Pro-monarchists to launch stir for constitution promulgation

Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPPN) today announced the agitation from May 23 to protect national independence and an early promulgation of the constitution.

We want to establish such a system in which Maoists as well as monarchy can be accommodated, party's president Kamal Thapa said in the capital today.

Thapa, who is also a former Home Minister in the erstwhile royal government, vowed to agitated for safeguarding democracy and protect national independence. The party claimed both democracy and national independence are at risk in the country.

The RPPN is already campaigning to restore Nepal as a Hindu state and revive the monarchy. It has argued for a referendum to finalise the issue of the abolition of the monarchy, secularism and federalism in the country.

Mass protests against former monarch Gyanendra that began in April 2006 finally culminated in the abolition of the 240-year-old monarchy soon after the CPN-Maoist emerged as the largest party in the 2008 constituent assembly polls.

Supporters of the monarchy in Nepal, where in the past kings were revered as the reincarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, have demanded a national referendum to decide if the monarchy should be revived.

Nepalese political leaders are set to miss the May 28 deadline to finish the drafting of a new constitution as stipulated by the peace process that brought the civil war to an end in 2006.

The Maoists, who have around 35 per cent of the seats in parliament, want the government disbanded, followed by the formation of a new coalition government led by them to rescue the peace process and draft a new constitution.