This article appeared on Nepal News 08 Feb 2009 under the title “Don’t attend PLA function: Prez tells PM, Defense Minister”. Dr. Ram Baran Yadav is the president of Nepal and a member of the reactionary Nepali Congress Party.
President Dr Ram Baran Yadav, who has decided not to attend the upcoming Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) anniversary, has advised the prime minister and the defense Minister to also follow his example and shun the event.
Rajendra Dahal, press advisor to the president, told Kantipur Daily Saturday that the president is of the advice that if the prime minister and the defense minister, who are in the command structure of the country’s top security agency, the Nepal Army, attend a programme of another military or paramilitary forces then it will not send a good signal.
It must be noted that Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is also the chairman of the Unified CPN (Maoist) and Defense Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa is its senior leader.
Shital Niwas, the Office of the President, had received the invitation to PLA Day set for February 12.
Dahal said that Shital Niwas has already sent a reply informing that Dr Yadav’s will be unable to attend the programme.