Nepal Opposition Spurns Bid to Join Current Regime

This country’s main opposition parties, banned for three decades until bloody protests last week, refused an offer Tuesday to participate in the present Nepalese government.

Sahana Pradhan, leader of a seven-faction United Left, said the government bears full responsibility for the shooting of protesters Friday in Katmandu. Pradhan said the entire political system should be dismantled.

“First, we want the present government to be dissolved. We are not going to join this government. The (opposition) Nepali Congress is of the same opinion. But this government thinks they can stay in power by expanding,” Pradhan said.

King Birendra lifted a ban on political parties Sunday after the bloodiest scenes in modern Nepalese history. Eyewitnesses said 50 people were killed Friday when troops fired at protesters marching to the royal palace.

Pasupati Rana, a member of the present Cabinet, rejected the opposition’s demand for dismissal of the government. He told a news conference that agreement might be far off.

“Creating a consensus is always a difficult task, but there are instances of consensus being created out of very divergent parties,” Rana said.

The Congress and the United Left, allied in the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, are pushing for a new constitution limiting the role of the monarch.

The king, now functioning above the constitution, is revered by many in Nepal as a descendant of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Girija Prasad Koirala, general secretary of the Nepali Congress, said the demand for the king’s role to be reduced to a constitutional monarch is shared by the entire opposition.

“No one wants to relinquish power but we have to see the sentiments of the people,” Koirala said in a reference to eight weeks of pro-democracy campaigning by the MRD.

Koirala said there could be more violence if opposition demands are not met soon. “The people have run out of patience,” he said, adding that the MRD had only suspended its campaign of demonstrations, not ended it.

Both the Nepali Congress and Communist factions of the United Left want the government replaced by an interim government formed with or without participation by supporters of the present system.

But there are also signs of disagreement among the opposition after last weekend’s reforms.