Abolish monarchy, cry citizens

When the prime minister is using all his strength to save monarchy with all the possible prefixes like child, baby, ceremonial and what not, the citizens, not belonging to any party, cried to the sky, "abolish monarchy", don't give a single penny to the royal palace". This is what is the people's volice.

Nilambar Acharya, a member of 1990 constitution drafting committee, today said that the issue of the republican system should be cleared before holding election of the constituent assembly to assure its fairness and acceptability.

“You cannot imagine of free and fair election of constituent assembly when there is remains of monarchy in Nepal,” he said, while addressing the “warning mass meeting” of Civil Movement for Democracy and Peace.

He said that when the declaration of the House of Representatives has already decided to nationalise property of the late king Birendra and King Gyanendra, the king should not be allowed to reside in the Narayan Hiti Palace.

He also said that only making the names of the convicted from the Rayamajhi Commission is not enough, the leaders of the February 1 suppression should be penalised to keep the report’s legitimacy intact.

Member of the legislature-parliament Malla K Sundar said that the civil society are not convinced that the election of the constituent would be held in November because the leaders of the parties had cheated the people two times in giving dates of the election and not withdrawing.

The leader of CMDP Dr Devendra Raj Panday said that king must be ousted to hold free and fair election of constituent assembly.

“The king should go first to hold the election. We are spending our time and energy on king when we have to devote ourselves on what kind of constitution we are making,” he said.

Dr Sundar Mani Dixit, another civil society movement leader, said urged the political parties to go to the villages and disseminate information about the election.

“We do not want to see political leaders enjoying easy life in the capital. They must be holding mass meetings in villages, if they are committed to constituent assembly,” he said.

He also said that the newly passed Member of Constituent Assembly Act is also misleading which says that the convicted of the Rayamahi Commission would not be able to candidate when the commission is not made public.

Leader of Nepal Students Union Gagan Thapa urged the leaders of eight political parties to come up with straightforward opinion on monarchy and the convicted of the Rayamajhi Commission before holding the election.

“The king is not going to say good by after the first meeting of constituent assembly. When the leaders are delivering ambiguous comments here, the king must be working to divide the top leaders in all parties,” he said, adding that most of top leaders will show their “real face” concerning monarchy very soon.

“The youths, who trust NC, have recently have urged the leadership to abandone love for monarchy. Now the president of NC must respect the voice of the youth, who constitute 51 percent of Nepal’s total population,” he said.