Royal Proclamation incomplete, ambiguous; conspiracy to diffuse movement: SPA, civil society leaders
Kantipur Report
KATHMANDU, April 21 - Seven-party alliance (SPA) and civil society leaders have termed Friday's Royal Proclamation as being “incomplete and ambiguous” and "a conspiracy to diffuse the ongoing people's movement.” The general strike and mass demonstrations will continue effectively, they say.
Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC) President and former prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that there was no room to be optimistic about the King’s Proclamation. He also said the royal proclamation had “many ambiguities.”
He added that the SPA would discuss the proclamation and he would remain firm on the decision taken by the SPA. “To me, the nation and democracy are important,” Deuba said, “I will not go beyond the (SPA’s) roadmap.”
Saying that there was nothing new about the king returning the executive power to the people, Deuba, who was sacked twice by the king in the past, said, “I was given the right to use the right under Article 35 after my reinstatement (to the post of Prime minister), there is nothing new in the royal proclamation.”
He also expressed doubts over the king honestly implementing “what has been said in the royal proclamation.”
“The Constitution does not give the king the right to sack the Prime Minister, but he (king) did, Deuba said, “The king has not been honest when it comes to using the articles of the Constitution; he has misused them time and again.”
Nepali Congress (NC) General Secretary Ram Chandra Paudel, who was released from nearly three-month-long government detention yesterday, said the royal proclamation has completely failed to address "the wish for an absolute change the parties and the people have expressed through the ongoing movement."
"An official reaction of the SPA is yet to come, but I personally think that the royal proclamation has addressed neither the people's aspirations nor the SPA's common roadmap," he said talking to ekantipur, some two hours after the King's televised addressed was aired through state-owned Nepal Television, Friday evening.
"In fact, I see it as a conspiracy to diffuse the movement," he said, adding, "The king has tried to confuse the movement, but the peaceful movement will now become more intense."
Paudel also informed that the NC's Central Working Committee will hold a meeting on Saturday to discuss the developments in the aftermath of the royal proclamation.
"The King's address has not positively and clearly addressed the roadmap and objective of the SPA's peaceful movement," said NC spokesperson Krishna Sitaula, "The nationwide movement will continue."
“It (royal proclamation) is incomplete. The people want Constituent Assembly,” said NC-D spokes person Dr. Minendra Rijal. He also said it was not for the king to tell how the country’s politics should move ahead once he said he returned the executive power to the people.
“Once the king the says he has returned the executive power to the people, it’s for the people and their representatives- the political parties- to decided the course of the country’s politics, Rijal said, adding, “But the king has asked to recommend the name of Prime minister.”
“The peaceful, non-violent, and disciplined people’s movement will continue,” he added.
Similarly, the civil society leaders who are being detained at the Armed Police Force battalion at Duwakot said the royal proclamation was “deceptive.” They even sloganeered against the royal proclamation inside the APF battalion.
15 civil society leaders and rights activists including former speaker of parliament Daman Nath Dhungana, former Supreme Court justice Laxman Aryal, human rights defenders Padma Ratna Tuladhar, Dr Madhu Ghimire and journalist Kanak Mani Dixit are detained there.
