Nepal Maoists for ‘maximum flexibility’ to end pol deadlock

The top panel of the Maoist on Tuesday met informally to assess the political situation and set the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the party’s Standing Committee.

The Maoists have been blocking the Parliament and organising protest rallies in the capital since Prachanda suddenly resigned on May 4 as prime minister after President Ram Baran Yadav reinstated General Rukmangad Katawal,the then Army Chief dismissed by Maoists supremo.

Shrestha said the Maoists are even ready to “completely change” their resolution against the president registered in the Parliament which most other parties have rejected.

“We are ready to table a new,joint resolution if other parties agree,” he explained. “However,the bottom-line is that the president’s move should be touched upon in some form,” he was quoted as saying by the myrepublic online on Tuesday.

The Maoists chief on Sunday said there was no alternative to the “politics of consensus” and hinted at joining a political mechanism with the ruling alliance so as to break the five-month-long political deadlock.

“There is no alternative to the politics of cooperation and collaboration to find a way of the present political stalemate,” Prachanda told reporters here after meeting Nepali Congress chief G P Koirala.

Describing President Yadav’s move to reinstate General Katawal as “unconstitutional and undemocratic”,Prachanda had threatened to launch a people’s revolution after the end of the festival season.

The political standoff has put new stresses on Nepal’s reconciliation efforts after the end of the decade-long insurgency in 2006,amid fears that the stalled peace process may be derailed if the Maoists agitation is not ended soon.

The Maoists,who waged a decade-long insurgency,joined mainstream politics after a 2006 peace deal with the interim government led by G. P. Koirala.

CPN-Maoist formed Nepal’s first post-royal government on August 22 after the former rebels emerged as the largest party in the April 10 constituent assembly polls last year.

The government collapsed amid dispute with the President over the reinstatement of Gen Katawal. The ultra left party was also instrumental in the abolition of the country’s unpopular 240-year-old monarchy.