Nepal Politics

Oli’s Climb, Prachanda’s Fall

Nov 30, -0001 0 6 minutes 32 seconds to read

…

Democracy Vs Minority Diktats

Nov 30, -0001 0 10 minutes 6 seconds to read

…

Derailing Democracy

Nov 30, -0001 0 8 minutes 42 seconds to read

…

Games To Delay The Constitution

Nov 30, -0001 0 5 minutes 32 seconds to read

…

UML's Transformation : Leninism To Panelism

Nov 30, -0001 0 8 minutes 50 seconds to read

…

UML’s Throb To Democratize

Nov 30, -0001 0 7 minutes 41 seconds to read

…

Political Process: Tardy, Taxing And Tattered

Nov 30, -0001 0 7 minutes 46 seconds to read

…

Mirage Of A New Force

Nov 30, -0001 0 8 minutes 44 seconds to read

…

Undemocratic Overtures

Nov 30, -0001 0 9 minutes 17 seconds to read

…

Retreat Of The Meek Fellow

Nov 30, -0001 0 8 minutes 17 seconds to read

…

Elections Over, Not The Conflict

Nov 30, -0001 0 8 minutes 34 seconds to read

…

Govern Like A Government

Nov 30, -0001 0 7 minutes 29 seconds to read

…

Fears Of Polls Going Futile

Nov 30, -0001 0 8 minutes 5 seconds to read

…

Fall Of The Last Pillar

Nov 30, -0001 0 8 minutes 20 seconds to read

…

Manifesto Recast At Hetauda Commune

Nov 30, -0001 0 8 minutes 52 seconds to read

…

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No Laughing Matter

The Sweet Rewards of Power

By Madan Lamsal

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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<em><span style="font-size: 14px;">By the magnitude of his &lsquo;flexibility&rsquo; shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year.</span></em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Akhilesh Tripathi&nbsp;</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Bikram Samvat 2072, the new Nepali year which started about two weeks ago, is going to be interesting. There are telltale signs of that. Consider the following incident!&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		On the eve of the New Year, Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Chandra Nemwang called a meeting of the top leaders of the major political parties to discuss the thorny issues of the new constitution. CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli was absent. The reason was he was climbing Dharahara! On this conspicuous absence, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda grumbled, &ldquo;For Oli, Dharahara is more important than the new constitution.&rdquo; Later, Oli, whose Dharahara climb was aided by an oxygen cylinder, retorted, &ldquo;It is difficult to climb up like the UML, but quite easy to go down like the Maoists!&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Why did Oli ignore an all-party meeting to climb the Dharahara? There are two possible answers. One, Oli, who is said to be playing the final innings of his life wanted to accomplish his wish of being atop the historical monument (Had he waited for 12more days to fulfill this wish of his, he wouldn&rsquo;t be able to do so because the historical monument built by Nepal&rsquo;s first prime minister Bhimsen Thapa was grounded in the April 25 earthquakes). Two, he deliberately ignored the meeting of the major parties to pile more pressure on the opposition parties, mainly the Maoists. Who says he doesn&rsquo;t aspire to become the next Prime Minister at the earliest possible? After all, he climbed the Dharahar to dismiss a major allegation against him that he is sick and unfit.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepali politicians speak in different ways. Oli climbs Dharahara, all 213 steps. By doing so, he is sending three clear messages: I am strong enough to climb; I can see the view from the top; the New Year is going to be beautiful.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Prachanda, while talking to the media, says he&rsquo;s willing to take any risk for the sake of delivering a constitution on time. In a meeting of the three major parties &ndash; Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) on April 20, Prachanda agreed to resume the constitution writing process. It&rsquo;s a big example of flexibility shown by him.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		By the magnitude of his &lsquo;flexibility&rsquo; shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year. Or at least, greater things are at stake that justify his move to alienate the Janajatis, anger the Madhesis, and shutting the door to unification among the six Maoist parties.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But why did Prachanda change and became flexible? Prachanda has lost a lot of political ground in recent times. The Nepal bandh called by the 30-party front led by him could not win public support. So it fell flat on the very first day. Similarly, Prachanda&rsquo;s party&rsquo;s candidate faced a humiliating defeat in the CA by-elections held recently. That is also a measurement of the people&rsquo;s support to the Maoist agenda. By now, Prachanda understands that he is not backed by any kind of popular support. All these factors have forced the UCPN (Maoist) leadership to review their position and become flexible in the political give and take.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		So, it&rsquo;s been a common knowledge in recent months that the Maoists have backtracked on their position on federalism. It may not have been just a coincidence that the Maoists&rsquo; softening of stance followed Baburam Bhattarai&rsquo;s India visit and Prachanda&rsquo;s China visit.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		By now, it seems, the Maoist leadership has understood that a general strike or a trip to the neighbourhood seeking help (intervention) will not help. That is perhaps why the three major parties &ndash; NC, UML and UCPN (Maoist) &ndash; have agreed to allow the constitution writing process to move forward. Oli&rsquo;s Dharahara climb has helped in this process. Oli cannot climb the Dharahara again because there si no Dharahara now. &nbsp;But the opposition parties, mainly the Maoists, now know that the UML chief can engage in any other similar undertaking to mount further political pressure on them. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<strong>Making Institutions Inclusive</strong></div>
	<div>
		Another thing we learned from the year gone by is that institutions, once designed, are difficult to change.</div>
	<div>
		The April Uprising of 2006 sought to change the way the state and political parties respond to the people&rsquo;s needs. But it did not have a clear vision of what new institutional structures might look like. Parties like the Nepali Congress and UML define this change in their own way while, the Maoists, Madhesis, and Janajatis, on the other hand, have their own agenda for reforms, including the form of government, federalism, and electoral system. The failure of the Maoists and Madhesis to push forward their agenda shows how entrenched and entangled existing institutions are in the Nepali society.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Restructuring of institutions is required at two levels: at the level of political parties, and at the level of the state. At the level of the political parties, the internal party structures allow a few leaders to extract from the ordinary party members and unions that have penetrated all levels of the society. The recent Supreme Court verdict trying to limit the role of employee unions is an example. Most employee unions are extractive institutional structures. They serve their members by lobbying for their promotion and transfers, especially when their party leaders are in power. Therefore, a meritorious government employee, if he or she is not a member of these extractive unions, has fewer chances of getting a promotion or a good position.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Given the existing state structure, top political leaders who have control over parties like the NC or the CPN-UML have few incentives to restructure the party and the state. Making the party and the state more inclusive means giving up on their monopoly of power and privileges. Reforming state and party structures, therefore, is a difficult proposition for almost all top politicians. As many studies have shown, once institutional structures are in place, it is difficult to change them in favour of the ordinary people.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		One of the implications of such a situation is that political divisions have crystallised at the local level also. Nepal is a deeply divided society. Nepal&rsquo;s political parties have created a social chasm that runs vertically, from the highest level to the community level. At the community level, the divisive political allegiance has more to do with getting access to state resources and opportunities than to development and ideology.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		As a result, allegiances are usually made to political parties that have a greater prospect of getting to power. Without such political allegiance, which is something more than just an affiliation, people rarely get access to state resources or even entry into the marketplace.</div>
</div>
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If the ongoing irresponsible behaviour of some of the key political players of the country doesn&#39;t come to a halt, it is certain that the Constituent Assembly-Two (CA-II) will also not be able to deliver a new democratic constitution for the &#39;federal new Nepal.&#39; The major impediment to the new constitution writing process has two folds: the first, no party is adhering to the mandate and processes of the CA, and crucial political bargaining are taking place out of the constitutional and the CA ambit. The second, smaller parties in and outside of the CA still rule the roost by forming a twenty-two party alliance to oppose any stand that the main two political parties in CA --Nepali Congress (NC) and UML --are likely to take with regard to potential provisions for the new constitution and its writing process. This al-liance led by UCPN Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal is resorting to tantrums akin to that of a pressure group -- organizing street protests, flexing muscles and causing disruptions to CA proceedings, in some pretext or the other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If a public meeting organized by this alliance in the mid-October at the open-air theatre in Tundikhel, Kathmandu, is any indication, the Maoists are again determined to ruin the second CA as they did to the first, rendering it hostage of blatant indecision at the high-level political committee (HLPC). The speakers in that meeting declared a number of daring things that are aimed at rendering the very authority of the CA non-existent and prevaricate the democratic mandate and process. It raises fears of another cycle of violent politics. This is because, Dahal made three crucial revelations: he would not respect the arithmetic of CA, no constitution could be written without incorporating his agenda of &#39;identity&#39; and he repented on agreeing to the &ldquo;management of his Red Army and the arms before the constitution of &lsquo;his choice&rsquo; was written&rdquo;. &nbsp;As can be recalled, the process through which some of the former Maoist rebels were given employment in the Nepal Army and rest were sent home by paying generous gratuity, is normally referred to as &ldquo;management of former Maoist rebels&rdquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to repeat, all these are clearly anti-democratic postures. His refusal to accept the &#39;numbers&#39; as they stand in the present CA disregards the people&#39;s mandate expressed through the last ballots. His adamance not to comply with the universally accepted democratic practice to decide every contending agenda by majority votes in CA would leave all major political differences undecided indefinitely, in absence of any other feasible alternative process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the issue of identity, Dahal has been successful to rally the support of other eleven fringe parties that are present in CA and equal number of others without any representative in the House. His insistence is that the earlier CA had somehow agreed to &#39;identity-based federalism&#39; and the current CA too shouldn&#39;t deviate from those understandings, written or unwritten. But the fact is: the identity agenda largely got defeated in the CA-II elections and electorates gave completely new verdict, pushing the Maoists into the third position and giving a two-thirds majority to the NC and the UML combined. The manifestoes of the latter two emphatically reassures the voters to write a pluralistic constitution with possible least number of provinces, above all, on the basis of their economic viability. But Dahal&#39;s deliberate intention seems to undermine this reality and try to thrust his agenda by exerting force to disrupt the CA proceedings and effecting road blockades. It is worth recalling that Dahal&rsquo;s party UCPN-Maoist too has mentioned in its election manifesto that voting will be resorted to if the efforts for consensus fail. Moreover, the CA-II has also adopted a rules book in which it mentions that issues in which no consensus could be reached shall be decided by voting.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&rsquo;s repentance on &#39;early surrender of arms and army&#39; also smacks of his ill intentions to use that guerrilla force as the tool to political blackmailing, as in the past. His partners in protests, the Madhesi and Janajati parties are more than enthused by the political patronage of the UCPN-Maoist and also by the fact that their agenda defeated in popular votes is now shouldered by the Maoists, the third largest party in CA. It is not difficult to understand that Dahal is now desperate as he is very fast losing his political ground. Not only his party got reduced to the third largest in the CA-II from the first in CA-I, it currently commands bare 14 percent of total votes in the House. That is why he is against of the CA arithmetic. Also, his party is at the verge of further division after the main ideologue Dr Baburam Bhattarai has challenged Dahal&#39;s authority from within and intensified the efforts to create a &#39;new force&#39;. For, all these reasons, Dahal is experimenting on any possible political adventurism to save his existence as leader to be reckoned with. This is understandable. What is completely incomprehensible is why other two larger parties, NC and UML, are succumbing to these tantrums of Dahal, resorting to one after another undemocratic moves and decisions. Why can&#39;t they say that no political decision regarding the constitution writing could be taken outside the CA and beyond the popular mandate?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the overused platitudes of Dahal has been &#39;consensus in constitution writing.&#39; On the surface, this appears as a benevolent idea. But, in essence, it is implicit design to take the constitution writing process away from CA to HLPC. Since the country has expensed so much to ensure diverse representation in CA, it is impossible to arrive at consensus at every motion mooted in the CA. Therefore, accepting to resolve all contentious issues through already defined CA rules and processes, including voting, is absolutely within democratic values and norms. Dahal and his allies has problem in this, because it is surely a losing game for them as they simply lack the number of members in CA to pass their agenda. But, if they believe in democracy, instead of exerting to disrupt the processes, they should accept the outcome by explaining their point of view such that can woo the public support in the next polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But that needed patience Dahal clearly lacks and he is now wielding a double-edged sword -- simultaneously leading the street protests and holding the convenorship of HLPC that was dug out last month off the grave of the last CA, merely to placate Dahal&#39;s ambition of chairing it. Interestingly, he successfully capitulated the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML leadership to form this apparently unconstitutional &#39;superpower centre&#39; that is often practically portrayed as above all the political mechanisms of the country -- including the prime minister, the CA and the parliament. Or, at least, Dahal wanted HLPC to function in that fashion. This too is an undemocratic demeanour.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Naturally, the voice of other allies in Tundikhel was more aggressive. Sadbhawan Party leader Rajendra Mahato said he would not let the constitution be finalised on the basis of &#39;majority vote in the CA&#39; and Ashok Rai of Federal Socialist Party warned of &#39;pulling the NC and UML leaders by their collars&#39; to agree to their demand of identity-first federalism. What all this means is: there is every effort going on not to recognize and treat the CA as the only constitutionally validated body to write the constitution. This is perhaps the gravest danger that Nepal&#39;s political process faces at this moment. For the UCPN-Maoist and other smaller parties, their action might be justifiable to the extent to make their presence felt in the national political spectrum. But it is highly surprising to see that the NC and UML are readily agreeing to the demands of these parties without considering their consequences and not working enough to deliver a timely constitution despite their clear majority in the CA-II that allows them to write the constitution themselves.