By Shambhu Bhujel
KATHMANDU, June 3 (Xinhua) -- The Rastriya
Prajatantra Party (Nepal) (RPP-N) on Wednesday kicked off a campaign for the
restoration of monarchy in the nascent Himalayan republic, asking for a national
referendum.
The RPP-N, the only party having
opposed the abolition of constitutional monarchy when lawmakers last year
decided to strip King Gyanendra of his crown, led a rally from the old royal
palace at Basantapur in Kathmandu to the office of the Constituent Assembly (CA)
Chairman Subash Nemwang, submitting a memorandum.
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Supporters of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal
(Maoist) (UCPN-M) hold a protest in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, June 3,
2009. The UCPN-M on Wednesday staged sit-ins in district administration
offices (DAOs) across the nation against the Legislature-Parliament for
not entering its resolution motion against the President for debate.
(Xinhua/Bimal Gautam)
Photo Gallery>>> |
The RPP-N has four elected representatives in the
601-member CA.
"With a new constitution to be drafted by next year,
we are asking the government to hold a national referendum on the issue of
monarchy," said Rajaram Shrestha, former mayor of Kathmandu and assistant
general secretary of the party.
Shrestha said his party has spoken with a large
number of people from all sections of society, who felt Nepal, once the only
Hindu kingdom in the world, should retain monarchy that gave it a unique
character and unified people.
"We also want a referendum to decide if Nepal should
be a Hindu state or remain secular and whether it should be federal," he added.
In May 2006, the Nepali parliament declared Nepal a
secular state, after the political parties launched "the People's Movement"
ending the direct rule of Gyanendra.
In April 2008, Nepal held its first ever constituent
assembly election. A month later on may 28, the 601-member constituent assembly
overwhelmingly voted to abolish monarchy.
The four RPP-N lawmakers in the house were the only
ones to have opposed the decision.
"The constituent assembly election was for a new
constitution," Shrestha said, "It had nothing to do with monarchy or secularism.
Instead of taking decisions behind doors on such issues of national interest, we
feel there should be a referendum to settle the issues before the new
constitution is promulgated."
The former mayor said his party was leaving the
decisions to the people, "If they do not want deposed King Gyanendra to come
back and prefer his grandson (schoolboy Hridayendra) on the throne, we will
accept the verdict."
The chief of the party, former home minister Kamal
Thapa, said his party would keep up protest programs to put pressure on the
government.
The new government under senior
leader from the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (CPN-UML),
the third largest CA party, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal already faces
protests from the former ruling party, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal
(Maoist) (UCPN-M), who from Wednesday began public protests meant to
compel President Ram Baran Yadav, into canceling the reappointment of the army chief, Rookmangud
Katawal.
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Supporters of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal
(Maoist) (UCPN-M) hold a protest in Kathmandu, capital of Nepal, June 3,
2009. The UCPN-M on Wednesday staged sit-ins in district administration
offices (DAOs) across the nation against the Legislature-Parliament for
not entering its resolution motion against the President for debate.
(Xinhua/Bimal Gautam)
Photo Gallery>>> |
The UCPN-M had tried to fire the general but failed,
which caused the collapse of their nine-month coalition government.
The UCPN-M, opposite to the RPP-N, had been devoted
to removing monarchy in Nepal.
