By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Mar. 3: The government has formed a two-member team to hold talks with the outlawed Nepal Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) led by Netra Bikram Chand ‘Biplav.’
At a press conference held on Tuesday, Minister for Communication and Information Technology Parbat Gurung, who is also the spokesperson of the government, said that the talks team comprises Minister for Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa Badal and Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Advisor Dr. Rajan Bhattarai.
Speaking at the press conference, Minister Gurung said the government was all set to lift the ban imposed on the party.
Minister Gurung expressed confidence that the group would join peaceful politics after the lifting of the ban.
Minister Gurung said that the process of dialogue between the government and the Biplav group would move forward soon.
“After the government has formed this negotiating team, we are confident that the rebel group will also form a dialogue team from their side as soon as possible,” said Minister Gurung.
He said that the government has a clear vision to bring everyone into the mainstream peaceful politics.
Asked about lifting of the ban imposed on the rebel groups and their weapons management, Minister Gurung said all issues would be resolved through talks.
‘The government has formed its team to resolve the issues facing them, their weapons, and all these processes will be resolved accordingly. If everything is resolved before the talks, the justification of the talks will end,’ said Minister Gurung.
The government had imposed a ban on the Biplav group on March 12, 2019. The government had banned all activities of the rebel group, citing violent activities.
Since then Nepal Police has been pursuing a policy of arresting the leaders and cadres of the group wherever they meet them.
So far, police have arrested about 2,000 leaders and activists of the group.
A couple of weeks ago, the Chand-led outfit expressed its readiness to hold dialogue with the government if an environment conducive to talks was created.
Meanwhile, in response to the government’s talks team, the NCP led by Biplav also formed a talks team on Tuesday. The team is led by Khadga Bahadur Bishwakarma alias Prakanda, one of the key leaders of the outfit. Prakanda is also the spokesperson of the group.
“Our party agrees to hold talks with the government on the political, economic, and national independence of the country,” according to the statement issued by the party.
Another member of the party is Udaya Chalaune ‘Deepak’, according to a statement issued by the party. Prakanda and Chalaune are also the members of the central committee secretariat of the party.
Earlier, the government had formed a committee headed by lawmaker Som Prasad Pandey to hold talks with underground groups.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had said that the government was in the process to hold talks with the Biplav-led party.
Meanwhile, Nepali Congress has expressed its confidence that both the sides would find solution to the political problem within multiparty democracy and parliamentary system. It said that the NC was firm on finding solution to all the problems through dialogue.