The main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has said that Prime Minister (PM) KP Sharma Oli has lost moral and political grounds to lead the government.
The party issuing a press statement on Wednesday has expressed serious concerns about the PM's latest remarks and behavior and demanded that the government and ruling CPN should make the institutional position clear.
"I, on behalf of the main opposition NC, express serious disagreement with the PM's latest remarks and behavior, and demand the institutional position of the government and ruling CPN about that," the statement issued by NC Spokesperson Bishwa Prakash Sharma reads. "If the PM's remarks do no represent that of the Nepal Government and CPN, it further proves that he has lost the moral and political grounds to rule."
PM Oli on Monday accused India of encroaching on cultural facts and claimed Ayodhya is not in India but is a village to the west of Birgunj.
His claims have been widely condemned by those within his ruling party and the opposition alike with CPN Vice-chairman Bam Dev Gautam urging him to self-criticize and take back his Ayodhya claims.
The Foreign Ministry was forced to issue a statement in damage control on Tuesday. It clarified that the Ayodhya claims made by PM Oli on Monday were non-political and not made with intention to hurt anyone's feelings and sentiments.
Issuing a statement a day after PM Oli's controversial claims, the ministry stated that the remarks were not meant to debase the significance of Ayodhya and the cultural value it bears.
Addressing a program organized at the PM's official residence in Baluwatar to mark the birth anniversary of the First Poet Bhanubhakta Acharya, Oli had rued that Nepal has been oppressed culturally.
"We have been oppressed a bit culturally. Facts have been encroached. We still believe that we gave Sita to Indian Prince Ram. But we gave to the prince from Ayodhya not India. Ayodhya is a village a little west to Birgunj, not the Ayodhya created now," he elaborated.
He argued how can a prince from so far come to Janakpur for marriage if the Ayodhya claimed by India were real. He claimed that science and knowledge originated and developed in Nepal and rued that it could not be continued.
