of sovereignty against foreign interference and the conquest of Kathmandu by the rest of Nepal.
In an interactive programme at Rajbiraj, an eastern Nepal town, Prachanda claimed that his party Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist would get 150 seats out of a total of 300 seats in the direct election, and that he will become the first president of the Himalayan nation after the polls. He also sounded a note of apprehension over elections taking place on the scheduled date. "I am not confident that the CA elections will be held on the stipulated date," he said.
'The solution to current political stalemate in Nepal will be reached after the ten-day Dasain festival is over,' Nepal Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula was quoted in media reports on Friday.
Shah also said that no 'illegal migrant' will be allowed to stay in the country and that the National Register of Citizens exercise in Assam was completed in 'time-bound manner'.
The Indian official is arriving in Kathmandu on a two-day visit on Wednesday afternoon to take stock of the political situation that has developed after a lack of consensus over Maoist demands for declaring the country a republic led to the postponement of November election.
The 60-year-old Gyanendra said he respected the will of the people and wanted to contribute in 'whatever capacity' he can to promote peace in the country. In his 14-minute speech, the former king clarified that he and his family members were not in anyway involved in the royal massacre in 2001.
With declaration of Nepal as a republic and abolishing the monarchy by the first meeting of Constituent Assembly on Wednesday, a new dawn has begun for the country to be led by the 53-year-old former rebel, who is now in his strongest position to rebuild the impoverished Himalayan country.
However, the exact date for the polls will be fixed by the cabinet
This new government has been tasked with steering the nation into the June 20 constituent assembly polls.
The blasts occurred at a time when the home ministry is holding consultation with various security agencies to prepare for the crucial Constituent Assembly polls slated for November.
While Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu asked the protestors not to make the House a "clog in the wheel" of progress, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said they should keep in mind the larger interests of the nation.
The rebels threatened to resume the blockades of highways leading to capital and other district headquarters if Parliament failed to set in motion the process for constituent assembly elections on Friday.
As long as even one Indian holds aloft Ambedkar's portrait and recites the Preamble, the Republic remains alive, says Mihir S Sharma.
As part of its celebrations for the 125th birth anniversary of India's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, the Congress will this week organise a conference bringing together many writers and historians, including Left leaning, to discuss freedom, equality, democracy and secularism in today's context.
Generations of Indians don't quite grasp that there would barely be an India had it not been for the Sardar whose steadfastness and guile stitched together that which had been united only in philosophy and spirituality and sometimes not even then -- for thousands of years. A fascinating excerpt from Hindol Sengupta's The Man Who Saved India, Sardar Patel and His Idea of India.
'What the long term repercussions of the Ayodhya judgment are will unfold in time.' 'And I hope the consequences are not going to be as damaging to us as they were to Pakistan,' says Aakar Patel.
The Rs 3 crore project is expected to be completed within 15 months by Independence Day next year.
As India celebrates its 70th Independence day, Rediff.com pays homage to millions who laid their lives for the country's freedom.
The Trump administration has called Maduro a "dictator" and issued sanctions against him and more than two dozen other former and current officials, accusing Maduro's government of violating human rights and undermining the country's democracy.
