With a grain of salt

When it comes to Nepalui Congress, it is not easy to take them at their face value. They are at heart a royalist party. THere used to be a time when they used to believe that democracy was synonymous with Nepali Congress. Incompetent leaders like Girija is at its helm. There is an obvious intellectual vacuum in that party. MY feeling is that despite its omission of constitutional monarchy, it will be the first one to dish it and strt licking the feet of royalties. Nevertheless, it is a good sign that they are showing some political spine.

NC removes constitutional monarchy from its statute
KOL Report
KATHMANDU, Aug 29 - The Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting of Nepali Congress Monday decided to omit constitutional monarchy from its party statute.
Excluding Shailaja Acharya, all other party leaders approved the decision to remove the concept of constitutional monarchy from the party’s statute today. Acharya has written a note of dissent on the decision.
“We have removed constitutional monarchy from the party’s objectives,” Ram Sharan Mahat told Kantipur Online. “The relevance of monarchy will be kept open from now.”
Mahat said that the party is not bound to constitutional monarchy now.
“Constitutional monarchy was a sort of compromise between the King and the political forces in the country,” Mahat said, “Since the King has violated the norms we are not bound by the monarchy anymore.”
The CWC meeting decided to delete "constitutional monarchy" from Clause 2 of the party statute that earlier stated the party's main objective as establishment of a just and dynamic society within a framework of constitutional monarchy, multiparty system and parliamentary form of government. The amended clause also talks about restructuring the state and implementing inclusive democracy to create a just society.
The party has also amended its statute which earlier mentioned constitutional monarchy as its pride. Now the statute mentions constitutional monarchy as a past glory.
Ram Chandra Poudel, who tabled the amendment proposal in the party's meeting as the head of the Policy and Program Department, said the term was simply removed from the party statute since the King himself embarked on an unconstitutional path and continued to reject the idea of staying within constitutional bounds.
The CWC meeting started discussing the issue from Sunday.
The party’s 11th general convention that begins tomorrow is expected to pass the decision. (dds)