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At this juncture, three political personalities have performed far short of their responsibilities and expectations from their respective public positions. First is Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who has failed to deliver the governance in every possible field you may name. His ministers are working berserk. His slogan of &#39;clean government&#39; has hit rock bottom in every appointment in the constitutional bodies, judiciary to executive branches. It took four months for the House to pass the appropriation bill. When issue of poor governance is raised, he retorts with saying &#39;the focus is on constitution writing.&#39; When the mayhem in constitution writing is pointed, he just vents anger on the people who dared to ask. His lacklustre performance is only costing the country very dear in every front, mainly as coupling hindrances in constitution writing process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The second person who could have changed the things for the better but doing very little or nothing is Subhash Chandra Nembang, the CA Chairman. When House was disrupted continuously for five weeks in September, his presence was nowhere felt. He kept on urging the political parties &#39;to agree&#39; on certain things. But, his responsibility was not to urge for agreement but to run the House business according to the already laid-down laws, rules and precedents. His failure is more acutely felt in his inability to &#39;educate&#39; the CA members in the processes and contents of the constitution writing. He even failed to inculcate in the minds of the CA members that they are representatives of the sovereign people, not the stooges of the political bigwigs. Over and above, he himself appears to be acting as the stooge of big leaders, waiting for signals to come from the quarters like HLPC.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The third personality who failed to deliver up to the expectation is Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Chairman of the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC) in the CA. He kept on jumping around to appear as if he is honestly trying to extract some magic consensus, but without doing proper homework particularly to finalize the agenda of state restructuring. He tried to forge the so-called consensus in the vacuum. One of the main bones of contention among the political parties has been the number of provinces that the new constitution should delineate to federalize Nepal. But these parties have all in unison failed to come up with the basic logic of any particular number they have picked to propose as their agenda. As such, Bhattarai should have been able to come up with data on economic and political viability of the possible provinces and presented them dispassionately to the political parties. Instead, he himself ventured to propose some eight, nine or ten provinces, without any database to support his proposal. This was naive move both as the Chairman of PDCC, who should have ideally remained neutral in all these bickering and, also as a learned man, he must have come with alternative data-supported analysis such as &#39;if we go for eight provinces, the per capita income of Nepalis will rise in X-rate while with eleven it goes up/down by Y-rate.&#39; But, alas, nothing of the sort is happening.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This is to conclude that, until and unless we revert back to essence of democracy from pressure tantrums, allow CA to function as the only legitimate place to discuss everything regarding the constitution writing and provide some factual basis to ascertain the number of provinces as well as the administrative structure of the &#39;new&#39; state, the new constitution will continue to remain a mirage, for unforeseen time to come.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'title' => 'Derailing Democracy',
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Throughout Nepal&#39;s seven decade long modern political history, the biggest problem to institutionalize democracy has been sheer absence of democratic essence among the political actors - political parties and politicians, both. &nbsp;It has been true for all twists and turns in the history. Experience has it, those countries that could stabilize the democratic polity in relatively short period of political transition, say in two or three decades, enjoyed two common features. One, there was only two way fight between the democratic and autocratic forces, or colonizers and freedom fighters. Once the democrats outweighed the autocrats, the system got functionally stabilized. Second, at least for the initial transition, some charismatic and learned leader spearheaded those processes into an irrevocably functionalized and largely institutionalized form of democracy, before it could derail and eventually degenerate to anarchy or mayhem.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But Nepal&#39;s democracy has persistently been victim of a triangular instead of bipolar traction among the ultra-rights led by the palace, ultra-lefts led by Maoists or Leninists, and democrats. In fact, democracy has been invariably sandwiched between other two forces. To recall the history of common knowledge, for this very reason none of political changes in 1951, 1961, 1981, 1991 or 2006 could institutionalize Nepal&#39;s democracy. The country has been a constant victim of political uncertainty and hopelessness, which has taken toll not only on economy and development but has also teetered the age-old social cohesion and coexistence. Thanks again primarily to the three-way pulls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The recent turn of events also does not present any different picture. The political rhapsody of UCPN Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal certainly reflects his desperation in a bid to save his political existence in the light of rapidly eroding political clout of his party, but it is hardly limited only to that. As a person brought up as the Maoist, he is fundamentally against this country writing a democratic constitution. &nbsp;And, this is not a secret, but his commitment, vowed umpteen times in public. He still harbours dreams that one day this country could still be ruled by a communist dictator, perhaps himself at the helm, like North Korea and Cuba. He wants the new constitution to be written with those aims in mind. But he too is clueless on the way outs that clear the nasty debris of the civil war, en-route to that unreachable summit.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the other end, there are monarchists who want to resurrect the religious fundamentalism to the extreme of considering the King, again, as reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. The movement of Hindu fundamentalism is slowly gathering momentum as not-so-insignificant chunk in the ruling Nepali Congress has also found solace in taking refuge to this political perversion. There are other hybrid elements born out of marriage between the royalists and leftists who have dedicated their energies to defame and undermine the popularly elected parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The most recent example is the blatant disobedience of several parliamentary committee summons by Lokman Singh Karki, chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). It may be recalled that it was Puspa Kamal Dahal who engineered the appointment of Karki, an ardent royalist who served as chief secretary of the government during king Gyanendra&#39;s absolute rule, in CIAA position. The disgruntlement of some of the parliament members towards recalcitrant Karki was also meaningless as his appointment was formally approved by the chiefs of all major political parties &ndash; Sushil Koirala of Nepali Congress, Jhala Nath Khanal of CPN-UML, Dahal himself and other Terai-based forces while Khil Raj Regmi was heading the caretaker government a year ago. The career graph of Karki was a public knowledge but that surprisingly didn&#39;t bother these &#39;big&#39; leaders and they awarded him the position he deeply craved for, for some unexplained reasons. After such a big blunder, it is but natural that the cries of &#39;small fries&#39;, like members of parliament, go unheard. To extend the argument, the discretionary abuse of the constitutional bodies like CIAA also constitute a great degree of test case on the impartiality of these institutions that are expected to function compatibly with the norms and values of the democratic dispensation. &nbsp;These are definitely some sure signals that even the &#39;structure&#39; of democracy is being gravely in peril now, let alone essence.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ideally, the alliance of Nepali Congress and UML should have been able to steer the process of constitution writing and institutionalizing democracy given the strength of popular mandate they have and their largely tested credentials to multiparty, ballot-based democracy. But, persistence of &#39;sickness&#39; and performance dysfunction of the ruling alliance has indeed been a major impediment to any outcome that helps to the cause of democracy. The chiefs of both the parties, KP Oli of UML and Prime Minister Koirala, also the Congress chief, are sick in literal terms. And, deplorably ineffective role of Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Nembang has rendered this supposedly most crucial institution in present day Nepal as good as dead.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government has been oblivious to a number of its public commitments which, had they been executed, would have consolidated democracy at least by a step or prevent it from boiling down to vacuum of popular representation. One of such derelictions was government&#39;s imperviousness to hold the elections to the local bodies. On the contrary, the ruling political cartel has engaged heavily in appointing controversial names in many crucial positions, including the judiciary. Nevertheless, the joint stance taken lately by Koirala and Oli to take the constitution writing process ahead and promulgate the new constitution by January 2015is no doubt appreciable. But, given the fact that they have hardly been credible in the past and apparent challenges that need a great deal of political dexterity to surpass, hopes of smooth sail are still very grim, to say the least.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another very alarming signal that democratic forces would be pushed to further relegation is: the influential members among ruling elites are blatantly engaged in the acts which are morally indefensible. The Nepali Congress Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel&#39;s avarice to appoint his near and dear ones to lucrative public positions, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Saran Mahat&#39;s machinations to transfer a highly controversial civil servant into his ministry and above all K P Oli&#39;s design of giving ministerial berth to his henchmen defeated in recent elections give ground for both Left and Right forces to disregard the &#39;high talks&#39; of democratic forces. There are several other such decisions that only undermine the transparency and accountability parameters, which are cornerstones of democracy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As such, the CA has been rendered completely ineffective. There are public speeches made repeatedly, challenging to dishonour the arithmetic of CA; a crucial phenomenon as consensus is always elusive as is the case now. The political polarization has intensified. The political undercurrents are such that given the provision that the constitution needs to be ratified by two-thirds majority in the House, there could be some defectors from the ruling alliance who may dig holes in the ship.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No doubt, Dahal is ruining his political prospects due to his own activities outside of CA and repeated flimsy announcements like &#39;initiating another revolution&#39;, &#39;forming the government from outside of parliament&#39;, &#39;writing new constitution from the street,&#39; etc. Worse, his irresponsible politics has provided much needed springboard to fringe parties, with some abstract agenda of identity and regionalism-based politics that were badly defeated in the last CA elections. They are particularly enthused by Dahal&#39;s patronship to these agenda.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Anything said and done, Nepal seems to be heading towards another constitutional crisis. The stage is being gradually set for that. There is not even a marginal possibility of promulgating a new constitution by 22nd of January, the deadline set by the political parties themselves. The ongoing unrest in the eastern part of country is perhaps deeper than it is generally perceived. Whatever federal structure one may propose, at least without any factual basis but by bare political imposition, is sure to be rejected by one section or another. Managing these discontents stemming in many forms and guises are likely to push the country to new phase of unrest and violence.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As of writing these lines, the drama of signature campaign &#39;to moot the proposal of ruling coalition&#39; into the Constitutional Dialogue Committee headed by Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai suggests that the era of politics of consensus has been over. Democracy essentially is less about consensus but more about the rules of the game. But, here, rule breaking has been the first norm of politics. And, the politics of consensus generally endows better payoffs to weaker than the stronger. That is why Dahal and his 22-party opposition brigade is &#39;dying&#39; for this ever elusive consensus in the constitution making process. But, on the other end, Nepal now is not in a situation where it can afford to relegate potentially destructive forces from the mainstream political process. The journey from completion of drafting to promulgating the new constitution, even if takes place at all in near future, is going to be treacherous. The thought over another crucial phase of actual federalization of the state is yet to begin. Setting up new bureaucracies, reallocation of resources and dividing powers and authorities amongst the different layers of administration are the task that are going to be far more difficult than writing &nbsp;one set of generic document called &lsquo;constitution&rsquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Before any tall talk on any big issue, we have but no choice to begin from the basics -- putting the derailed democracy back on track. The point of departure for one and all is; to unconditionally express faith on the rule-based game of democracy, respect for the people&#39;s mandate and in essence adopt a forward looking approach, not in a sense as touted by communists but as per the best and time tested democratic practices adhered to by the world for several centuries now.</div>
<div>
	The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-12-23',
			'modified' => '2015-06-01',
