National, foreign agents trying to destabilise Nepal: Prachanda

KATHMANDU: In a veiled attack on India, Nepal's Maoist chief Prachanda today accused foreign and national "agents" besides feudals of trying to destabilise the country by breaking communal harmony in the Madhesi-dominated Terai region by playing the Constitution card.

The 60-year-old former Prime Minister known for his anti- India stance claimed that the feudals as well as foreign and national agents have hijacked the agenda of the Maoist party in Terai in a bid to make the party weaker in the southern plains.

"The feudals and the agents are trying to destabilise the country by breaking communal harmony in the Terai," the UCPN- Maoist chief said.

The Terai region bordering India is majorly populated by Madhesis who are Indian-origin and opposed to splitting Nepal into seven provinces.

He cautioned the party's Madhesi cadres saying that the national and international agents are trying to drag the country towards communal disharmony.

The new constitution is anti-feudal and anti-colonialist as well as oriented towards socialism, he said, adding that the colonialists and expansionists are not happy with the promulgation of the statute.

Prachanda was addressing his party cadres during workers training programme organised by the party in Biratnagar, the industrial town situated in southeast Nepal close to the key border trade point with India which has been blockaded by people protesting the new Constitution.

His remarks may be seen as a veiled attack on India, which Nepal blames for the "unofficial blockade" that has led to scarcity of essential goods.

Nearly a fortnight ago, Prachanda had said that Nepal cannot bow down before anyone's pressure and that the promulgation of the new statute is a "matter of conscience and self-respect".

This was Prachanda's first leg of visit in the Terai - the southern plains - amid two months-long agitation after the promulgation of the new constitution.