Valley
BRB supports demands of Madhes parties
UCPN (Maoist) senior leader Baburam Bhattarai has expressed his support to the demands of the agitating Madhes-based parties.UCPN (Maoist) senior leader Baburam Bhattarai has expressed his support to the demands of the agitating Madhes-based parties.
“The major demands of Madhes-based parties and our note of dissent in the Constituent Assembly are of similar nature, so I express my support and solidarity to their demands,” Bhattarai said in a statement on Thursday. He also regretted his failure to accommodate all forces in the constitution drafting process as a Chairman of Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee.
Bhattarai’s statement clearly contradicts the position taken by his party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal who had recently claimed that the new constitution fulfilled most of the demands raised by the Madhes-based parties. It shows the intra-party
differences within the Maoists on how to address the demands of the agitating parties\groups in the new constitution.
Like Bhattarai, UCPN (Maoist) Vice-chairman Narayan Kaji Shrestha is also unsatisfied by the way the government and the major political parties handled the Madhes issues.
He has asked for immediate negotiation between three parties and the agitating parties to find a political solution to address the demands of the disaffected parties.
Just before the promulgation of the constitution, both leaders had advised party Chairman Dahal and the leaders of Nepali Congress and CPN-UML to halt the CA process for some period and hold dailogue with the disgruntled parties.
Bhattarai and Shrestha are of the view that there should be talks with the agitating parties and the constitution should be amended in order to address their genuine concerns.
They are consulting with the Maoist lawmakers representing the Madhesi, Dalit and Janajati communities to seek a solution for the ongoing crisis in the Tarai.