Kathmandu, June 3 — UML and CPN (Maoist Centre), the largest party in the House of Representatives, Nepali Congress, has decided to hold mass gatherings across the country in support of the republican system.
The decision was made during a meeting of present and former office bearers of the party on Monday.
“The first such gathering will be held in Kathmandu and then we will take it to all 77 districts,” Congress parliamentary party Chief Whip Shyam Kumar Ghimire told the Post. The second and third largest parties-the UML and the Maoist Centre, respectively-have already convened such meetings in Kathmandu.
The Congress will decide the date and locations of the gatherings in the upcoming meeting, party leaders said.
In Monday’s meeting, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba briefed party leaders about the ongoing movement of pro-monarchy and pro-Hindu groups. “Their agitation seems systematic and getting serious,” Deuba said, according to an office bearer present at the meeting.
The UML organised Republic Mahostav marking Republic Day on May 28 that coincided with the demonstration called by pro-monarchy forces. A loose alliance of 44 different pro-Hindu and pro-monarchy groups together with Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP), the fifth largest party in the House of Representatives, has been staging protests on a daily basis in Kathmandu.
The local administration has designated several areas as restricted to hold protests in order to quell the movement, which demands the restoration of Hindu state and monarchy abolished in 2008.
During the meeting, Deuba told leaders that the ongoing monarchist protests need the party’s serious attention. “The monarchists are acting with a calculative, serious, and clear plan,” a leader quoted Deuba as saying. “We need to take this matter seriously.”
After the meeting, the party stated that attempting to breach the constitutional framework through unconstitutional means is inappropriate and clarified that there is no possibility of the party supporting the agenda to revive the monarchy.
Party spokesperson Prakash Sharan Mahat told reporters after the meeting that, due to repeated betrayals by the monarchy in the past, there is no chance they’d accept it again.
“In the past, we accepted a constitutional monarchy, but we were betrayed time and again. The Congress is not in favour of being deceived again,” Mahat said. “The Congress does not support the idea of restoring the monarchy.”