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			'description' => 'Throughout Nepal's seven decade long modern political history, the biggest problem to institutionalize democracy has been sheer absence of democratic essence among the political actors - political parties and politicians, both.  It has been true for all twists and turns in the history. Experience has it, those countries that could stabilize the democratic polity in relatively short period of political transition, say in two or three decades, enjoyed two common features. One, there was only two way fight between the democratic and autocratic forces, or colonizers and freedom fighters. Once the democrats outweighed the autocrats, the system got functionally stabilized. Second, at least for the initial transition, some charismatic and learned leader spearheaded those processes into an irrevocably functionalized and largely institutionalized form of democracy, before it could derail and eventually degenerate to anarchy or mayhem.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2798',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Games To Delay The Constitution',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Akhilesh Tripathi</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As it happened to be, the much-awaited all-party political conference or round table conference &ndash; to use a more popular phrase- which was supposed to see a dialogue take place among the three major parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and the parties outside it, on the contentious issues of constitution drafting, fell flat. The reason was, as we all know, the 33-party alliance led by Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist which is not represented in the CA and which had been demanding such a conference for a long time rejected to participate in the conference in the eleventh hour. The leaders of the CPN-Maoist and the 33-party alliance outside the CA never turned up for the conference. The CPN-Maoist communicated its decision not to attend the conference when Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and other political leaders had taken their seats at the planned venue inside the CA building. Thus, the politicians&rsquo; latest effort to seek consensus on contentious constitutional issues went in vain. But thankfully, as the conference failed to take off, it became clear that the Maoists had thrown the conference card only to delay the new constitution by affecting the CA calendar.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some people might think that this was bad for the country and the constitution drafting process as an opportunity to forge consensus on thorny issues of constitution drafting inside as well as outside the CA was missed. But in fact, this was good for the country and the constitution drafting process as the real intent of the CPN-Maoist and other dissenting parties outside the CA was exposed without losing any further time. Their real intent was to delay the constitution drafting process by the CA under one or another pretext. In fact, Baidya and company have, time and again, publicly expressed their disenchantment with the constitution drafting process by the CA. After all, they boycotted the second CA elections terming it &ldquo;a meaningless exercise&rdquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One political game to affect the CA&rsquo;s calendar and delay the constitution drafting process was exposed in the form of the failed all-party political conference. But other such games continue - some within the CA itself - in the name of seeking consensus on the key issues including form of governance and restructuring of the state, election system and judiciary. One serious blame is leveled against the very Constitutional-Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC) of the CA that was formed to hold discussions on the thorny issues of constitution drafting and build consensus on them. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The blame is that the CPDCC has been trying to delay the constitution drafting process to find the mirage called consensus. The CPDCC led by UCPN (Maoist) leader and former PM Dr Baburam Bhattarai has already missed a deadline of September 6 to forge consensus on the prickly issues of constitution drafting. Then it was given another deadline of September 30 to build such consensus. As things stand now, the CPDCC will not be able to forge consensus on the contentious issues within this deadline as well. Now voices are emerging that it should be given another chance to forge such a consensus which has proved elusive so far. One such voice has been floated by the UCPN (Maoist) which thinks the CPDCC should get one more month, even if that means the amendment of the CA calendar, to forge consensus.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That should not be done. All lawmakers who had registered to speak on the contentious issues have spoken their mind at the deliberations organized by the CPDCC and consensus still looks a very far cry. So, extending the CPDCC &lsquo;s deadline would be just a waste of time and resources.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the other hand, it&rsquo;s been quite some time since the three major parties in CA II &ndash; the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) are trying to form a High Level Political Mechanism (HLPM) in the name of facilitating the constitution drafting process. It is said that UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda is eying the post of coordinator of this proposed mechanism. To put the truth bluntly, there is no need for such a mechanism. It is also a game to delay the constitution drafting process by weakening the sovereign CA&rsquo;s role in that process. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The word consensus sounds very sweet to the ear. Everybody&rsquo;s consent on the key crucial issues of the constitution would be an ideal situation. No one would disagree that it is best to settle the contentious issues through consensus. But what if it is not possible? Can the country be kept a hostage for an indefinite period if consensus on contentious issues continues to elude us? &nbsp;Politicians have already squandered seven years in the process of statute drafting, mainly because they tried to forge consensus on the so-called thorny issues. In fact, trying to forge consensus on the contentious issues was the main reason why the first CA was dissolved without delivering the new constitution.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal tried to forge consensus among all political parties on the contentious issues of constitution drafting during the first CA. Series after series of negotiations were held. Marathon meetings were held. But it simply did not work. The country reached nowhere perhaps because we tried to please all forces in the name of finding consensus. This should be why the major parties agreed, even before the second CA elections were held, to follow due process if they failed to reach consensus on contentious issues in CA II. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That due process means deciding the contentious issues of constitution drafting through voting in the CA, which is the sovereign body to decide such matters. Or, alternatively &ndash; if a more democratic measure is to be adopted &ndash; we can hold a referendum to decide these issues. Here, the politicians can take some lessons from the recent Scotland voting where the Scots decided their fate through a referendum. It is still possible to hold such a referendum on the contentious issues as there still remains more than three months to promulgate the new constitution. But the decision has to be taken swiftly, if the country is to go the referendum way.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, the bottom line is no more precious time should be wasted in the name of forging a consensus.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-10-10',
			'modified' => '2014-12-23',
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			'description' => 'As it happened to be, the much-awaited all-party political conference or round table conference – to use a more popular phrase- which was supposed to see a dialogue take place among the three major parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and the parties outside it, on the contentious issues of constitution drafting, fell flat. The reason was, as we all know, the 33-party alliance led by Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist which is not represented in the CA and which had been demanding such a conference for a long time rejected to participate in the conference in the eleventh hour.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2792',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'UML's Transformation : Leninism To Panelism',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) passed yet another acid test to vindicate its democratic credentials by electing the entire 159-member Central Committee (CC), including the new chairman through ballots, in the ninth general convention (GC) held in Kathmandu, July 3-10, 2014. In a closely contested bid to chairmanship, KP Sharma Oli defeated Party&#39;s former, two-time, general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal by a narrow margin of forty-four out of two thousand and two hundred votes of the GC delegates.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Democratic Domain&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	There is no dearth of cynics who claim that bitter factionalism that surfaced during the contest for chairmanship would further divide the party that is already mired by groupism. But what must be appreciated here is: UML is the only political party of the country that has developed best internal democratic practices. Unlike many communist outfits who choose to break-away as the separate entity once some differences crop-up within the group, the UML has exhibited tremendous level of resilience to save it from fragmentation; thanks to the democratic space it created to vent the differing views and ideologies. For this reason it has withstood the test of time as the mainstream left force amongst some three dozen odd communist &#39;parties&#39;. It must not also be forgotten that it is a communist party that has painstakingly and by now convincingly transformed itself to a credible democratic alternative of the country. More importantly, it has set a practical contemporaneous formula for democratic transformation of any communist force that is originally indoctrinated to rise to power of &#39;people&#39;s republic&#39; by using the &#39;bullets and barrels&#39;to a force that readies itself to multi-party competition through ballots. No doubt, for this party, metamorphosis of greater magnitude is still inevitable to shake-off many dogmas and nostalgia of Soviet era. But, whatever it has achieved and maintained itself is in no way instantly dismissive. The ninth GC too has proved to be a new milestone as it elected mainly new set of younger leaders in CC, who have firmer belief in democracy than the older generation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that the Party&#39;s polity has now shifted from &#39;Proletarianism&#39; or &#39;Leninism&#39; to Panelism, which from a democratic perspective is a welcome dimension of change. The political sportsmanship and democratic spirit was clearly demonstrated by the leaders at the official closing ceremony of the GC on July 17. Both the victor and vanquished, Oli and Nepal respectively, along with other elected central body members vowed to work for the party unity, terming the vertical division during the CC election mere &#39;democratic exercise&#39;. Not only both the factions won equal number of members as the office-bearers, the representatives seem to have guided to votemore by the quality of the candidate than the factional affiliation, electing a completely mixed panel. Any &#39;bright&#39; person from both panels got place in the new CC.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Road Ahead</strong></div>
<div>
	If the mood of the Declaration made at the UML headquarters on 17th of July, is any indication, the party would soon enter into an era of a joint-leadership of many influential leaders. The chairman-elect Oli in very clear terms, with tears in his swollen eyes, declared that he did not have many days to live, and extended his arms for unity. It was momentarily a piece of emotional melodrama, unique to political cruelty. He couldn&#39;t even complete his short written speech. It is his eighth year running since his kidney transplant and, of late, the infection has now spread to his whole body, with septic deep wounds and swellings. There was a whirling question in the minds of the entire rank and file, why did he at the first place choose to run for chairmanship despite such precarious health condition? There is a strong school of thought which believes, there were mischievous minds like that of Bamdev Gautam who harboured dream of running the party as officiating chief as Oli is already a dilapidated figure. But, this possibility is clearly thwarted by the &#39;ideologues&#39; belonging mainly to Nepal faction, who changed the party statute such that now there are five second men (vice-chairmen) in the hierarchy after the chairman. This is the very statute the GC ratified, albeit with some resistance. And, incidentally, Gautam ranked second among these five in terms of popular vote, behind Bhim Rawal, a Nepal loyalist. In any event of Oli&#39;s absence, there would be moral pressure (as there is no clear statutory provision) to handover charges to Rawal, not Gautam, or Bidya Bhandari, another vice-chair elect and the most trusted aid of Oli.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What the UML&#39;s change in leadership means for the nation, is another issue widely debated in the political circles after Oli&rsquo;s victory. Again, effectively it depends on the health of Oli. Should his health permit, he naturally dreams of becoming the next prime minister of the country. &nbsp;If the things move according to agreement between the Nepali Congress and UML to promulgate a new constitution by the end of January 2015, under the turn-key clause of the agreement, the premiership would automatically come to the UML candidate, as things stand now, to Oli as the Party&#39;s parliamentary party leader. There are newly emerged political equations within that party such that no single person, except the chairman given his current level of comfortable majority in CC, is likely to hold the sway in any decisions. The ambitions like that of Gautam are dampened as such, once the power gets transferred to lower ranks from the chairman.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Policy Paradigm</strong></div>
<div>
	During the run-up to the ninth convention, there was a sort of euphoria created by a &#39;club&#39; of party&#39;s young &#39;thinkers&#39; that Party&#39;s socio-politico-economic policy paradigm would be redefined and formalized through the GC. But, the entire GC was so much consumed by the fight for the posts that it hardly could undertake much deserved discussions with due seriousness on any policy document. At the end, when it came-out with the thirty-three point Declaration on July 17, many of the same old communist verbose again found the place in it. &#39;Awarding land-ownership rights to tillers&#39;, &#39;protecting trade union rights&#39;, &#39;deploring of infringements on human rights&#39; in some weird part of the world etc. were repeated, rather artlessly. Some of the hasty conclusions like the &#39;global economic crisis like that of 2008 justifies the rationale of socialism&#39; were also incorporated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Interestingly though, this Declaration has very carefully avoided over use of redundant communist jargons and jingoisms. Not only it doesn&#39;t carry terms like &#39;Indian expansionism&#39;, &#39;American imperialism&#39;, it also cautiously reduces the frequency of the words like &#39;revolution&#39;, &#39;struggle&#39; or &#39;class struggle&#39; that are invariably and clumsily thrusted into policy papers of almost all communist formations. The ninth GC Declaration instead proposes interesting separate economic prescriptions for their cadres and the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&#39;This GC urges all the local committees of the party, affiliated sister organizations and all members of the party to devise concrete plans for their respective locality to augment economic development, productivity and employment and involve in the production functions so as to establish themselves as the leading-lights of the economicprosperity,&#39; says the point number 23 of the Declaration. The Declaration has also &#39;appreciated&#39; the &#39;improving&#39; relations between India and China and has wished to make Nepal beneficiary to the impressive economic growth of both the neighbours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Opportunities and Challenges</strong></div>
<div>
	Perhaps the biggest opportunity for the CPN-UML is the growing compulsion for all other communist forces to follow its &#39;janatako bhudaliya janbad&#39; or multiparty democracy route, should they opt to remain relevant in modern day pluralistic politics. It is becoming increasingly difficult for parties with Maoist tags not to follow the exact process the UML did for the last two and half decades. If the party wereto equip itself to harness this opportunity, it could provide a major fillip to its organizational strength. Certainly, its increasing global recognition as trustworthy democratic force is another very powerful factor that helps to retain it as a major player in Nepali politics. Its gradual policy shift from Left to the Centre is crucial to ensure the outfit&#39;s long lasting relevance.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are challenges too, mostly emanated from three sources - policy confusions, organizational efficiency and &#39;class&#39; shifts. The ninth GC also could not change its name by dropping the &#39;Marxist-Leninist&#39; tag and the term &#39;Communist&#39; from its official name, despite the fact that there is a widespread realization of this need within the Party. The psychological divide in the mandarins is debilitating -- they often times love to retain communist identity and yet want to change this &#39;as soon as possible&#39; for public interface. &nbsp;The Party has failed to bring into effect a much-needed departure from three the decade-old nostalgia of &#39;classless society&#39;. &nbsp;Instead the Party itself has become the &#39;class&#39; of riches with &#39;too many, too big&#39; leaders. The only reason the Party substantially increased the number of office bearers from six to fourteen was to accommodate these &#39;big&#39; names with suitably high-sounding positions. Generally, those who have been prime ministers, deputy prime ministers and ministers in the past have sought those &#39;elitist&#39; titles. This is resulting into overlaps and duplications on responsibilities and duties, and ego clashes at every decision points. The cumulative effect of all these is sure to have telling effect in organizational efficiency and cadre-leader relations, not in so distant future.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Effectively, the UML has graduated from the party of &#39;proletariats&#39; to &#39;new riches&#39;, not only in terms of policy-base but as the class representation. &nbsp;To borrow a phrase from the communist literature itself, &#39;the class division&#39; within the party has been strikingly vivid in recent years. In many cases, its leaders have protected criminals just to extract money in return. There is not any binding ideology available in any political literature that can accommodate all these extremes. The task of managing all these paradoxes, the sooner the better, comes on the shoulder of the new leadership. But, unfortunately, the shoulders of the commander are now sick, severely.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'created' => '2014-09-08',
			'modified' => '2014-11-21',
