The president during a meeting with top leaders of 19 political parties at his office on Friday ruled out any possibility of endorsing ordinances even as Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai at the same meeting underscored the urgency of endorsing the ordinance on forming the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).[break]
"He categorically told the leaders that he wouldn´t endorse even a single ordinance forwarded by the present caretaker government," said Prakash Chandra Lohani, co-chair of the Rastriya Janashakti Party, who was present at the meeting. The president also made it clear that he wouldn´t endorse the ordinances that were submitted by the present government even if the political parties unanimously suggest him to do so. The president is already sitting on nearly a dozen ordinances.
"He clearly said that he would endorse the ordinances after a consensus government is in place and a cabinet meeting of such a coalition recommends him to do so," Lohani told Republica.
Also, Lohani of the RJP, Chandradev Joshi of CPN (Samyukta) and some other leaders present at the meeting objected to the prime minister´s argument that it had become urgent to endorse the ordinance on forming the TRC. They countered that the ordinance shouldn´t be approved at present when there is no parliament and when all the opposition political parties are in a dark about the provisions included in the TRC bill.
The president said he is going to take a strong move sooner or later. Citing the case of CA dissolution, the president told the leaders that he wouldn´t remain as indecisive as the then CA Chairman Subas Nembang, who remained mute witness to the CA demise in May last year. "I will not remain as indecisive as former CA chairman at the time of CA´s dissolution. I know I have a duty toward the country and toward the people and I will fulfill it," Joshi quoted the president as telling the meeting.
According to Joshi, the president, unlike in the past meetings, presented himself in a noticeably different manner and was making strongly-worded statements at the meeting on Friday. Yadav however repeatedly clarified that he wouldn´t take any move by bypassing the political parties.
In the meantime, CPN-UML leader Madhav Kumar Nepal floated a proposal at the meeting that the president be given a mandate to nominate a prime ministerial candidate given the political parties´ failure to agree on a common leader.
Nepal briefed at the meeting that leaders from his party are mulling over the idea and they discussed it at the party´s standing committee meeting on Thursday.
Some leaders including Lohani and Joshi seconded Nepal´s idea arguing that the president should be given such authority saying that the country shouldn´t be further held hostage to major parties´ inability to agree on a common candidate. "It is high time that leaders from the major parties admit their failure and entrust the president with the responsibility of nominating a leader in consultation with the political parties," said Joshi. "Because the country cannot afford prolonging the deadlock anymore."
Lohani also said that the president should be given the responsibility if the current state of indecision lingers on.
The president summoned the leaders at his office as major parties failed to agree on a common prime ministerial candidate even though he extended the deadline for the eighth time on Thursday.
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