During his meeting with the indigenous leaders at his residence in Lazimpat on Sunday, Dahal said he would be able to form federal provinces based on single ethnic-identity only if they countered the ´anti-federal forces´ on the streets. [break]"You should go out to counter anti-federal forces who are trying to capture streets," he said.
Dahal claimed he was alone in the negotiation to push for identity-based federal state. "It is very difficult for me to fight alone in the meetings for identity based federal state. All suppressed peoples, peasants, workers and indigenous people across the country should unite," he further said.
Addressing the meeting, Dahal also claimed that the anti-federal groups, advocating status quo, had captured the streets in an "anarchic manner". "During negotiations political leaders say we they should not to go for federalism because the people have already taken to the streets against it,” he added.
Referring to the statements of the Nepali Congress and CPN-UML leaders that they would agree on the contentious issues of new constitution as per proposal floated by the Maoists, Dahal complained that the parties had forgotten what they said before. "Two months have passed since the army integration process but no substantial progress have been made on constitution drafting from the NC and the UML,” he alleged.
Dahal also informed that the party leaders told him that they would not allow their CA members to cross floor at any cost. "The status quo forces have been saying time and again that I gave up the issue of identity based federalism. But I´m fighting for the cause on the table and I won´t compromise on identity based federalism," he said.
NC says nay to single ethnic-identity based province
Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala has ruled out any possibility of delineating single ethnic-identity based federal state.
Addressing a group of leaders from ethnic communities, who went to his residence at Maharajgunj, Koirala said provinces would be delineated with the view to maintaining social harmony. Koirala said NC was against federal state based on single ethnic identity as this could invite a series of conflict in the country.
Koirala assured state restructuring would be done in a way that would give a sense of ownership to all groups and people in the country. He pointed out the need to delineate provinces by taking into account factors such as geographical condition, economic viability and administrative accessibility along with the issue of identity.
The leaders of ethnic communities had warned NC and UML would be "politically doomed" if they did not accept single identity-based federal state. They had also warned that they would not accept new constitution if it failed to ensure federal state based on single identity.
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