Maoist hardliners plan protest in CA

KATHMANDU, APR 26 - While some top leaders of the UCPN (Maoist) are taking part in the cross-party negotiations to draft new constitution, the hard-line faction of the party led by Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya is planning a protest programme inside the Constituent Assembly (CA).
The hard-line leaders say they will stage a protest in the CA if leaders involved in the negotiations forge any agreement against the issue raised by party that “new constitution should incorporate anti-expansionist and anti-imperialist elements.”
Top leaders of the faction Mohan Baidya, Ram Bahadur Thapa, Dev Gurung and Hit Man Shakya, however, are participating in the cross-party meetings to resolve the contentious issues of new constitution.
The faction has concluded that chances of drafting a “pro-people constitution” from the CA have been over-exhausted. The hard-line leaders said they will stage protest at the meeting of the Constitutional Committee and in the full CA meetings as well in the first phase. They also said it would be easy for them to protest in the CA as the party's chief whip Dev Gurung is from their camp itself.
“Since there is no any chance of drafting a pro-people constitution, we will vote against the consensus forged by few leaders of major parities,”said Maoist politburo member Khadka Bahadur Biswokarma. “We will even discard the direction from our leaders if they surrender the party's agenda to other political parties in the constitution drafting process,” he added.
The protest however will not be decisive as the faction enjoys the support of only 70-75 members in the CA. New constitution can be endorsed with two-third majority votes even if the faction boycotts the election procedures in the CA.
As party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai are in favor of federating the country into 8-9 states, the Baidya faction is insisting that there should be at least 12 federal units created on the basis of ethnicity.
Meanwhile, in order to consolidate their position in the CA, the hard-liners are reaching out to various ethnic outfits and lawmakers who are raising voices for ethnic-federalism. Besides protest in the parliament, the faction is also preparing for street protests. Forming a parallel structure across the country, the faction has launched “an exposure campaign” against Dahal and Bhattarai. They are also preparing to lodge a corruption charge against Dahal and Bhattarai at the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority.
Posted on: 2012-04-26 01:00