If King Gyanendra couldn’t defeat me, no one else can: Deuba

KATHMANDU: Former Nepali Congress (NC) President Sher Bahadur Deuba has claimed that if King Gyanendra could not defeat him, no one else could either.

“King Gyanendra couldn’t do it, so can anyone else here?” Deuba said, addressing party leaders and cadres at the contact office of the party’s dissident faction in Chundevi on Thursday.

Deuba, who left Singapore some five months ago for treatment, returned to Nepal on Thursday.

“Speaking of King Gyanendra, the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly brought the republic to Nepal—a republic. It was a republic brought by the people,” he added.

Stating that the Nepali people are supreme, he insisted that the people are the ultimate authority. The former prime minister also expressed full faith in the judiciary.

“The people of this country are here, the courts are here; everyone knows and understands. We will show them tomorrow,” Deuba said. “It is not just now—the courts have delivered justice since the Panchayat era. I have complete faith in the court, and we will fight there in the days ahead.”

He claimed that even an international court refused to arrest him. “They even filed a case against me at the International Criminal Court. But the court declared that under no circumstances would they arrest Sher Bahadur. They said they would not arrest his wife or him,” Deuba said. “Cases were filed here as well. There are scoundrels here.”

He added that Nepali courts had likewise issued orders prohibiting the arrest of both him and his wife, Arzu Rana Deuba.

Deuba also alleged that repeated attempts had been made to press charges against him by mobilizing the Department of Money Laundering Investigation.