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			'description' => 'The Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) passed yet another acid test to vindicate its democratic credentials by electing the entire 159-member Central Committee (CC), including the new chairman through ballots, in the ninth general convention (GC) held in Kathmandu, July 3-10, 2014. In a closely contested bid to chairmanship, KP Sharma Oli defeated Party's former, two-time, general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal by a narrow margin of forty-four out of two thousand and two hundred votes of the GC delegates.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2787',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'UML’s Throb To Democratize',
			'sub_title' => '',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) exhaustively braces up for its ninth general convention, July 3-9 that is perhaps likely to see the fiercest battle ever to take the reins of this four decade-old outfit. The good news is, unlike in any archetypical communist organization, the chairman and other major office bearers will be chosen democratically through the ballots of the party cadres.The Party over the last two and half decades, since the successful reinstatement of democracy in 1990, has established itself not only as a quintessential political force of the country but also a relatively credible democratic alternative with left-to-the-centreideologies. It is now the second largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), which is also the legislature parliament, and the major coalition partner in the Nepali Congress-led government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This transformation from an out-and-out communist to largely a democratic force has definitely not been a cakewalk and yet far from complete. Thanks to late General Secretary of the Party, Madan Bhandari who coined a transitional lexicon &#39;janatako bahudaliya janabad (JBJ)&#39; or people&#39;s multi-party democracy that facilitated it to become a reckoning force in multi-party polity. In essence, except one seemingly unequivocal commitment to remain in the &#39;politics of ballots&#39;; forsaking the dogma of the &#39;power from the bullets&#39;, the task of redefining other philosophical foundations of the Party is still pending and currently undergoing a rigorous discourse. This is what going to be one of the characteristic features of the upcoming Convention as well. The pain experienced in the process of refurbishment of a force that carried over the legacy of Jhapa andolan of early 1970s, a naive killing spree of landlords to eliminate the class enemy andwith its cadres indoctrinated to &#39;establish a proletariat dictatorship&#39; or &#39;new people&#39;s democratic republic&#39; ostensibly through violent over throw of &#39;old regimes&#39; to a disciplined political party believing in a peaceful process of change is not unnatural. But, the most worrying factor is: it is taking too long a time to accept the changing realities of the world and declare that the party no longer remains &#39;a communist&#39; one. And, the debate also has been too fluid to shape a convincing new &#39;doctrine&#39; with a double edged sword which preserves the face of the communist party and, at the same time, adapts itself as a credible democratic force.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	To borrow the word from communist lingo, the &#39;class struggle&#39; within the party is at its height, but it is not two directional - between the exploiting and exploited classes as explained by Marx. It is in fact innumerably multi-directional and cover everything by a single &#39;blanket principle&#39; is requiring it to be too large to manage. There is still a fine dividing line between the factions that accept the JBJ as defined by Bhandari as a complete principle and that takes it only as one of the &#39;many&#39; components of philosophical evolution of the Party. KP Oli and Madhav Nepal, who are the two contenders for the post of chairman in the ninth convention, now represent these two factions respectively There is yet another traditional school that is not vocal but still considers JBJ hastened the aberration of the Party from a true communist force to operatives of &lsquo;comprador bourgeoisie. &#39;The current Party Chairman Jhalanath Khanal lost party leadership to Madan Bhandari in the fifth convention in 1993, as he campaigned in this potential aberration plank. By now, Khanal seems to be compelled to change as there is no escape from the vote politics, but the reservation to accept the JBJ as &#39;only&#39; guiding principle of the party still appears to be a bitter pill for him to swallow.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is also a tangible difference in opinion between the so called &lsquo;old school&rsquo; and the &lsquo;new school&rsquo;. The old school represented by the hawks of pre-panchayat underground era are persistent not to give-up the communist tag. The septuagenarian leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari categorically said, &lsquo;There is no need to change the party name to something that doesn&rsquo;t carry the word communist and the universal communist standard, hammer-and-sickle flag, should be retained.&rsquo; The new school, which calls itself a pragmatic left is keen to change the both, just limiting it to convey a &lsquo;socialistic&rsquo; meaning - far more softline approach than being a communist. The confusion has run long. So long that immediately after the UML formed a minority government in 1994, the Party dramatically removed the portraits of Marx and Lenin from the Party HQ meeting hall when the then US ambassador to Nepal visited UML headquarters. The act though was subject to acute mockery then but had a symbolic personification of confusion. First, it signified, the Party leadership had realized the redundancy of these figures but was unable to get rid of their hangovers. Second, from the inner self, it wanted to convey that the party doesn&rsquo;t want to be identified and viewed as the communist in classic sense of the term. And, the third, it wanted to interact with the world as liberal democratic or a social democratic force.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, over all these years, party has hardly been able to embark on this wishful direction it had then contemplated. All these confusions still persistently gnaw the party and all the policy debates still revolve around the same confusion &ndash; whether or not to remain a communist and how to keep-up with the pace of openness the world is now moving with. It is for this reason, different &lsquo;think tanks&rsquo; within the party are working to give a functional shape to their ideological basis such that it fits to modern-day political parlance.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of such recent exercises of the party has concluded that Nepali society has essentially become a capitalist one leaving behind the traditional agro related feudal production and productivity relations. This in fact is the theoretical basis to do away with the politics of proletarian supremacy and misery due to mass exploitation. However, the entire &lsquo;philosophical&rsquo; discourse suffers from a mindset that party cannot function without such &lsquo;grand narrative&rsquo;. The party very tactfully removed the anti-Indian and anti American diatribes as soon as it rode to power saddle in 1994, forming the first communist government in the world after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, that too through elections.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At present, the issues of the centre-stage debate include the massive criminalization of the party politics by protecting and promoting goons and underworld operators, colloquially known as dons&ndash;the word borrowed from taekwondo. This began with when Bamdev Gautam was made Home Minister in 1997 under Rastryia Prajatantra Party-led coalition government. He allegedly opened all smuggling channels and protected them using the security establishment. KP Oli did the same when he was Home Minister and now many noted dons are in party rank and file. Madhav Nepal faction has devised its campaign strategy focusing on the theme of &lsquo;cleaning the party from goons.&rsquo; But the weight in the balance gradually appears to be tilting to the kings of the goons. Therefore, it will not be a surprise if Oli wins the race.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Perhaps the greatest potential for the party to benefit arises from the fact that UCPN-Maoist is now forced to follow the same path the UML has traversed since its fifth convention. This can give a righteous sense of direction to the UML in making timely policy choices as a communist force that wants to survive in the competitive pluralistic politics. Theoretically speaking, UML should have been able to take great advantage given the vindication &nbsp;of timeliness JBJ. But, internal wrangling and factionalism has marred all its potentials of organizational growth.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the ninth convention inches closer, the campaign becomes nasty. The official manifestos of both Oli and Nepal do not differ much, which is an indication that there is not much differences in principles and policies. But when it comes to practical politics, the competition on mudslinging has crossed all possible decencies. Oli commands very strong organizational support and as an additional advantage Deputy Prime Minister BamdevGautam is in his favour. Oli&rsquo;s illness is debated in both the camps. Oli has tried to bank on his illness requesting to vote him for the last chance and Nepal faction has asked him to take &lsquo;rest&rsquo; on health grounds.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It would not be a practical assumption to expect UML to reincarnate by changing its name and revamping all of its communist ideologies . But the throb of need for this change is intensely realized, in more than one spheres &ndash; in ideology, organizational orientation, external relations and internal democracy. This certainly gives better hope for overall consolidation of country&rsquo;s democracy, sometime in near future.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-07-30',
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			'description' => 'The Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) exhaustively braces up for its ninth general convention, July 3-9 that is perhaps likely to see the fiercest battle ever to take the reins of this four decade-old outfit. The good news is, unlike in any archetypical communist organization, the chairman and other major office bearers will be chosen democratically through the ballots of the party cadres.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2778',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Political Process: Tardy, Taxing And Tattered',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The leaders of all major political parties, including the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala are artlessly repeating the same statement: &#39;We will complete the drafting of the new constitution within a year&#39;; as if it is just the next day of the second Constituent Assembly (CA II) elections. They do not seem to realize a bare fact that exactly a good half of the year since these elections in the November last has elapsed without scoring any success in any front -- governance, diplomacy, legislation or constitution writing. The worst of all, lately things are hopelessly falling apart so as to making both the government and the CA once again hostage to essentially unnecessary bickering at the highest political level. Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Every possible executive decision is postponed without any tangible reason. In six months, the cabinet couldn&#39;t pick up twenty-six names to be appointed as CA members from among putatively the national &#39;elite&#39; personalities. The process of appointing of more than one and half dozen of ambassadors in important missions including New Delhi and Washington DC couldn&#39;t even begin. In absence of timely decision of Constitutional Council headed by the prime minister himself, the Supreme Court is left with mere five judges out of almost normally functional twenty positions. Ironically, the appointments in the prime minister&#39;s secretariat and National Planning Commission were not made in time. Almost all constitutional bodies too remain vacant. The advertisements published to fill in those constitutional positions like the commissioners in the Public Service Commission, National Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, by a sort of free competition is not attracting any dignified figures. They are most likely to be filled by typically clerical minded ex-bureaucrats rendering these crucial institutions, once again, retrograde.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government is backtracking from the vowed commitments like holding local elections by this month (May). The parliamentary party leader of the major coalition partner CPN-UML, K P Oli from the hospital bed in New Delhi in mid-April declared that the local body elections will be held only after &#39;promulgating the new constitution&#39;. Apparently, his statement didn&#39;t come in consultation with the prime minister who still reiterates, though not convincingly, to hold these elections, may be by June end. The reasons cited not to hold the polls are clearly unpalatable. &#39;There is not enough time now to hold them before monsoon,&#39; said Oli. But nothing had stopped the government announcing it right after taking the oath of office. Clearly, there was no political will to take-up this issue in the right earnest. The second argument, which is abetted by the UCPN (Maoist) too, is that the concentration in the local elections would take the focus off the constitution writing process. It sounds as if the CA proceedings are now going at the right direction as per the popular expectation. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which, thus for all practical purposes smells rat in very faith of democracy of these leaders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	And, more importantly, it will not be as easy to hold local elections immediately after completing the draft of the constitution as claimed by the UML and UCPN Maoists. The reasons to it are obvious. First, it is highly unlikely that the constitution drafting process will be completed anytime soon. Even some form of draft is agreed upon, say in a year from now, the most likely scenario is that it cannot be promulgated without going into more costly exercises like referendum. Therefore, postponing local elections now means that they are postponed again for an unforeseeable future, which indeed is highly unfortunate. The common people now need the local democratic institutions in place far more than the constitution, which indeed is the largely esoteric proposition for them compared to the elected local government next door. Once again the democracy has been ditched.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public speeches of the Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam from UML sound as if his party is not a junior partner but a majority government that has &#39;mercifully&#39; appended the Nepali Congress to be its partner. In all these orchestra of fools, the Prime Minister Koirala remains as faceless as ever. When the country desperately awaits his bold and speedy decisions in more than one front, he seems to have chosen to cover his absolute non-performance by cheap publicity stunts of forsaking some allowances and perks and avoiding five-star hotel accommodations. Such tantrums cannot be substitute to the aspired effective delivery of goods from the chief executive of the nation. If Koirala had real intentions of giving a clean and effective government to the nation and upholding the democratic practice, he should have guts to tell his coalition partners not to nominate ministers that were not the elected members of parliament and those who are the kiths and kins of the influential leaders of the fringe parties.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both the CA and legislature parliament have been rendered equally non-functional. In over four months, CA has failed to elect the subject committee conveners that are supposed to be key to formulate and moot respective constitutional provisions for discussion in the House. The chair of the crucial constitutional committee in CA remains vacant as of these lines were written. The CA virtually has not been given any business. Attendance in the scheduled meetings is so low that many of scheduled House sessions are often cancelled for lack of presence of minimum required number of members known as &#39;quota&#39;. Even the orientation of the (new) CA members about their roles, responsibilities and duties was not thought necessary.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The legislature parliament too is equally ineffective. Not only it has fallen short to ponder over the bottlenecks that the country is faced with in absence of laws in many spheres, it has also failed to pass a number of important bills that are gathering dust in wait of votes for years. The new bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has further estranged the Maoists from supposedly collaborative political process. The former jungle warfare Maoist guerrillas who are in favour of nothing less than blanket amnesty to them in the guise of &#39;wartime issues&#39; are highly apprehensive of legal action on many of them if the bill is allowed to pass as proposed by the joint committee of political parties. If the bill is made law as in the spirit spelt out by UML leader Oli, the Maoists&#39; rank and file may crumble like house of cards in legal battle on crime against humanity. &#39;Except for the deaths at the frontline, those involved in killings by dragging out persons from their beds at the midnight, killing them by plucking out the eyes, amputating the body parts and hanging or burying them alive cannot be put off the legal purview&#39;, he thundered a few weeks ago. He sounds fairly reasonable. But will that bring about solution to the political stalemate? Or, will this bill actually become an Act and implemented accordingly? These however are more pressing questions altogether.