KATHMANDU, May 1: Janamat Party Chair CK Raut has said that the preparation for agreement with the government was made inside the jail.

Raut–who was leading the Alliance for the Independent Madhes advocating for the establishment of independent Madhes and end to racism, slavery and discrimination imposed on Madhesi people–in a dramatic turn of events, reached an 11-point agreement with the government on March 8.

Talking to Rishi Dhamala on a popular television talk show Janata Janna Chahanchan, Raut claimed that agreement with the government was done as per the mandate given by the people.

“I did not agree to reach the deal with the government due to pressure from the international community,” he said.

“The deal was a need of the hour and as demanded by the people,” he added.

“All the preparation for establishing consensus with the government were made inside the jail,” said Raut, who was in judicial custody and had received a release order from the Supreme Court only a day ago when he and the government signed the deal.

Various sources had reported that Raut was holding talks with the government for a week.

After the agreement, Raut announced he was joining national mainstream politics and abandoning his secessionist movement he was leading since 2007. Ten days later, Raut formed his Janamat Party.

However, the government’s decision to welcome the leader of separatist movement into national politics heated a fresh debate within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) and among others including the main opposition Nepali Congress. A portion of NCP leaders argued Raut has not mentioned anywhere that he has quit his secessionist movement while opposition NC referred the point two of the agreement as “call for a referendum”.

Instead, Raut accused the regional parties Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) led by Deputy Prime Minister Upendra Yadav and Rastriya Janata Party Nepal (RJPN) of being secessionist.

“Yadav and RJPN’s Mahanta Thakur conspired to send me to jail,” he vented ire, “they have always managed to find something to put accusation on me.”

He also accused Province 2 Chief Minister Lalbabu Raut of exploiting the Madhesi people.

“The regional parties will be swept away in the next elections,” he added.

“We fully accept the Constitution of Nepal,” Raut said

“The door to the agreement was opened because our activities were not against the spirit of the constitution,” he claimed.

Raut clarified he demanded independent Madhes because the Madhesi people were discriminated.

KATHMANDU, March 10: The lawmakers from the ruling party-NCP- have expressed their concern over the agreement between government and Chandrakanta (CK) Raut-led Alliance for Independent Madhes recently and demanded to amend the agreement.

At the special hour of today’s meeting of House of Representatives, lawmaker Bhim Bahadur Rawal argued some of the words in the agreement were not in line with the spirit of constitution of Nepal.

Rawal said, “Raut has to apologize for spitting venom against nationality and indivisibility in the past. He has not eaten his words against secession. His remarks about renouncing secessionist drive and to forge a peaceful consensus is a contradictory statement. He should correct it and make clear.”

He argued that although the clause 5 of article 56 of the constitution of Nepal mentions about autonomy and although an agreement was made on self-governance, it could not be achieved.

Furthermore, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense demanded with the government to amend the recent agreement inked with the alliance that are not in the interest and welfare of the nation.

On the other note, Rawal viewed that the citizenship certificates should not be issued to the Nepalis in such a manner that pushes them to minority status.
However, Mahesh Basnet claimed that the incumbent government had forged a historic agreement with CK Raut-led group after since with the CPN-Maoist (Center) while Rajendra Lingden commented that there was political conundrum whether CK Raut group joined the side of government or the government joined the CK Raut group.

He sarcastically said that by the look on things, it appeared to him that the government joined the CK Raut-led group.

Padam Giri and Radha Gyawali argued that by bringing the Raut-led group that was waging secessionist government into the mainstream politics was a commendable and historic work of the government.

Likewise Nepali Congress lawmaker Dr Minendra Rijal questioned the Minister of Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa, saying, “The Minister of Home Affairs has made an agreement with CK Raut. There should not be referendum on geographical indivisibility related issue. Whoever incites violence is a wrong thing. There is still backlog of peace process. What did the Maoists do in the past?’

He claimed that the incumbent government failed to deliver when it comes to economic development as only current expenditure stands at 35 per cent and capital expenditure at 17 per cent while it has been eight months since the new fiscal year.

Renuka Gurung demanded probe into the education consultancies due to which as many as 1,200 Nepali students were left in lurch in Australia.

Prem Suwal said that the government has its clear viewpoints about the rights of the small countries. He asserted that few human rights defenders and celebrity political leaders were not concerned about the issues facing the small countries.
Divyamani Rajbhandari commented that the stakeholders under the Nepal Telecommunications Authority were not paying attention towards the NCell’s tax evasion issue.

Prem Prasad Tulachan voiced that the extreme snowfall in the hilly districts this winter affected the vehicular activities, construction of roads and other physical infrastructures. He also demanded compensation to the owners of the livestock that were killed in various places across Mustang due to the disrupted traffic government.

Meena Subba said that the government should form a talk team to resolve the issues relating to the former British Gurkha soldiers. She argued, “The British Gurkha soldiers are not non-residential ones. They should continue to obtain the citizenship certificate of the UK.”

Leela Gurung demanded that the victims of conflicts should be declared martyrs and their families should be provided compensation.  RSS