Nepal's new premier names protest group leaders as deputies

KATHMANDU — Nepal's new prime minister took the oath of office yesterday and appointed the leaders of groups that are protesting the new constitution as his deputies.

Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli appointed Bijaya Gachchedar, who leads one of the Madhesi ethnic groups, and Kamal Thapa, whose party is demanding Nepal be restored as a Hindu state, as his deputy prime ministers in his attempt to resolve the crisis in this Himalayan nation.

Gachchedar is leader of the Madhesi People's Rights Forum, which is the not the main Madhesi group but has significant support in the region. The main Madhesi group has said it would continue protests.

Soon after taking the oath, Gachchedar told reporters that he joined the government to help resolve the protests in southern Nepal.

"The issues, differences and demands of the Madhesi and other groups will be resolved by adjusting the states through amendments in the constitution," Gachchedar said adding the government would get the support of all political parties to make the changes.

Oli was sworn in by President Ram Baran Yadav a day after he was elected in Parliament with support from smaller parties.

Also named deputy prime minister was Kamal Thapa, the leader of National Democratic Party-Nepal, which wants Nepal to remain a Hindu nation rather than secular. They protested before the constitution was adopted and voted against it when Parliament approved the document last month.

Madhesis and other ethnic groups in the south have been protesting against the new constitution for weeks.

The country is facing a severe fuel shortage because the Madhesi protests have blocked a key border point from India and supplies through other border points have halted. India, which has close ties to the Madhesis, denies there is a blockade and says drivers are afraid to enter Nepal, though Nepal says there is no trouble at many crossings.

Scores of trucks, including fuel tankers, entered Nepal on Sunday and yesterday from two borders points in southwestern Nepal, but the borders at south and southeast Nepal remained blocked.

Home Ministry spokesman Laxmi Dhakal said there were no problems in most of the border points but was unable to explain why border officials on the Indian side were stopping trucks and then letting some pass.

The constitution divides Nepal into seven new states, with some borders slicing through the Madhesis' ancestral homeland in the southern plains. The Madhesis, along with several other small ethnic groups, want the states to be larger and to be given more autonomy over local matters.

Talks last week between the government and protesters made little progress.