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Maoists have already begun their non-cooperation by boycotting even entirely unrelated political processes in protest of the current form of the TRC bill. It may be recalled that such a commission was part of the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006, thus a crucial part of the peace process. The formation of it was deliberately avoided during the past CA tenure of four years when the country saw two Maoist prime ministers in the period.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The another bone of contention has become the so called High Level Political Committee (HLPC) that was in existence during the last CA, and was considered largely responsible for derailing the due CA process; making it hostage to ever-elusive political consensus. Interestingly, the three major parties -the Congress, UML and Maoists did appeared to have agreed about a couple of months ago to revive it. But, when the UCPN (Maoist) supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal insisted on being the convener of it, other parties took it as his ambition to be a &#39;super&#39; prime minister and wanted to thwart the process. The constitutionality of this mechanism has always been under the interrogation mark and its actions in the past surely undermined the elected House.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All forms of slackness, inactions, procrastinations, machinations and squabbles have been highly taxing for the country. The perils are pronounced. The economy is in absolute tatters. New investment is not even trickling in. Governance and public service delivery have collapsed. People are exasperated for unnecessarily prolonged political transition. The hope of at least relative consolidation of democratic institutors after the Congress and UML jointly got majority in the House is now waning rapidly. The constitution writing process is still precariously fragile. Only solution to all these ailments is to act and act fast. The lead should unquestionably be taken by the ruling alliance and the prime minister in particular.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.',
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			'id' => '2781',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Mirage Of A New Force',
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			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On May 15th, 2014, the senior deputy prime minister and, at that point in time, acting president of the ruling major coalition CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam, was happily dancing on a folk tune at a public function. On the same day, Nepal Human Development Report was released in another public function in a five-star hotel that ranked Nepal the lowest in the Human Development Index (HDI) even among the South Asian countries; let alone the global rank. The next day, the so called mainstream media placed Gautam&#39;s news on the front page with picture as if it were a major national happening while the HDI news was pushed asa routine filler to 9th or 17th page as if it were amere ritual.This is Nepal&#39;s eco-political reality personified, reflecting the degree of (in) sensitivity of both politics and media to the development and prosperity related issues of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What is it that makes politicians like Gautam so happy while country is at absolute political mess and economic stagnation, if not recession, for decades? It is unambiguously sheer apathy and ignorance of gravity of the situation that is coupled with vested interests and remnants of feudal psyche of a ruler. The current set of Nepal&#39;s all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s. Their last philosophical reorientation had taken place perhaps in the 1990, for the movement to reinstate the multi-party democracy by toppling the panchayat oligarchy. This 60-above generation has been left far behind in updating the knowledge required to run a country. They have been untouched by mesmerizing revolution mainly in information and communication technology, transportation and emerging new world order in power politics. For this reason, these leaders have failed to understand the aspirations of time and the generation that represents here-and-now. They have not even learnt the art to dream for the better future of the country and her people.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All these realities together, the persistent poverty and backwardness and apparent vacuum in leadership that is still willing to strive for ameliorating them, warrants a new political force that hopefully possesses desirable qualities like right kind of motive, integrity, energy, vision and willingness to serve the nation. Until such a new force replaces the existing parochial order, things too are obvious not to change for the better.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The need for such a force was acutely realized when the first constituent assembly (CA) despite its four year-long tenure ended without delivering a draft for a new constitution. The incessant blame game among the parties for the failures and their uniform adamancy to transform themselves with time multiplied the public disenchantment on them. The need of displacing these parties was more intensely felt after the current incumbent government formed even after the second CA elections appears completely dysfunctional and, mostly averse to the democratic norms in whatever little move sit is making. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala&#39;s unwanted &#39;lobbying&#39; to save the Judicial Council&#39;s controversial nominations to Supreme Court Judges is one of glaring examples of such aberrations. On fulfilling his own responsibility he has miserably failed, not even able to nominate 26 CA members through a cabinet decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Nepal&#39;s political history has witnessed literally hundreds of incidents of leaders or would-be leaders trying to form &#39;new&#39; political force at different junctures of time. But all of them in due course proved to be either protest outcomes to the mother partyby a dissenter or a newer interest group serving to a small circle of its constituents. Dozens of breakaways of communist parties and recent similar divisions in Terai-based parties may be everything as they claim but surely not the political parties of the quality that the country is desperately looking for, for long time now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, the UCPN Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai took the debate on the topic to newer heights by proposing a &#39;need of a new political force to address the new challenges the new Nepal faces.&#39; This initially appeared to be a statement aimed to fill the overarching gap of the national political vacuum by establishing a new, forward-looking, dynamic and democratic outfit. It created ripples too, at least among the left ideologues. But eventually, after much ado, Baburam&#39;s proposition of new force, at least for now,turned out to be nothing more than a trump-card to bargain barely some more space within the party from his party chief Puspa Kamal Dahal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The current series of debate also revealed a philosophical dichotomy in articulation of needs of such a new force. The more aggressive advocacy, or to some extent endeavours to form such a force from the communist ideologues, borne out of worries to contextualize their own existence in multi-party competitive politics that is inevitably going to be the political mainstay for the future. This sphere of debate therefore has focused more on rewriting archaic communist dogmas and replacing arcane vocabularies like &#39;power only from the barrel of the gun,&#39; &lsquo;dictatorship of the proletariat,&#39; &#39;class elimination&#39; etc. with more contemporaneous political jargons. Clearly, for those indoctrinated under Marx, Lenin or Mao-developed literatures, this simple departure has been difficult and piecemeal, yet inadequate to democratize themselves even at par of existing, relatively democratic forces like Nepali Congress. Therefore, birth of a true new force that is capable of addressing nation&#39;s overall governance and deemed prosperity considerations, through this slanted process is absolutely unlikely. However, if this process at least could transform some of communist outfits to reasonable democratic forces that too would be a desirable outcome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another sphere of the debate is, rather should have been, to explore the possibility of creating such a force that has some blueprint to address Nepal&#39;s multi-faceted problems which have rendered the country to a virtual brink of becoming a failed-state. Crisis of governance, deficit of democracy, bleeding economy and pervasive hopelessness of the common masses are some of the immediate concerns which, if not addressed soon, may in fact degrade the country to anarchy, unmanageable even in the long run. But, the current expanse and depth of the debate do not seem enough to give rise to such an all-encompassing political force. Surely, some of rational thinkers from academia and media tried to take the current discourse beyond the cocoons of the communist jargonism, but the triggerers of it from the Left band seemed unwilling to step out of Marxist philosophical umbrella.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Coming back to Bhattarai again, he appears to be less-than-ready to completely forsakethe UCPN Maoist at present. Understandably, it is difficult to desert political Alma Mater. But, at times it is more difficult to mould it to fit to the contemporary need, which justifies conception of the new force. Despite hiccups, Bhattarai has been reiterating the need of such a force. &#39;It may take a few years for such a force to take a shape&#39;, he said in an interaction in the third week of May. His recent China visit was also reported to be to gauge the pulse of Beijing on his plan, without jeopardizing his &#39;warm&#39; relations with New Delhi. For this reason, he dubbed his visit as &#39;pilgrimage to Mansarovar&#39; and chose to set the travel camp not in Beijing but Lhasa, the capital of Tibet autonomous region of China. But, the Chinese authorities left no stone unturned to accord his visit an official status fitting to a former prime minister of a neighbouring country. A number of high officials made a point to travel from Beijing for political discussions with him.With change in guards in New Delhi, he probably has to strike a different chord to attract attention from India&#39;s ruling rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If Modi could prevail over India&#39;s bureaucracy, he would perhaps like to see Nepal still a Hindu state, in contrary to Bhattarai&#39;s brandishing of Nepal as a secular state. This may need further fine-tuning of his new plans.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Why should only Bhattarai be at the centre of discussion for this new political force under consideration&rsquo; is a valid question. The common masses still consider him perhaps the most talented persona currently active in Nepali politics. While in government, particularly when he was the finance minister, he came out untainted in shady financial dealings. And, he is the one who is now unambiguously advocating of the need to transform the communist forces to democratic ones, which indeed is crucial component for the democratic future of Nepal. But, Bhattarai doesn&#39;t fully seem to realizehis strengths and perhaps lacks confidence to renounce the ideology that he has so far kept so close to his chest. But, still he could be the best choice to lead such a force if he dares to drop the old cloak and readies himself to lead a new Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Again, regardless of whether Bhattarai can exhibit enough courage to spear head a new force or not, the relevance and importance of it has been realized more intensely than ever before. The rampant criminalization of politics by the existing parties, their out of date &nbsp;- out of place leadership, sheer apathy to the needs and priorities of the country, widespread corruption on public resources and increasing culture of impunity, among many other malaises, are unlikely to be corrected by the existing forces. Or, just correction may not be enough. The culture of irresponsibility has become the norm in exercising, misusing to be precise, the state power.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a rational and functional political force to come into being, Nepal undoubtedly needed a more systematic discourse on the topic involving all ideologies and all possible identities. For last seven decades, Nepal as a nation has chased the dream of such a nationalist democratic force, but it still remains a game of chasing a mirage. The current debate has reignited hope, but just hope is not enough. Therefore, we only have leaders dancing in a wrong tune at the wrong time.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The current set of Nepal's all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2772',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Undemocratic Overtures',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections. But there is still doubt on the possibility of these elections being held by end of June this year. It has been sixteen years since these elections were held last and the term of the office bearers expired some twelve years ago. In the absence of democratically elected local bodies, the public service delivery, grassroots public works and institution of democracy have faltered to the hilt. The consequences are apparent -- the capital expenditure for years has been far less than the allocated targets, the GDP growth has stagnated at yearly average of 3.5 percent for last eight years despite the fact that country has enjoyed relative political peace during this period, and the emergence of new generation of leadership in any possible political formation has been nipped in the bud.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even now, the dampener to the call to these crucial polls comes as a single voice of both factions of the Maoist parties that parted ways some three years ago, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Vaidya respectively. From the ideological prism, the opposition to the polls by the Maoists looks all natural. And, it was expected from the Vaidya group given the fact that it remained out of the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in last November. But, by contrast, the move appears rather anachronistic for Dahal and his party (UCPN Maoist) that has vowed to remain in competitive politics of ballots despite all odds. The political plunder the Party is now venturing into may well turn out to be a mammoth blunder not only for Dahal and Co. but for the entire country and the democratic process itself.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to decipher Dahal&#39;s calculations to oppose these polls. He is apprehensive of poor outcome for his party if it goes to polls without uniting the Vaidya faction. On top of it, not only Maoists, every party other than UML is fearful of the local polls conducted when Bamdev Gautam is at the helm of Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the opposition to these polls from Vaidya comes as entirely different reason: this group is determined to go against any proposition made by the parties in CA and under the present scheme of political arrangements. It is in fact Vaidya&#39;s chosen plank since it separated from the mother party UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But to hide real shortcomings, Dahal has adopted a new but unambiguously anti-democratic stance in the form of opposing these polls. &nbsp;His formal premise of this opposition is: the inevitable engagement of the government and political parties in the local elections would divert the focus away from the constitution writing. He has also trained his party rank and file to rant out that the poll competition among the parties would bitter the differences that could be reflected in constitution writing. &#39;It hardly causes any grave damage if we defer the polls by seven or eight months for these local bodies that have remained vacant for last sixteen years,&#39; Dahal has unequivocally said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apparently, Dahal&#39;s statement lacks creativity and craftsmanship. Every politician who wanted to procrastinate on the local elections through all these years has used the same platitude, pointing to some larger political urgency or priority to be addressed before these &#39;trivial&#39; polls. When the term of the local office-bearers expired, the Maoist insurgency had swept the country. The priority was &#39;saving democracy from terrorism&#39;. When the peace deal was sealed in 2006, agenda of saving the peace process overshadowed the local polls. Then, in 2008, the CA elections were natural priority. The Interim Constitution 2007 didn&#39;t even incorporate a provision for local elections, which is a real shame on our constitutionalism and so-called experts who drafted it. When the first CA came into existence, influencing experts had a take, &#39;since entire nation were to be federalised, the local elections would only be a nuisance in the larger process of restructuring the state.