KATHMANDU, Oct 5: The Nepali Congress (NC) on Sunday opened its 15th General Convention at Kathmandu’s historic Khula Manch, with party President Gagan Thapa calling for greater openness, accountability and internal democracy in political parties and Parliament.
The convention is being held under the slogan, “Respecting tradition and pledging for change; a strong Nepali Congress for a prosperous Nepal.”
President Thapa inaugurated the convention by lighting a ceremonial lamp and watering a plant. He also paid tribute to the party’s founders and senior leaders by garlanding their portraits.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Thapa said Parliament could not function as a genuinely open institution without the Prime Minister’s dignified presence and accountability to lawmakers. “The first open forum is needed inside Parliament. Parliament is not open; it is closed,” Thapa said.
He said political parties, too, needed greater internal democracy, arguing that members should be free to question their leaders without fear of expulsion or reprisal. “We need an open forum within the party where a person is not expelled simply for questioning their own leader,” he said.
Thapa described Khula Manch as a landmark in Nepal’s political history, recalling major political commitments associated with BP Koirala, Ganesh Man Singh, Girija Prasad Koirala, Sushil Koirala and Sher Bahadur Deuba.
Recalling a warning issued by Ganesh Man Singh at the site in 1990 that the people would remove leaders who failed to respect their rights, Thapa said Nepal’s political history would remain incomplete without the contribution of the Nepali Congress.
Thapa also said the party had kept a chair vacant for former president Sher Bahadur Deuba, who did not attend the convention. “We had kept a chair vacant for former President Sher Bahadur Deuba, but he did not come,” he said.
He said some leaders and members had left the party and acknowledged that the Congress needed to examine its own role and provide answers.
Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) Chairman Ravi Lamichhane urged political parties not to seek to bring down the government through street protests or threats of unrest. “The government will not fall. Those who say it will fall will be the ones who collapse unconscious,” he said.
Divided Congress Faces Defining Convention
Lamichhane said periodic elections were the only legitimate means of changing a government. If the RSP failed to deliver during its five-year term, he said, voters would have the right to remove it.
He said the people remained the ultimate safeguard of democracy and cautioned political actors against unnecessarily invoking threats to the democratic system.
Lamichhane also called for an end to efforts to reject election results, question the neutrality of security agencies and the Nepal Army, or attribute domestic political developments to foreign interference.
Nepali Communist Party Coordinator Pushpa Kamal Dahal said Thapa had the capacity to lead not only the Nepali Congress but eventually the country.
Congratulating Thapa on assuming the party leadership, Dahal recalled that Thapa had served as health minister during his tenure as prime minister. “Now you should move forward on the path of leading the country. We are ready to support you,” Dahal said.
Dahal described Thapa’s rise to the party leadership as a “break with the established sequence” and urged him to bring together leaders and groups that remain outside the party mainstream.
He warned that the republic and democracy could face risks if political forces failed to work together. He called for cooperation among major political parties to strengthen the democratic republic and complete the remaining tasks of the peace process.
Dahal also cautioned that failure to resolve outstanding issues of the peace process could increase the risk of renewed conflict.
NC Vice President Bishwa Prakash Sharma said the formation of a new government had failed to ease public dissatisfaction and anger.
Although elections had generated fresh expectations, he said political leaders had yet to translate public frustration into trust. “Why is everyone angry, dissatisfied and frustrated?” Sharma asked, pointing to increasingly hostile exchanges on social media.
He said the Congress would support constitutional amendments if they were pursued following a review of a decade of constitutional practice.
Sharma also called for the demands raised by Gen Z youths, as well as issues associated with the Madhes movement, the 2006–07 People’s Movement and the Tharuhat movement, to be addressed. He described the Constitution as a shared national document and a symbol of public trust.
CPN-UML General Secretary Shankar Pokhrel accused the government of moving towards authoritarianism and said it was unwilling to engage in meaningful dialogue with political parties, Parliament or citizens.
Pokhrel said RSP Chairman Lamichhane had been attempting to bring political parties together on national issues, while the government itself was failing to engage with them.
He warned that a government elected through the people’s mandate could pose a threat to democracy if it refused to listen to citizens.
Recalling the joint struggles of left-wing and democratic forces against the Rana regime, the Panchayat system and King Gyanendra’s authoritarian rule, Pokhrel called for democratic and left-wing forces, including the Nepali Congress, to unite again to safeguard democracy.
Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RSP) Chairman Rajendra Lingden said the Constitution was not immutable and proposed a new national political understanding that would encompass political forces ranging from the monarchy to the younger generation.
He called for an agreement that would bring together the aspirations of Nepal’s democratic movement of 1951, the restoration of multiparty democracy in 1990, the inclusion and proportional representation agenda of the 2006–07 movement, and the demands raised by the recent Gen Z uprising.
Lingden argued that the country’s problems could not be resolved simply by changing governments or political leaders and said the Constitution itself contained serious shortcomings. “The Constitution is not the Gita, the Bible or the Quran. It is not something that cannot be touched or changed,” he said.
Former Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai urged political parties to place greater trust in the new generation to ensure long-term political stability. “Let us learn from the past. Now we must trust the new generation,” he said.
Bhattarai called for a common national development plan aimed at taking Nepal to the level of a developed country within the next 20 years.
He said political parties should compete over how effectively they could implement such a plan rather than over political differences. “Let us make such a plan. Let all the parties compete over how to implement it. Only then will the country develop,” he said.
Janata Samajbadi Party Nepal leader Sharat Singh Bhandari said the Nepali people would not accept “controlled democracy” under any pretext.
Addressing the convention, Bhandari said Nepal was passing through a serious economic, social and geopolitical transition. He called for greater cooperation and national unity among the major political parties to address the challenges facing the country.
Nagarik Unmukti Party founder and patron Resham Lal Chaudhary said neither the older generation nor the emerging generation of political leaders had demonstrated a convincing path to national development.
Criticising both the old and new political extremes, he said the country’s hope now rested with the middle generation. “I believe leaders with half-gray hair—leaders like you, Gaganji—will certainly build the country,” Chaudhary said.
