The Hindu : National : I will be at the helm by June 2: Prachanda

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I will be at the helm by June 2: Prachanda

Says there is no question of disbanding guerrilla army for joining a government led by his party

Prachanda

Kathmandu: Talking tough, Maoist chief Prachanda has rejected outright pre-conditions put by major Nepalese parties such as disbanding of his guerrilla army for joining a government led by his party, and declared that he will be at the helm by June 2.

Mr. Prachanda, 53, said his party wanted him to be Nepal’s first “executive President,” but he would be ready to accept the post of Prime Minister with the responsibility of the head of State, like Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala’s current position, if it took a long time to make such a provision in the Constitution.

Pushing for Mr. Koirala’s resignation, the Maoist leader told Karan Thapar, in an interview for CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate programme, that “after the result of the election came out the Prime Minister should have resigned, he should give way to a new government which will get the status of a caretaker government.”

Asked whether parties such as the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) were ready to support a Maoist-led government, he said a serious debate was going on in these parties, and every party had agreed to it in principle.

“Ridiculous”

Terming their pre-conditions “ridiculous,” Mr. Prachanda said these were put forth for bargaining.

The new government would be formed on June 1 or 2, after the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly scheduled for May 28. “No ‘if’, it will be a Maoist-led government,” he said to a question whether it was his party that would lead the government.

On the UML’s demand that key posts of Prime Minister, President and Chairman of the Constituent Assembly be shared, Mr. Prachanda said he was ready to share power with other parties but not the posts of President and Prime Minister. Mr. Prachanda, whose Communist Party of Nepal(Maoist) bagged 220 seats in the 601-seat Constituent Assembly to emerge as the largest party, also rejected the demand for disbanding the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the controversial Young Communist League.

“We cannot agree on these demands, as it would be against the whole orientation of the peace process and against the spirit of the interim Constitution,” said the former academic who led a decade-long armed struggle by Maoists against the monarchy before joining mainstream in 2006.

Hopeful of consensus

Asked how he could form the government as his party did not enjoy a two-thirds majority as required by the interim Constitution, he said: “We are trying our best to build consensus and ultimately we would be able to get consensus”.

On a specific time frame needed to forge consensus to form a government, he said he would get it within one week or 10 days.

On integration of the PLA into the Nepal Army, he said it would be done as per the Comprehensive Peace Agreement and not all personnel would be taken into the army.

“Only those professionally fit and physically fit will join the army, while others can be mixed into police or a separate industrial security force can be created.”

According to the 2006 peace agreement, under which the Maoists gave up arms, the combatants were confined to cantonments under U.N. supervision. — PTI

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