The prime minister has urged not to raise questions over the agreement even as he faces serious criticism from the rival faction within his own party, CPN-UML, and from other political parties.[break]
"It is not appropriate to only repeatedly raise questions over the deal because a joint statement has already been published from the level of chairmen of both the CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) with a view to clarify some ambiguities and confusion over the pact," the prime minister said in his address to the nation which was televised live.
The rival faction in the UML led by former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and KP Sharma Oli and the Nepali Congress (NC), among others, have stood fervently against the deal that he reached secretly with Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal just ahead of the prime ministerial election that he won early this month with Maoist support.
"There was no intention of any ´left-polarization´ nor was there any conspiracy to share [the leadership] only between the two parties," he explained.
While UML leaders from the Nepal-Oli camp fiercely objected to the agreement for expressing commitment to the Maoist agenda of ´people´s inclusive democratic republic´ instead of being sincerely committed to ´federal democratic republic´, Khanal in his address described the seven-point agreement as an initiative toward institutionalizing the federal democratic republic.
"To reinforce the agreement on stronger grounds and accommodate other political parties in the government with due respect is our main intention," he said. He said there was no plan to forge alliances against anyone.
The prime minister urged the NC and other parties to join the government. "By joining the government, the NC can play a more constructive role in delivering peace and the constitution," he said.
He also stressed that no one should take his efforts for building national consensus as a weakness.
Khanal claimed that he was confident of securing decisive achievements in the peace process and creating the ground for promulgating the new constitution in the next nearly 70 days. "I want to assure the entire nation about achieving this goal," he said.
Praising the Maoists for their initiative to arrive at the present stage of the peace process and for giving up violence, he said the Maoists should be supported in their public commitment in connection with fully adopting a democratic system.
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