KATHMANDU: Former Nepali Congress president and former prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has called for national and party unity following his return to Nepal after nearly five months abroad for medical treatment.
In a statement issued after returning to Nepal on Thursday, Deuba said he had returned “not to gain power but to strengthen national unity.”
He called for healing the wounds caused by past divisions and hostility and choosing reconciliation over retaliation.
Deuba said the Nepali Congress has embraced the change demanded by the younger generation.
Referring to the Gen-Z movement in September last year, he said he had supported addressing its legitimate demands at the time. However, he clarified that change should not mean portraying the struggles, sacrifices and contributions of previous generations as failures.
“Change does not mean that the past was bad or that the sacrifices, struggles and contributions of our generation were wrong,” Deuba said.
He said the responsibility of the current government was to respond to the public desire for change.
Deuba warned that no one can stand above the people in a democracy if a government formed through a fresh public mandate fails to respect the people’s vote. He also said the Nepali Congress was ready to support the process of managing change.
Deuba calls for immediate resolution of Congress dispute
Deuba stressed the need to immediately address the disagreements and frustration within the Nepali Congress.
He said that regardless of whether the party is numerically large or small in Parliament, the Nepali Congress has led major political changes in the country since 2007 BS.
“The Nepali Congress must move forward not on the basis of anyone’s ego, but by keeping the supreme interests of the people at the centre,” he said.
Deuba said the younger generation should be given greater opportunities in leadership but rejected the narrative that portrays the older and experienced generation as inherently problematic.
He said sharing his long political experience with the younger generation was his responsibility.
Calls for consensus on constitutional changes
Deuba said the Constitution was achieved through the long struggle and sacrifices of Nepalis and that its protection and necessary amendments should be pursued through national consensus.
He called on the Nepali Congress to remain united and work with other political parties through consensus and cooperation to strengthen nationalism and democracy.
Deuba also said he had throughout his political career placed the nation, democracy, citizens, the Constitution and the law above everything else.
“My life is an open book,” he said. “As long as I live, I will continue to work in accordance with the nation, national interest, democracy, the best interests of the country and its people, the Constitution, law, ethics, values and principles.”
Deuba said he had returned not as a leader seeking power but as a lifelong citizen of the country, committed to serving with humility, dedication and love.
Deuba recalled that BP Koirala, upon returning to Nepal from exile in India in 2033 BS, had called for nationalist and democratic forces to unite.
He said the country again needs broad-based national unity among all political forces.
Deuba’s call for unity comes amid an intensifying internal dispute within the Nepali Congress, with rival factions preparing for a national gathering and debating the party’s future leadership and direction.
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