Dozens of students affiliated to the Nepal Student Union, a student wing of the Nepali Congress, demonstrated today at Baluwatar. They were demanding with Nepali Congress leaders for a change in the existing student leadership that just contributed to status quoism in the country. One of the demonstrating students said, “We want a change in the student leadership that helped corrupt party leaders rather than genuine republicans.” Another student was shouting, “We don’t want a self-defeating leadership. We no longer want the helpless leadership that defeated the party in the constituent assembly.”
One of the passers-by commented on the demonstration as ‘an effort by youths supporting the Nepali Congress to seek democracy within the Nepali Congress Party where individual elites make decisions while devoted and life-giving leaders and cadres silently submit to their decisions.
During King Gyanendra’s regressive period, Koirala elites and other pro-monarchy leaders within the Nepali Congress ousted student leaders Gagan Thapa and Gururaj Ghimire from the student union leadership for chanting slogans against the feudal monarchy. This shows how powerful a few elites are in the Nepali Congress.
After the Nepali Congress secured the second position after Maoists in the recent constituent assembly poll, Nepali Congress activists who believed they had to secure the first position in any way possible have questioned the current leadership.
Today’s demonstration by a few dozen student activists indicates that they belong to the republican pole within the party. It hints at the demand for a big change also in the party central leadership.
Many people supporting the Nepali Congress are not happy with the current leadership. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, also the President of the Nepali Congress Party, has not resigned from his party head position while the UML Secretary General Madhav Nepal, after defeat, has resigned from his party leader position. An old man, approximately 65, reading today’s DeshantarWeekly at a teashop near Prime Minister’s Gate at Baluwatar, said, “Our Congress party must not be the personal property of Koirala dynasty.”
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