&#39; When the extended tenure of the first CA expired without writing the constitution, sense of national loss was so overwhelming; no leader had time to ponder over these &#39;unimportant&#39; local elections. Then came the second CA elections and existence. The change in political equations gave birth to NC-UML coalition in government that fortunately has begun at least the talk of these polls. But, unfortunately, efforts are already on to stall them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The crucial questions here are: Were all those cited reasons both necessary and sufficient conditions to procrastinate the local elections at different political turning points? Were these &#39;local&#39; elections so unimportant at the face of other &#39;national&#39; agenda? And, do they still deserve to be pushed further away in this or that pretext? Answer to all these questions is one big NO, but the background that leads to this simple NO is excruciatingly painful and treacherous.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first and perhaps the most powerful of all explanations is that the central leadership of any party strongly hated these elections. After 1992 local elections, the NC and UML saw that many articulate, learned young cadres elected as local leaders attracted national and international attention. They were the first to woo the public confidence as they had resources, public position and closest contact to the grassroots population. This created a very real threat of displacement to the national leadership if such a &#39;mass manufacturing&#39; of young breed of leaders were continued. A simple example to vindicate it could be enough to compute the proportion of members in current or past CAs that were elected in those local bodies during 1990s. The best way to allay this threat of &#39;big&#39; leaders was to stop this practice altogether wherever and whenever possible. The Maoist who came to mainstream through Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 2006, were no different from NC or UML in this regard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If that were not the case, there was not any convincing reason to not hold the local polls at least after the CPA. Had local bodies come into existence then, it could have been a great vehicle to bring the local political leadership of different parties at the same political platform. It could also have been the most effective mechanism to deliver the putative &#39;peace dividend&#39; to the people in general. These polls could have been conducted at the sidelines of both CA elections without much additional logistical and security costs. But, to repeat, leadership of no major party was honestly interested to hold these elections. Even the CA members were (still are) against it. Their naive complaint used to be &#39;DDC chairman, or a mayor, with all facilities and resources at his disposal is more powerful than a member of CA or legislature.&#39; These are real impediments&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	to these polls than any fabricated political logic.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Otherwise, these local elections on their own merit are very important from every possible paradigm of democracy, development, decentralization and true devolution of power. One can also convincingly argue that inputs to the constitution writing, state restructuring and political reconciliation would have come in more institutionalized fashion had these local bodies with elected representatives remained functional.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The argument that the local elections would derail or deviate the constitution writing process is extremely preposterous to say the least. First, the CA couldn&#39;t draft a constitution in four years of last CA where such polls were not even contemplated. And, there is no real trade-off between these two goals - namely, the constitution writing and holding the local polls. The CA can without aberration continue the process of writing the constitution. The Election Commission (EC) and the government can handle the logistics and other preparations for the local polls. The argument that local elections impair the possible political cooperation among the political parties is outright unpolitical. All the forces who believe in the rules of democracy cannot harbour animosity just for the fact that people voted for one party against other.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the contrary, local polls and the constitution writing, if managed wisely, can be mutually reinforcing and complementary processes. It is repeated in uncountable instances that without a framework of state restructuring incorporated, the constitution writing process cannot be completed. These local democratic bodies can serve as the real feedback institutions for delineations of the provinces and other administrative and electoral units. More importantly, these institutions will be the real tool to manage unrealistically spiraling ambitions of people with largely misrepresented notions of rights, inclusiveness and reservations, among many other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It appears that all contentious issues on constitution writing will not be resolved by the sitting CA and all major leaders have categorically said that these issues will be resolved through a referendum if required. This is a clear hint that completion of constitution writing may take several years. If such a scenario is imminent, it is illogical to stop the local elections from taking place now. Suppose, even if this CA completes the constitution drafting process, the promulgation of the same is not going to be easy. But, if these legitimate institutions are in place, they can help to create an atmosphere for relatively smoother promulgation. An elected political leader is far more responsible apparatus of the state mechanism than the one left in the streets just to protest on every petty issue.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even in the worst case scenario, say, the local elections delay the constitution writing by a few months; it is still a risk worth to be taken. With the local bodies in operation, people can feel the real strength and utility of the democracy than the distant CA or a vague constitution. It is however not to mean to undermine the importance of the constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is good to know that EC has reportedly started preparation for all required legal backdrop, including the amendment in the Interim Constitution 2007 to include the provisions for local polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone should be convinced that no democratic exercise of any fashion would weaken the democracy. A pragmatic rethinking is required on the part of the Maoists and real courage in government to translate its own promise of holding local elections into reality, sooner.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-09',
			'modified' => '2014-06-08',
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			'description' => 'The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2760',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Retreat Of The Meek Fellow',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, the new coalition government has taken a shape. But it took complete three months since the second elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA-II), on 19th of November, 2013. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered and temporarily back-tracked on this commitment; once he got sworn in to the post. It invited a nasty public exchange of diatribes between the leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and major partner, the UML. But, if he wanted to save his government, Koirala had no other viable alternative to succumbing to UML demands of Home Ministry to be led by none other than the &#39;big muscled&#39; &nbsp;UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam. Koirala&#39;s space of political maneuvering was further tapered by complete non-cooperation from his own party colleague Sher Bahadur Deuba which compounded the task of giving a complete shape to the government. The perception of insecurity in Koirala was not unfounded. He indeed was apprised of the potential danger by those who have knowledge of informal level of intimacy between Deuba and UML Parliamentary Party leader K P Oli. Unlike Koirala, who hardly suffered any mention-worthy length of jail term during the panchyat days, Deuba and Oli for years spent in the same prison cell. And, now they share same wavelength of banter and modus operandi of &#39;practical politics&#39; of money, muscle, maneuvering and machinations.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the bare arithmetic in the House has it, Nepali Congress doesn&rsquo;t have any other option than placating the UML unless it had chosen to appease both UCPN (Maoists) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) to sum up to the magic number of three hundred and one to save the government. But, the latter option to materialize involved a lot of ground-work and maneuvering, yet disposing the possible coalition always to walk on the razor-edge. Nonetheless, given the track record of the UML, the Maoists and the RPP-N would perhaps have been relatively easier bed-fellows for Congress. Yet, it is mere a conjecture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unpleasant episode of Home Ministry row at the very initial days of the Koirala-led coalition has three clear indications. First, Koirala as the prime minster has very little flexibility than resorting to the politics of give-and-take. Second, he takes hard stances at wrong turnings, the only consequence of which is to back-track rather humiliatingly, virtually in no time. Third, no party is reading the crucial arithmetic of the House before resorting to high-pitched verbal bashing in a political reality that is mandated for nothing but a coalition rule.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Why is the Home Ministry such a big controversy in every stage of government formation? Not only in the cross-party power sharing as is now, there are instances even when a single party majority rule, the portfolio is contested to the extreme among the aspirants. There may be some political arguments forwarded by its minister-aspirants to bag the post, but the craving is rather a political anti-thesis. This time around, Gautam could convince his party that the party would perform better if he became the home minister. The Congress aspirants who stopped Koirala from conceding the ministry to UML have had similar claims. Essentially, these were just the premonitions to destabilize and debase democracy by advocating straight rigging in the elections, misusing the state machinery. But the current political values of Nepal seem to have, unfortunately, accepted is as part of the game. If we evaluated history, any such impact of altering election results or adding the political clout of the party awarded with this portfolio, however, are mere perceptive fallacies. The reality is something different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Home Ministry is a marrying point of politics with crime. Apart from possible corruption avenues, the minister will have unhindered access to unearmarked security expenses under titles like &#39;for intelligence operation&#39; and &#39;FADA&#39; (financial assistance, donation and awards). Being the joint head of the civil administration with extensive quasi-judicial rights at the district level represented by the chief district officers (CDOs) and of two police organizations ensure the incumbent a stream of incomes in enormous sizes. Such lucre comes from every source you can think of, or may be even beyond that, including the contrabands, counterfeits, smuggling, extortion and human trafficking. Therefore, it is not any surprise why every ex-home minister has a noted underworld operator under his protection and some parties have even given them seats in the party central committees. That is that.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In his entire political career, Koirala&#39;s main working strategy has been the procrastination of the crucial decisions. This old habit of his doesn&#39;t seem to have died, even though he is the prime minister now. At his personal level, indecision comes in two forms; he doesn&#39;t read any file to be decided upon, it depends on some of his &#39;trusted&#39; lieutenants to do the job and brief him. And, he doesn&#39;t &#39;trust&#39; those briefings too and begins to investigate whether there could be any vested interest involved of the person who briefed thus. And, the safest he finds is not to decide anything. This is not a desirable quality in any chief executive, that too of Nepal in these pressing hours when many important agenda await decisions, rather sooner.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The phrase &#39;within one year&#39; becomes a wont in tongue of all major politicians in the coalition. The initial promise was to write and promulgate the new constitution within a year from the date of the CA elections-II. It is now the fourth month running since and parties are signing so called agreements to deliver a constitution again, within a year. The understanding between the two major coalition partners, Congress and UML, to shuffle the prime ministership after a year makes us apprehensive. Implicitly, they are saying shamelessly, that the constitution will not be written within a year from now on. The intentions are not honest.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For now, Koirala&#39;s quest for corruption-free governance is a task impossible in view of the coalition made shaky by severe intra-party wranglings and factionalisms in both of the major ruling parties. Gautam at the helm of Home Ministry is sure to let loose all possible &#39;channels&#39; of illegal trade in gold, currencies and goods. He proudly repeats &#39;one year in the ministry is enough to finance the personal politics for a decade and even larger benefit to the party in the longer-term.&#39; It is not difficult to foresee that Koirala would helplessly witness the drama of the ministers who behave more smartly than himself, albeit merely in their vested interests. Technically, he cannot afford to break the coalition. In practice, he cannot assert designs due to his meekness. And, politically he is a redundant deadwood who doesn&#39;t enthuse with vision and mission of his own, and keeps on bungling processes as he did in forming the current government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He has severe diplomatic drawbacks. He is not &#39;wholly&#39; trusted by the southern neighbour. There was a point in history when he was alleged of having connections with the people with dubious backgrounds like late Jamin Shah and the likes who were suspected of mobilizing funds from suspicious sources. The West is apprehensive for the same reason as India is and China knows &#39;very little&#39; about him as their official press points out. Therefore, his identity crisis couples with his crisis of confidence to run the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that even the second CA election has not taught any lesson to our leaders. Therefore, the priority is still being given to power-sharing games than to writing of the constitution. As pointed out by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal that constitution is &#39;unlikely&#39; to be written even by this CA appears to be self-fulfilling. The priorities of the coalition partners are different from constitution writing. The Oli-Gautam duo in UML wants to exploit every possible benefit of being in the government to win the party presidency for Oli in its national convention slated for coming May. There is even a widespread concern that the local elections now considered for April might be pushed further away due to the convention to elect new executive.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are enormous challenges and externalities. Leaders like Dahal and Kamal Thapa of RPP-N would be happier to see that this coalition failed, just because they wanted to prove that no one is better in terms of delivery. Being in the government is perhaps the sweetest part of the cake. When the process of finalizing the provisions of the new constitution actually begins, demands and impediments from outside of CA are likely to rule the roost. Madhesis, janjatis and pro-identity federalist have plans of forwarding their agenda through protests on streets to incorporate them in the constitution; ignoring the fact that they were largely rejected by the voters. The moves of Maoist-Baidya group could even be more irksome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The only good sign is that the two largest parties in the CA have been able to form a coalition. A couple of other fringe parties have come to their support. Ideologically, the coalition is perhaps the closest-- best explained by their unconditional stance on ballot-based democracy. Above all, the coalition commands more than two-thirds of majority in CA and the Legislature Parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the prime minister must develop a habit of deciding things than only being a meek onlooker. And, the work on constitution writing must now begin without any further delay.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-11',
