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| Bewildered
supporters of Nepal Congress outside party office
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By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, May 26 (IslamOnline) - Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba
was Sunday, May 26, expelled by his party, the Nepali Congress, for
three years for dissolving the Parliament and extending the state of
emergency Wednesday for three months, disregarding the party's
directive. The ruling party has given Deuba three days to explain his
move.
Deuba
had come to power last July. His arch rival Mr Girja Prasad Koirala, a
former prime minister, is president of the party. Mr Koirala, a veteran
politician, who has served several terms as prime minister, was forced
out of office in July 2001 amid criticism of his failure to contain
Maoist violence.
"The
party's disciplinary committee has expelled Prime Minister Deuba for
three years and asked all the ministers belonging to the Nepali Congress
to quit the ministry as the government headed by Deuba is no longer a
Nepali Congress government," Nepali Congress Party deputy general
secretary, Govinda Raj Joshi, said.
Joshi
ruled out the possibility of splitting the party even after Deuba's
removal from the ordinary membership of the party. "The Nepali
Congress will remain united whoever comes or goes from the party,"
he said.
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Nepal
Congress chief, Koirala
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However,
the possibility cannot be ruled out since 34 ministers out of the
39-member Deuba government have backed, in a joint statement, the Prime
Minister's decision to dissolve the Parliament and go for a fresh
mandate. Three members of the cabinet, including the influential Finance
Minister Ram Sharan Mahat, had already resigned Thursday. The next
elections are slated on November 13, two years ahead of the term of the
current parliament.
The
new crisis comes as the country is fighting a bloody war against the
Moaist rebels who are waging a six-year-old rebellion against monarchy
that has killed more than 4,000 people and crippled the impoverished
nation's economy.
The
situation has deteriorated since the declaration of the emergency last
November. Emergency rule gives local authorities and security forces
wide powers to detain and interrogate suspected Maoists and impose
curfews.
Sandwiched
between China and India, Nepal has had three elections and 11
governments since it became a multi-party democracy in 1990, hampering
efforts to raise living standards in a nation where the average income
is 60 cents a day.
Reconciliation
efforts are underway. A leading figure in the ruling Nepali Congress
party, Krishna Prasad Bhattarai, a former prime minister, has returned
to Kathmandu from London to oversee reconciliation efforts between Mr
Deuba and the party.
A
split is inevitable if these efforts fail. Mr. Koirala is being pressed
to withdraw the disciplinary action against Mr Deuba, who in turn, will
be required to pledge to honor the party's instructions in future.
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Prime
Minister Deuba
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Nepal,
the world's only Hindu kingdom, is still reeling from a palace massacre
last June when Crown Prince Dipendra killed his father King Birendra and
all his immediate family members in a shooting rampage before shooting
himself.
Many
in Nepal believe that the palace massacre is still shrouded in mystery
and that foreign players may be involved in the backdrop of the Maosist
insurgency. Local media has blamed India and the U.S.
Apart
from opposition parties, Nepal's Maoist rebels too have criticised the
extension of the emergency. "Political parties in and outside
parliament had protested against the extension of the state of emergency
and desired talks between the government and the Maoists to resolve the
country's problems," Maoist chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal, alias
Prachand, said in a statement.
"However,
the Deuba government ignored political parties and dissolved the elected
parliament to silence them in order to extend the emergency," he
said. "This only exposed him in a naked form as a retrograde
force," he added. "The Maoists have always kept open the door
for the bilateral talks and appealed to all the political parties to
help hold the talks," Prachand said.
