Kathmandu, July 12
Onlinekhabar caught up with Bishnu Rimal, CPN-UML leader and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s political adviser, to talk about his boss’ immediate steps. Rimal said: We want to ask a few questions to Members of Parliament. Prime Minister wants to ask lawmakers what mistakes he made that caused him to lose his job. Rimal asked CPN-Maoist Centre not to dread PM’s questions.
Excerpts from the interview:
Government is bereft of majority. Shouldn’t the PM quit?
The Maoist party (CPN-Maoist Centre) would have been spared all the trouble if Prime Minister had resigned. These days, (the Maoist party)n have been seeking PM’s resignation daily. They made up their mind to seek PM’s resignation six months ago. Ever since, PM Oli has been asking the same question: On what grounds should I resign? What went wrong and where? What were our faults? They (the Maoists) have not responded. That’s why the PM did not resign.
The Maoist party made a political decision to withdraw support to the government. Now, it should put it in the language of the Parliament. And they have the right to do so. The party can command a majority either by siding with the CPN-UML (182 seats in the Parliament) or with the Congress (205 seats). They are free to challenge the existing government.
Should a PM, who is short of majority, not have quit?
All we are asking the Maoists is this: Whatever decisions you have made, present them in the Parliament. There, the Congress and the Maoist party can seek PM’s resignation, table a no-confidence motion, challenge the government to show majority support. Why should the Maoist party fear the Parliament?
You hope this government will survive?
It all depends on lawmakers. By saying we will face the Parliament, we mean this: We want to ask what misdeeds did the CPN-UML-led government and Prime Minister KP Oli commit? What wrongs forced PM Oli’s ouster? Prime Minister will ask the questions in the House and have the answers recorded? We hope history will answer PM’s questions even if lawmakers don’t. That is all we want to do.