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			'description' => 'Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2393',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Elections Over, Not The Conflict',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The final results of the both parts, first-past-the-post and proportional representation of the Constituent Assembly (CA)-II elections held on November 19, 2013 are now out. The fortunate part was that the polls could take place, barring some exceptions, in relative peaceful and largely fairly manner. The high-pitched verbal intimidations of poll-opposing parties, led by CPN-Maoist (Baidya) to disrupt the polls, for all practical purposes, turned out to be a hoax. The interim election government headed by the incumbent Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi and Election Commission deserve appreciation for the effort they had put to make the polls a success, on the scheduled date. Mohan Baidya and his brigade of 33-party also deserve their due share of applause for not resorting to extreme violence which, given their strength, could have made the elections impossible. The support of international community for the elections was not in any way less important. A good silver-lining is that, Nepal slowly seems entering into an era of peaceful politics, for the groups like Baidya have too started to understand the importance of the less destructive politics.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s agenda of peace is far larger than the constitution itself. Lasting peace and a functional constitution in many contexts could be a &lsquo;chicken and egg&rsquo; story, but in our case, peace in the sense of non-violent politics, based on polls and opinions, has been the prerequisite to create a meaningful ambience and debate to begin to write a constitution; and ultimately to functionalise it. The entire objective of holding the second CA elections was in fact centered on Nepal&rsquo;s desire to transit from conflict to a constitutional era.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, what about the prospect of ending this conflict? It is the most excruciating of all questions and the answer is not yet emphatically affirmative. The only path to ending conflict is to respect the popular political mandate expressed through these ballots by all political forces of the country. And, the culture of such respect comes only out of unflinching faith on democracy and adherence to its true norms. This unfortunately, has long been one big black-hole in Nepali politics. The politics here is dominated by the &lsquo;opportunistic democrats&rsquo; in the guise of the left forces of all names and hues and the some regressive rightists. As long as they can exploit legitimate constitutional means they would utilise that and, the moment their constitutional might is in the receiving end, they, particularly the communists, would immediately resort to violent tactics to capitulate the State authority. The newly emerged regional forces are no different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	These features have become real bottlenecks to Nepal&rsquo;s democracy and peaceful politics. In addition to it, there is a cognizable force led by Maoist-Baidya which had ab initio boycotted this election process, thus posses extra challenge to the very functionality of the new CA. The forces now badly defeated in polls are also in all likelihood to resort to alternative course of violence to make their existence felt. The respect for popular mandate would be the first victim and ensured peace therefore could still be a mirage for a long time to come.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Regardless of that gloomy side of the picture, these elections have given clear mandate to write a pluralistic, democratic constitution. The people have put Nepali Congress on the lead closely followed by the CPN-UML with the duo jointly constituting almost two-thirds of the 601-member CA. The Congress as the oldest democratic force of the country and the UML by now transformed into liberal left force with faith on ballots than bullets have substantially increased the hopes of institutionalizing democracy, polity of plurality and patience for peaceful policy through the new constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	These elections pushed CPN-United Maoists into the third from the first position in the last CA. People were apparently deeply apprehensive about their agenda of &lsquo;ethnicity and caste-based federalism&rsquo; which might easily boil down to ethnic tensions and violence. The rise of staunchly pro-monarchist RPP-Nepal as the fourth force in the CA, is in fact an additional retort to the Maoist agenda of &lsquo;secularism&rsquo; in place of the Hindu state and ethnicity-based federalism at the cost of national integrity. The forces in the last CA with all potentially divisive voices have been virtually obliterated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The people&rsquo;s vote to every party has a very clear message - well balanced and well defined. This in aggregate gives idea about the kind of constitution people are looking for. The near two-thirds majority jointly to the Congress and UML means that the constitution should unambiguously be democratic in its essence. On federalism, people upheld the &lsquo;capability based federalism with the state ensuring multiple identity&rsquo;. &nbsp;The relegation of UCPN (Maoists) to the third position is still an opportunity to transform itself into a credible democratic force that doesn&rsquo;t believe in provoking religious and communal sentiments to have its political ends met. People didn&rsquo;t prefer the concept of all-powerful president proposed by the UCPN (Maoists) but have favoured to the idea of ceremonial president with elected prime minister with all executive powers as was proposed by the Congress and the UML to the voters.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even if the RPP-Nepal chooses to interpret its resurgence to the fourth force as people&rsquo;s increasing faith on monarchy, it is reading the wrong message. It is in fact a wish of a considerable number of &lsquo;cow-worshiping&rsquo; Hindu voters to retain the identity of Nepal as &lsquo;some sort of&rsquo; Hindu state. It is a clear serendipity that the party&rsquo;s election emblem happens to be the &lsquo;holy&rsquo; cow, which reaped an intrinsic symbolic advantage.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The regional parties, mainly from Madhesh, putatively with a separatist overture are largely sidelined by no other than the Madheshi voters. But, again, they still jointly could have been the forth force. The factionalism and petty interests in them have taken the toll on them. Therefore, their strength must not be underestimated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Putting all these aspects together, the future shape of the constitution becomes clear. &nbsp;Nepal will be a republic with a ceremonial president and elected executive prime minister. The federalism must not be based on single-ethnic identity alone but first on capability and them multiple identity. The division of provinces cannot be like the one of &lsquo;one-Madhesh-one-province&rsquo; as those manifestoes are clearly rejected. People want some form of religious &lsquo;Hindu identity&rsquo; than being unconditionally secular state.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, all these mandates could translate into constitutional provisions only if the constitution drafting process is not trampled by sheer non-respect to the popular mandate. Its ominous signs are already at the doorsteps. The UCPN (Maoist) along with other forces failing to fare as expected in elections are alleging &lsquo;structural rigging&rsquo; of the polls and threatening to boycott the CA process. &nbsp;Such politics of violence and blackmailing is not only likely to jeopardise the whole prospect of a truly democratic constitution but also distort and disturb the entire process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The onus of taking the entire process to ensure a democratic yet implementable constitution unquestionably lies on the shoulders of the Congress and the UML. They have the strength and the mandate and international support. But the danger is, their priority and efforts might just be limited to grab or share the state power and constitution writing might be pushed to shadow again, like in the past.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The rampant tri-forked factionalism in these both parties could pose a real stumbling block to the smooth sail of the process. The CPN-UML President Jhala Nath Khanal has already proposed that the two parties should lead the government on turnkey basis. But in both parties it is going to be a herculean task to select their prime ministerial candidate at first. Each of them has at least three front runners for the job. In Congress, the Party President Shushil Koirala, Senior Leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Party Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel are vying for, actually dying for, the post. Similarly, in UML, President Khanal, Senior Leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and powerful faction leader KP Oli have claim with their own logic of respective suitability. The natural democratic way out could be electing a parliamentary party leader in them and assigning the responsibility, but it is surely not going to be this simple; as even the defeated ones would continue to move their pawns for a checkmate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If the practice of premiership on turnkey is adopted between the Congress and the UML, why not even smaller parties got proportionate duration of time to head the government according to their strength? At least, they will not fall short of claiming it. All this means is, entire exercise might just be concentrated in making and unmaking of the government. The politics of consensus, no doubt, is imperative to make constitution writing a reality, but the need of consensus shouldn&rsquo;t be a tool to blackmail power, against the popular mandate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to say, this CA election has not been very instrumental to put the potential political conflict at the backburner for it excluded some potentially violent forces from the election process itself. The new political equation is more likely to give space to new form of frictions. In view of massive international financing to make Nepal &lsquo;secular&rsquo; and ethnic boiling pot and voters&rsquo; clear mandate against it, this is going to be a real source of conflict afresh. When Congress leads the process and the RRP-Nepal led by Kamal Thapa becomes a balancing force, it might repeat the infamous &lsquo;horse-trading&rsquo; episode of 1996.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The final results of the both parts, first-past-the-post and proportional representation of the Constituent Assembly (CA)-II elections held on November 19, 2013 are now out. The fortunate part was that the polls could take place, barring some exceptions, in relative peaceful and largely fairly manner.',
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			'title' => 'Govern Like A Government',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the influential leaders in the United CPN Maoist Party -- UCPN (M), Barsha Man Pun has recently alleged that present government has started to behave like a &lsquo;political government.&rsquo; If that is the case, it is doing the right thing. The government must behave like a political than technical government, which can only solve political problems. It is irrelevant by now to keep hammering on the very nature of its structure just because a special kind of political equations that led to form this.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Once formed, it is the government of the country and it should function like a government, not as puppet show. Moreover, it is the government awarded with wider political legitimacy in the form of &lsquo;first consensus government in years&rsquo;. Every other petty detail automatically gets pushed to the background.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is no longer a news, rather a foregone conclusion, that the polls are impossible, at least, until November. Of course, it would still be a grand success story if they could be held by the end of this year, 2013. The growing inaction of the government has redoubled the doubts that are already thick in the air as regards real possibility of holding elections.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No doubt, it was perhaps one of the greatest mistakes that Nepal&rsquo;s political leaders made by choosing the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Khil Raj Regmi, to head the election government. To add to the woes, leaders of the four political parties through the High-level Political Mechanism are trying to control the government. It must be mentioned here that any such mechanism doesn&rsquo;t have a constitutional validation. Anything the Mechanism forwards can only be recommendatory, not mandatory for the government to adhere to. And if certain political parties are capable to continue to exert such pressure, how could the elections held by this government be free and fair?&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unnecessary practice has given rise to a double-fold nuisance. First, it has greatly affected the performance of the government. It sometimes appears as waiting for the &lsquo;direction&rsquo; from the Mechanism and, sometimes tries to assert its own course of actions. The end result is: it has lost its direction and pace. Second, it has created a situation where for all the failures of the government, it can directly put blame on the Mechanism and for any success it can claim its own.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Therefore, the political leadership should now come out of the mindset of plying a guardian angel to the government. It is only way that this government can be made responsible to its national duties and accountable to political contract of holding the Constituent Assembly elections sooner. But this rationality doesn&rsquo;t seem to have dawned upon the political top-hats of our country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The world has taken well into account that these four political leaders jointly declared themselves incapable of leading this country. They doubted their own level of integrity such that heading an election government by one of them would not produce impartial poll results. This was what led the situation of Regmi becoming the head of the government, virtually out of the blue.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It looks rather clumsy on the part of same set of leaders to act as the true &lsquo;drivers&rsquo; of the government. One of glaringly gauche example is the UCPN (M) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal&rsquo;s posture while departing for the &lsquo;official&rsquo; tour of China and then to India in the second and the third week of April, respectively. He tried to portray himself as a virtual head of the government going for a state visit, particularly in his dealing with media at home. But it is now a public knowledge how these countries matched the protocol to this visit. Outcome of course is limited to him, if any at all. But these things don&rsquo;t seem to have deterred our set of leaders feigning as grand saviours.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For this behaviour of our political leaders, Regmi and his cabinet colleagues have found more excuses, and, ironically, time to inaugurate painting exhibition, release some second-graded books or pose with gawky smiles in prize distribution ceremony of some primary school. The real business of governing the country is largely ignored.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The governance dysfunction was somewhat a foregone phenomenon as Regmi refused to resign from the post of Chief Justice to head the government. It was the message that he didn&rsquo;t want to be fully responsible. His greed to go back to the old position, just for a few remaining months, after heading the government, speaks in volume how calculative he would be in taking decisions. This is undesirable on the part of the country&rsquo;s chief executive. And, it must be corrected. He should govern, not dither.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Only remedy for all these ills, surfaced even in the day-to-day business of the government is to make this government entirely responsible for what it does and what it should do. It is in the interest of country and also, in the interest of the political parties concerned. Only when political parties step aside to give full space for the government to work, can they conduct a sort of performance audit on the government. Equally important, Regmi and his cabinet colleagues must be able to demonstrate their ability to govern, which so far seems unimpressive to say the least.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Putatively, holding the Constituent Assembly election is no doubt the cardinal of all responsibilities of this government. But, there are hundreds of other matters that have gone out of track and government can work to restore them in the interim. It will ultimately help to create a proper atmosphere for the polls.