Democracy in Nepal under threat : Koirala

Kathmandu, Oct 5 (UNI) Former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress (NC) President Girija Prasad Koirala has said that once again democracy in Nepal is in peril and the time has come for the people to save it, media reports said here today.

''Conspiracies are being hatched to weaken the democracy and there is the need for unity among all Nepali people to tackle it,'' Kantipur quoted Koirala as saying while speaking in Kathmandu.

He accused the current Maoist-led government of being centered towards dictatorship.

Koirala's statement has come at a time when the Maoists have said they would draft a ''people's republic constitution'' clearly referring to the Communist type of system in the Himalayan Republic.

Maoists' Foreign policy expert CP Gajurel, who was arrested and detained in India during the Maoists insurgency, said recently that parliamentary democracy would not be acceptable to the Maoists and they would establish People's Republic system scaring other political parties, who want to write a new democratic constituton like that in India.

The NC President said the present situation exists as the government departed from democratic principle. Koirala opined that the process of drafting new constitution has been delayed due to Maoists' self-esteem.

''If we were there, new constitution would have been drafted'', said Koirala.

Once the Maoists became the largest party in the Constituent Assembly, they refused to share power with the Nepali Congress, the oldest democratic party of the Himalayan republic which played crucial role in abolishing Rana regime in 1950 and monarchy in 2008.

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