INDIA’S OPPOSITION BJP CONCERNED Kathmandu, 28 May: While marathon political parleys were being held in Kathmandu hours before the expiry of the Constituent Assembly tenure, India's main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) expressed grave concerns, Mahesh Acharya reports in The Kathmandu Post from New Delhi.. "Major political parties and their leaders in Nepal have not been able to form any consensus on major issues despite repeated assurances that they would deliver a fully democratic constitution to meet the people's aspirations," a statement issued by the party's former president Rajnath Singh said. "Failure to honour such promises would be a serious setback to Nepal’s quest for peace, democracy, political stability and economic prosperity." The BJP also claimed that external forces are active in trying to derail Nepal's political process. However, the party did not elaborate. "A stable Nepal will ensure a peaceful co-existence of both the countries. Certain external forces with vested interests in their minds are active in the region to destabilise any peaceful political process in Nepal," the statement said. The saffron party has also appealed to Nepalis to not let their society and the country be divided on caste and ethnic lines as "Nepal has all along a glorious past that practised cultural, religious and ethnic harmony." BJP has also voiced concerns over the warning from the ruling coalition to protest against the recent decision of the Supreme Court that annulled the government's decision to extend the tenure of the CA by three more months. "What is even more disturbing is that the ruling coalition government has warned that it would launch a movement against the recent Supreme Court verdict. While the BJP has no intention to interfere in Nepal’s internal politics, we want to share our concerns which arise out of Nepal's current constitutional crisis," the statement added. The BJP further expressed fears that the current trust deficit among the political parties is capable of pushing the country to deeper crisis and it believes that this situation should be avoided at all cost. "A prolonged political crisis and the current level of uncertainty is detrimental to democratic health of the nation and its pride, and we call upon the people of Nepal and political actors to play their role and take the country in a way that its glorious past and its future vision meet," the statement said. Nnnn