National
Dialogue panel calls disgruntled political groups for crucial talks
A high-level political dialogue team has called on all agitating and disgruntled groups, including the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal, for talks.A high-level political dialogue team has called on all agitating and disgruntled groups, including the Netra Bikram Chand-led Communist Party of Nepal, for talks.
Organising a press meet on Monday, the five-member talks team led by Nepal Communist Party (NCP) lawmaker Som Prasad Pandey invited all the disgruntled groups to come for dialogue. The formal invitation to these groups follows necessary groundworks that include meetings with government officials, security agencies and those involved in previous dialouge teams.
On August 25, the KP Oli government had formed the panel to hold dialogue with these groups, as they had the potential to spoil the country’s peaceful situation. The team has been mandated to hold dialogues and make agreements with various stakeholders of the agitations including the Madhesh movement and recommend the government for implementation.
The panel said it has been in touch with some of the groups. “We have already received some letters from such political groups and are discussing with them through formal and informal channels,” said Pandey, coordinator of the panel. Four groups, including the Communist Kendra, have reached out to the panel. The Kendra has sought release of their leaders and cadres from prison as precondition for talks.
However, the panel, tasked with bringing all the existing radical groups to the mainstream politics, is grappling with confusion over ways to tackle these groups whose demands are beyond the constitutional framework. Mainly the Chand-led CPN, CK Raut’s Alliance for Independent Madhesh (AIM) besides forces fighting for Limbuwan and Khambuwan are expected to pose a big challenge to the panel, political observers say.
Asked how could they convince the Chand-led CPN for talks while many of their leaders have been arrested repeatedly, coordinator Pandey said his team would discuss with Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa and other authorities concerned in this connection. The Chand party has already dismissed the Oli government’s move to form the panel as ‘sweet-coated tablet of poison’.
“The KP government staged a drama of dialogues. We understood this appeal as a ‘sweet-coated tablet of poison’ that was proved by the arrest of Uma Bhujel ‘Shilu’. Amidst such conspiracy there is no chance of a dialogue,” Chand had said, citing a series of arrests of his party leaders flouting the Supreme Court orders.
Chand’s former partymen Suresh Ale Magar and Leela Bhandari, Tara Kanta Chaudhary, and Kumar Khadka, joint secretary at the Home Ministry, are members on the Panel panel.