“People won’t get frightened from baseless warnings”: Khanal

Kathmandu, December 21. Senior leader of CPN-UML and Former Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal has said the Constituent Assembly (CA) will meet its self-imposed deadline of January 22 to promulgate a new statute.

Speaking at the interaction program organized by the Reporters’ Club Nepal on Sunday, the former UML Chair has said that his party will press the CA to move into voting process to ensure promulgation of the constitution within next one month. The party will work to stop the constitution writing body from returning the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC)’s report to the Committee again, he added.

Speaking the program presided by the Club’s President Rishi Dhamala, Khanal said his party will not backtrack from its commitment to issue the statute by January 22 as agreed by all parties in the CA. He was of the opinion that an all-party consensus for the statute is never possible.

“Consensus is not possible on all disputed issues,” the senior leader said, “Nowhere in the world; an all-agreed constitution has been dame.”

The leader said voting process is inevitable to respect opinions of all parties. Coming down heavily on the main opposition UCPN-Maoist, Khanal urged the party not to warn of street protests.

“People won’t get frightened from baseless warnings,” Khanal said, “You need to argue on agendas with parties for consensus.”

An aggressive Khanal said his party will not let separation of Madhes from hilly region in the name of state restructuring. He went on to say that creating ethnic-based federal states are meaningless. Also, he termed the proposal of ‘One Madhes Province’ as mere a dream.

He also criticised demands for ethnicity-based federalism.