Maoists for broad nationalist front, clarifies Baidhya

http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/content.php?nid=31707 [ 2007-12-7 ]
By A Staff Reporter

Kathmandu, Dec. 6: Senior Maoist leader Mohan Baidhya 'Kiran' said that his party was willing to forge a broad nationalist front with royalist nationalist turned republic nationalist and not with the royalist nationalist as such.

Talking to The Rising Nepal, he clarified that in the context of institutionalising republic in the country there was no possibility of forging any front with those parties which still uphold the idea that monarchy was the pivotal of national unity, sovereignty and integrity.

?We have for a long time been focusing on making a broader alliance of nationalist force among the nationalists, Lokatantrik and Leftist forces," he said, adding, ?Our present focus is on the nationalist force that roamed around the monarchy (wrongly) believing it the saviour of the nation."

He claimed that party chairman Prachanda's expression in this line was distorted by some media that went on to say that the Maoist party was even interested in forging alliance with the force which is struggling for keeping monarchy and put the clock back.

He noted that nationalism was in crisis with foreign powers dictating the course of national politics at a time when the nation was undergoing a period of political transition.

?The country has witnessed attempts of foreign powers to impose their vested interest in the name of boosting democracy in the country," he said. He added, ?Two negative political tendencies of thinking monarchy as a symbol of nationality and ignoring national interest that have bowed before international interference in the name of democracy must end now."

The alliance of the nationalists would form a new political equation but it will not undermine the unity of the seven parties, he said. Such an alliance is needed to bring into the republican fold the huge mass that is still around the monarch, he pointed out.