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Embassy reply cuts little ice: Maoists
- Leaders’ conflicting statements complicate issue within party
KATHMANDU, AUG 11 -
The Maoist leadership for the second time on Wednesday decided to send a formal letter seeking clarification from the Indian Embassy here regarding the allegation made by its member against an embassy staffer. There has been confusion within the party whether a formal letter had already been sent after the meeting of office bearers on Aug. 7. Conflicting statements were given by leaders aligned to different factions within the party. Informed sources say the party is divided whether to publicly pursue the issue of alleged threat or to use diplomatic channels to address it. It is believed that the Bhattarai faction wants to take the latter route.
The meeting of the office bearers on Wednesday concluded that a clarification furnished by the Indian Embassy regarding the threat to its Central Committee member and lawmaker Ram Kumar Sharma is not satisfactory. The meeting also decided to take further steps to protest the threat by the official to lawmaker Sharma last Friday, the day of fourth round of prime ministerial election. The Maoist top brass had telephone conversation with Indian Ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood immediately after the allegation surfaced. According to a Maoist leader, Ambassador Sood maintained there had not been any threat to the lawmaker from any embassy official. Similarly, the embassy sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating ‘the embassy does not dignify such baseless reports and allegations’.
The Maoist office bearers’ meeting concluded both clarifications were unsatisfactory because lawmaker Sharma had presented concrete evidence of the threat including the cell number and the name of the embassy official.
“We will take another action on the issue because the party is not yet convinced,” said Maoist Vice Chairman Narayan Kaji Shreshta after the meeting. However, he did not elaborate what action they were going to take. According to a Maoist leader, the party will submit a memorandum to the embassy or dispatch another letter to take up the issue strongly as the initial reply from the embassy was not persuasive.
The office bearers’ meeting also discussed briefly the agenda to be presented at the party’s Central Committee (CC) meeting slated to begin on Thursday. The meeting is said to have discussed issues such as the reported threat to lawmaker Sharma and the prime ministerial election. Earlier, the Maoist CC meeting scheduled for Wednesday was put off citing the need for more time to make preparations for the event.
The meeting is expected to address several crucial issues as Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice Chairman Baburam Bhattarai have serious disagreements on the issues pertaining to internal party politics, government formation and the peace process. The ongoing prime ministerial election where Dahal is contesting will also figure prominently, a Maoist source said. While the Bhattarai faction wants to pull out of the poll process and start talks on consensus candidate, the Dahal faction is against the idea.
Posted on: 2010-08-12 07:41
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