February 11, 2012
On February 8, bowing to the opposition's demands, Nepal's Maoist Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai announced that he was revoking his Cabinet’s decision to legalize the war-time transactions of property and land deals.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had issued an order to halt the Maoists’ attempt to legalize the land that they had seized. The Maoists' "Peoples Government" had acquired thousands of papers regarding purchase, sale and distribution of land and property during the conflict period, mostly by using force.
Addressing the 601-member Constituent Assembly, Bhattarai said the UCPN-Maoist government had decided not to implement the decision made by the Cabinet two weeks ago.
The decision was taken earlier in the day during a Cabinet meeting headed by Bhattarai, amid demands by the main opposition parties Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML that the move legalizing the war-time property deals be annulled.
In anticipation of a Maoist-hardliner backlash, Bhattarai also promised that the government would make some arrangements for land reforms that would benefit the poor and deprived classes of the society.
But Mohan Vaidya 'Kiran', the top radical leader of the UCPN-Maoist, was having none of it. He accused Bhattarai of surrendering to the landlords and “feudals” and demanded that “the Prime Minister should immediately resign.”
CP Gajurel, another leading Maoist hardliner agreed: “The Prime Minister should immediately resign because it has revoked the decision to legalize the decisions of the peoples’ government.”
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