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Maoist student union launches protest against President’s move

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KATHMANDU, NOV 25 - The UCPN (Maoist)-aligned All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union-Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) has started protests against the President’s recent call to political parties to name a prime ministerial candidate within seven days.
President Ram Baran Yadav on Friday called on the political parties to agree on a common candidate for prime minister by Thursday evening.
Stating that the President’s call was aimed towards a “coup”, the ANNISU-R on Sunday organised a protest rally to put pressure on President Yadav to withdraw his notice. The protest comes a day after the UCPN (Maoist) meet at party headquarters, Paris Danda, that concluded that the President’s move was “unconstitutional” and decided to undertake protests to force the head of state to backtrack.
The rally circled the Bagbazaar and Ratna Park area at 2pm before turning into a protest assembly at Shanti Batika. Around half a dozen Maoist leaders addressed the assembly, including Janardan Sharma, Devendra Poudel, Khimlal Devkota and Himal Sharma. The leaders claimed that the President’s invocation of Article 38 (1) of the Interim Constitution in the absence of parliament was against the constitution. “The President’s move is solely guided by a motive to seize executive powers, which contradicts the constitutional provisions for a ceremonial president,” said Poudel. According to Sharma, the ANNISU-R will carry out sterner protests if President Yadav fails to retract his call by Monday.
Meanwhile, the Nepali Congress-affiliated Nepal Students’ Union (NSU) held a similar protest against the government’s move to declare the date for new Constituent Assembly election and to announce a budget.
The NSU, which has been hitting the streets since Tuesday after the government decided to bring forth a two-thirds budget and hold new elections by April-May next year, hoisted black flags at government colleges and organised a corner meet near the Shankar Dev Campus on Sunday. Addressing the corner meeting, youth leaders accused the government of attempting to impose totalitarianism and autocracy.

Posted on: 2012-11-26 09:29

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