Senior leader of Nepali Congress (NC) Ram Chandra Paudel has accused party President Sher Bahadur Deuba of thinking that he is deemed brave if he violates the party statute.
"He has this mentality that he is deemed braver and more powerful the more he violates the statute," Paudel said speaking to News Agency Nepal on Wednesday. "We are worried that this party is veering toward the risk of whether it is a democratic party or not due to that attitude."
Deuba has been on an appointment spree in recent times nominating leaders in party departments and committees. The departments need to be formed within six months of the general convention but Deuba is making the appointments when his four-year term has already ended and he is on a one-year extension as the party chief.
Paudel has recently handed over a letter to Deuba accusing him of trying to influence the next general convention by interfering in distribution and renewal of active membership, by forming party departments after announcement of general convention violating the code of conduct, and slammed his unilateral announcement to make Sunil Thapa, who joined the party quitting RPP, joint general secretary.
The Paudel faction is further irked after Deuba recently nominated 479 cadres and leaders of different districts above 65 years to the senior politician assembly led by him and completed some of the party departments.
Paudel claimed that Deuba is hostage to his habits of violating statute. "Our president thinks he can get away with anything. I remember he once used to brag 'If anyone can break the law in this country, it's the home minister and I will break the law as I've already been a home minister'. We all used to laugh that away," he reminisced. "He is still doing that. This bravery has hurt NC. This bravery has resulted in a big loss for democracy, damaged it and injured it."
He reiterated that the statute does not allow an acting president, whose term has already ended and who is on a one-year extension, cannot take unilateral decisions. "He is busy making appointments now. Can an acting president, acting working committee do this after end of the term?" he asked. "We are telling him to not make mockery of the statute and democratic norms and values. This can even put democracy in crisis in Nepal as NC is almost synonymous to democracy."
The party has decided to hold the 14th general convention from February 19-22, 2021 in Kathmandu but the schedule for election at the party's lower levels has been affected due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Distribution and renewal of active membership is going on in many districts now. The lower levels of the party will have to send the list of active members to the center where any dispute about active membership is settled.
Election at the lower levels can only be started once the list of active members is finalized. The party had around 380,000 active members in the last general convention.
The election at the local level of the party will start from December 21.
