Skip to footer

Violence breaks out during drafting of Nepalese constitution

Protesters have lit cars on fire as Kathmandu as politicians draft a new constitution.

|
Niranjan Shrestha/AP
Nepalese protesters shout slogans against the government during the general strike called by alliance of 30 party led by Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-Maoist) in Kathmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, Jan 20, 2015. Opposition parties staged general strike to shut down Nepal on Tuesday as opposition politicians threw chairs and attacked the parliamentary speaker in a bid to block the government from pushing through a draft of a new constitution.
  • By Binaj Gurubacharya Associated Press

| KATHMANDU, Nepal

Opposition politicians threw chairs and attacked the parliamentary speaker during a violent general strike in Nepal on Tuesday aimed at blocking the government from pushing through a draft of a new constitution.

The strike called by the alliance of 30 opposition parties also shut down schools, transportation and shops. Supporters chanted anti-government slogans at rallies in the capital, Kathmandu, and a dozen vehicles were set on fire when their owners defied the strike call.

Police detained about 50 protesters who were trying to enforce the strike.

Both the ruling coalition and opposition said they would stick to their positions and there was no plan for a meeting to defuse the situation.

"We will bring the draft despite the protests. If they continue to block the assembly meeting we will find other alternatives but we will bring the draft," said Jhalnath Khanal, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist), a ruling party.

Baburam Bhattarai of the United Communist Party of Nepal Maoist said the opposition parties would continue their protests and would not bow down to the ruling coalition.

The Constituent Assembly started a long-delayed meeting at 2 a.m. Tuesday, and the violence started when opposition members tried to stop Speaker Subash Nemwang from proposing the formation of a questionnaire committee, which precedes voting on the constitutional draft.

They threw chairs, kicked over desks and tossed microphones at the speaker. In the tussle, several security guards were injured but the assembly members suffered only bruises.

A second meeting later Tuesday was also disrupted by the opposition members who chanted slogans for one and half hours, preventing Nemwang from speaking. Security was stepped up with three lines of security guards posted before the speaker.

The ruling coalition — which has the support of two-thirds of the members of the 605-member assembly — plans to push through the draft on Thursday. Opposition parties say any new constitution should be adopted through consensus among all political parties.

The Himalayan nation has been attempting to draft a constitution since electing its first Constituent Assembly in 2008. The second assembly was chosen in 2013 but disagreements among the parties continue to hamper progress.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Violence breaks out during drafting of Nepalese constitution
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2015/0120/Violence-breaks-out-during-drafting-of-Nepalese-constitution
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe