Nepal Maoists on thin ice?

4 May 2009


KATHMANDU: Nepal plunged into a deep political crisis on Sunday with Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the second-largest coalition partner deciding to pull out of the government, in opposition to the Maoists’ decision to sack army chief Gen Rookmangud Katuwal.

The decision to call back its ministers from the government and withdraw its support to PM Pushpa Kumar Dahal ‘Prachanda’ was reached at an emergency meet of the party’s standing committee. CPN (UML) Party general secretary Ishwor Pokharel said the party had decided to quit because the government had taken unilateral decisions one after the other, violating the accord of taking vital decisions with a consensus. “The time has come to forge a new alliance of all parties with a national consensus,” he said.

UML has called an all-party meeting where the main opposition Nepali Congress and various fringe parties including Terai Madhesh Loktantrik Party, RPP Nepal and CPN (Samyukta) will participate.

Earlier, Nepal’s president Ram Baran Yadav is learnt to have expressed ‘serious disapproval’ over the decision to sack the army chief saying that it was taken without following “due procedures”. Yadav, who is the supreme commander of the army, asked Prachanda to follow constitutional provisions and seek consensus among the political parties on the sacking.

Analysts say the ball is now in the president’s court, who could make or break the former guerrillas. “The president can stall the implementation of the cabinet decision”, said legal journalist Ananta Luitel. “He can either ask the supreme court for advice or send the cabinet order to the interim parliament for its decision”. If the president sends the dismissal order to parliament, it would be put to vote.