The Nepal Weekly 
July 11, 2023
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’s stunning remarks that an Indian businessman settled here “once made efforts” to make him the Prime Minister has stirred up a storm in the country with the opposition demanding his resignation.
Prachanda made the remark last week while addressing a function to launch the book, ‘Roads to the Valley: The Legacy of Sardar Pritam Singh in Nepal’ “He (Singh) had once made efforts to make me the prime minister,” claimed Prachanda.
“He traveled to Delhi several times and held multiple rounds of talks with political leaders in Kathmandu to make me the prime minister,” the Prime Minister had said.
The remarks have stirred up a storm and drawn criticism from opposition parties.
The main opposition Communist Party of Nepal-(Unified Marxist-Leninist) disrupted the meetings of both the Houses of Parliament demanding the prime minister’s resignation.
Speaking in the House of Representatives, UML lawmaker Raghuji Pant said, “The prime minister should resign on moral grounds. We don’t need a prime minister appointed by Delhi.” Not only the opposition, but the ruling parties have also expressed their dissatisfaction with Prachanda’s statement.
“The prime minister’s remarks are worthy of criticism. His remarks were wrong,” said NC general secretary Bishwa Prakash Sharma talking to journalists after the House meeting.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has clarified about his controversial remarks about Sardar Pritam Singh at a book launch on Monday saying that “it has been misinterpreted to cause a stir.”
Addressing a training program organized by All Nepal National Independent Students Union, a sister organization of his party in the capital the other day, Prime Minister Prachanda said that what he had said about Pritam Singh at the launching of the book ‘Roads to the Valley’ (The Legacy of Sardar Pritam Singh in Nepal) authored by Kirandeep Sandhu was quoted from what Pritam Singh had said in the book, but people are trying to make a fuss over it.
“I wanted to show that Pritam Singh was not only interested in social service and transport business but also in politics and that he had lobbied with parties in Delhi as well as in Nepal to make him Prime Minister.”
In my opinion the Prime Minister might not intend to indicated about India’s intervention in Nepal’s internal politics. But he should have used political and diplomatic words in a cautious manner while speaking about such a sensitive issue,” said Ganesh Shah, CPN-Maoist Centre secretary while giving his comment on the Prime Minister’s controversial remarks. The Parliament was dwelling on serious and important issues but unfortunately his remarks made its postponement losing valuable time, which could have otherwise been used for fruitful discussions, he pointed out.