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is perhaps right time to control organized crime, which is largely thought to be protected by the influential political leaders. These leaders now can&rsquo;t have access to the official files of these goons and once the action is taken, these leaders, technically, will not be in position to defend them in public. This indeed will help decriminalize our politics in a great way.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another important issue it can decide is: it can bring down the number of seats in the proposed Constituent Assembly, to a reasonable level of say, one hundred fifty to two hundred. This will be both popular and wise decision. But on the contrary, it is reported to be succumbing to the political pressure to increase it again to six hundred.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The donor community is surprised by lack-luster performance of this learned bunch in the government. The international community, for example, had asked to enlist the kind of support the government would seek from them for the new elections. But the government has even failed to coordinate a meeting of all these donors even in two months time, after it took charge.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Recently, a message was circulated that Nepal cannot hold the next summit of South Asian Regional Cooperation (SAARC) within 2013. Reason given is weird: there is no government in Nepal now. Is this government in position to react and say &lsquo;we can&rsquo;? The head of the government has not even thought it necessary to address the nation to give a sense where we are exactly heading. The list could be very long. But much needed guts is apparently lacking in every respect of the decision-making in the government.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Will this government without political will on the one hand and totally paralyzed by undue, frequent interference from the Political Mechanism on the other be able to hold Constituent Assembly elections by this year end? Doubts are high. And, only way to ensure that this government doesn&rsquo;t shirk away from this responsibility is to make it look and act more like a true government than a club of volunteers.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For this, those political parties that think they obliged Regmi by choosing him to be the head of current government should stop interfering in the functioning of the government. And there is the role of the President, as a sole functional constitutional entity of the country, to remind this government to its duties and admonish when derailed. But, to repeat it again, this government must realize the fact that it is there to govern the country, not to appease any of the political masters. And it has true opportunity to choose than snooze.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2013-11-08',
			'modified' => '2013-11-10',
			'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal,  current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events,  ongoing  political news of nepal',
			'description' => 'One of the influential leaders in the United CPN Maoist Party -- UCPN (M), Barsha Man Pun has recently alleged that present government has started to behave like a ‘political government.’ If that is the case, it is doing the right thing. The government must behave like a political than technical government, which can only solve political problems. It is irrelevant by now to keep hammering on the very nature of its structure just because a special kind of political equations that led to form this.',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2086',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Fears Of Polls Going Futile',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The chieftains of major four political parties -- United CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesi Morcha -- appear contended and relaxed for being able to install the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi as the head of the new interim &lsquo;election&rsquo; government. The questions related to constitutionality and conflict of interests between executive and judicial organs of the country, since the same person effectively heads the both, do yet remain unanswered.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are a number of cases under consideration in the court of law seeking appropriate interpretation of relevant constitutional provisions on it. Worst of all, the very first recommendation for constitutional appointment made by the government headed by the Chief Justice himself was returned by the President for &lsquo;further constitutional explanation.&rsquo; This controversy surrounding the appointment of Chief and other Commissioners in the Election Commission indeed gives some indication to the modus operandi of the new government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	More than that, the practice of extra-constitutional imposition of the political vested interests by the &lsquo;High Level Political Mechanism&rsquo; practically makes the Regmi government a faceless scarecrow. Apparently, all the new ministers got appointed on a shared quota-basis amongst the four political parties involved. And people are told to believe that it is politically neutral coalition government. &nbsp;This is a total farce. Yet, the whole coalition looks like a coalition game in economics game theory where there is no easy &lsquo;core&rsquo; or equitable distribution of pay-offs among the parties, but still they are clinging to it.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The much touted-about political consensus appears a total mockery as there are reckonable political forces out of this &lsquo;all party&rsquo; mechanism; disgruntled and determined to create any obstacle possible if they are not listened to any time soon. Among them, the break-away faction of the Maoists party (CPN-Maoist headed by Mohan Baidya), all three parties of former panchas (Rastriya Prajatantra Party-RPP, Rastriya Janashakti Party and RPP Nepal) and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum headed by Upendra Yadav are some of those that deserve consideration to include in the so called all party mechanism.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But absolute inflexibility and ungenerous attitude of the four parties to accommodate or address the concerns of these disgruntled political outfits in some way or the other raises further apprehensions about the possibility of polls any time sooner. And, UCPN (M) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal&rsquo;s over ambitious plan of hastening to polls within June this year smells rat in his design.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	True that Nepali people want to go for ballot sooner than later. But, the polls are not instant soup-making recipe. The national polls are massive management nightmare. Still, several legal arrangements are needed to be made to enable the Election Commission to hold putatively free and fair polls. The budgetary arrangement is equally difficult. No doubt, there are several donors ready to dole out money for elections here, but they also need adequate time to process our requests through their respective home governments and bureaucracies. Our own budget for the current fiscal year needs recasting if the polls were to be held within this fiscal year, say June.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Logistics and stationery arrangements including the designing and printing of ballot papers, transportation of polling boxes and machines etc. involve a substantial amount of time and human resources. Security mobilization is perhaps going to be the most extensive and exhaustive affair.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On top of it, controlling the violence carried-out by some fringe and purportedly political outfits, active in different part of the country, remains crucial. Whether the new government of bureaucrats and with limited technical mandate has authority to negotiate peace or, if required, will-power to obliterate them by combing operation is critical of all questions to make polls a success.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite these all obstacles evident than ever before, why Dahal is insistent on June date? Is he so keen to reestablish the democratic process sooner, which for so long has been derailed mainly because of him? &nbsp;There are suggestions that June is the month when common people hardly can find time to go to polls due to their seasonal engagement in cultivation as monsoon just begins. And, only those who come to vote are the committed party cadres of any party. Implicitly, the winning chance of UCPN (M) is likely to increase in such a scenario. Also, if polls are scheduled in such a short notice, number of international election observers arriving to monitor the polls is likely to be far less, giving room to rigging for the forces with organised and violent youth wings like Youth Communist League (YCL) of the UCPN (M), or similar outfit of CPN-UML. These arguments about Dahal&rsquo;s discrete planning are not unfounded since Dahal has been able to fill the key state positions by the people highly loyal or made so by several machinations, including the head of the election government, Regmi. All in all, Dahal wants absolute majority in new Constituent Assembly (CA) at any cost, that too without recognizing the splinted off Baidya faction and yet, legitimizing all his political moves making Nepali Congress and CPN-UML mere mute witnesses, compelled to sign on the margins of his political contract papers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite all maneuvers and scrambling of Dahal and his party, polls within June still look a distant possibility. And the fact that seven years have passed without any significant achievement towards ending the political transition, there is no point going so hastily just to cover a few months time without proper preparations. The most rational expectation would be to hold the polls in November with adequate perseverance and nuanced management of time and resources.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What if even the Regmi government couldn&rsquo;t hold the polls for all those reasons Dr. Baburam Bhattarai government failed to meet the two deadlines of November 2012 and April 2013? &nbsp;Interestingly, the political parties who signed the 11-point deal to enthrone Regmi perhaps have no clue about the possible next step if he failed to deliver the polls and choose to remain in power in whatever pretext.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even if the elections are held, regardless when, as the fact of matter remains, outcomes of these new CA polls would take Nepal only to a status quo of April 10, 2008, the day when the first election for the CA was held. Despite a number of extensions, that CA during its four years in existence had failed to make any headway in drafting a new constitution. All major political parties represented in that CA failed to reach a consensus to extend its tenure for the fourth time on 27th May, 2012. If one remembers it correctly, it was the Supreme Court verdict from a bench of justices including Regmi that had barred the extension of the CA term.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Without addressing the very causes which made the last CA dysfunctional and ultimately dead, the new CA, even if it is instituted by coming November -- the earliest possibility, would not be able to deliver new federal constitution as expected by the people. The politics has become so messy with rising ethnic hatred, unrealistic expectations of regionalism and culture of using violence to capitulate the authority to meet all implausible demands of divisive and sectarian nature.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No political party seems to be prepared to go to the polls with a concrete frame of the constitution they are planning to draft if they got elected. This in fact should have been the main basis of each party&rsquo;s CA election manifesto. It is because, people can rationalize their expectations before deciding whom to vote and what to expect when the CA takes shape. Even smaller parties with extreme demands may come up with their respective propositions and their issues could be addressed on the strength of votes they secure. It would have made things far easier to promulgate the new constitution once drafted. But the so called big parties are also not prepared to come up with any clarity on these crucial matters for the obvious ulterior motives of fishing in the rough waters. Such ill intentions are more ingrained in those parties who are inclined to one party dictatorship under the veil of democratic mandate. People again have to vote on the basis of the guesswork without knowing their distinct position on constitution drafting process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Election Commission&rsquo;s code of conduct can regulate such things by making every party mandatory to go to the polls with complete shape of their proposed constitution. But whether the Commission will have that guts and vision is an unanswered question here.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, if the parties do not plan on how they want to proceed once the CA elections are held, things are not going to change for the better in Nepal. Even if one party gets clear majority in CA, it will be impossible to move ahead without taking on board all big or small political players along both to draft and promulgate the new constitution. Therefore, this process is better if it began now. Otherwise, like in the past, we will be back to square one again after spending many valuable years for the same cause. The whole exercise of this CA election would also automatically go down the drain.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2013-11-08',
			'modified' => '2013-11-08',
			'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal,  current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events,  ongoing  political news of nepal',
			'description' => 'The chieftains of major four political parties -- United CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesi Morcha -- appear contended and relaxed for being able to install the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi as the head of the new interim ‘election’ government.',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2085',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Fall Of The Last Pillar',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If no extremely dramatic events unfold in Nepali politics overnight, the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi, may have sworn in by the time this writing reaches to our readers. He, or whoever for that matter, will be the tenth chief executive of the nation in as many years, which exposes the gravity of the political instability and difficult transition the country is reeling under.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Prey to Politics&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whether or not Regmi became prime minister is by now an issue of secondary importance. The prime concern here is: the judiciary also couldn&rsquo;t resist the temptation of political indulgence at the cost of its so far largely maintained independence and respect to professionalism. In this sense, the judiciary, that was somehow saving Nepal from falling into the abyss of acute form of anarchy and was the last testimony to the remnant feature of rule of law, has been the last pillar to fall prey to political machinations. Otherwise, Nepal is by now already faced with the consequences of the institutional degeneration, almost in every spectrum of life. Every professional and state institution is highly politicized. The security apparatus like army, police, intelligence, the civil service and diplomacy, the academia and civil society and to a large extent even the media now wear the cloak of some hue of politics. Lately, all government set-ups have been forced by design and default to act as the extended wings of the UCPN (Maoist). Democratic forces of the country remain defensive and indifferent to growing aggressiveness intrusion of the Party invariably into all state organs of the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>The Question of Constitutionality&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	The prevalent Interim Constitution of the Country doesn&rsquo;t provide for an incumbent chief justice to become the chief executive of the country as well. The Supreme Court still headed by Regmi has the ultimate authority to interpret the constitution. But, at this juncture, any interpretation of the provision that is completely absent in the constitution would tantamount to nothing but a blatant conflict of interest, since such an interpretation, technically presided by Regmi himself, is only likely to justify his decision to take-up the top job. The press statement issued by the Supreme Court in the last week of February, apparently at Regmi&rsquo;s will and design, already demonstrated the overall tilt of what it could be possibly like. The entire objective of the statement was that, he is only willing to go on &lsquo;deputation of duty&rsquo; from chief justice to the chief executive, without resigning from his present post. This is more of an ominous than welcome sign, both in view of judicial independence and concept of balance of power in democracy.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Controversial Beginning&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Let&rsquo;s suppose Justice Regmi is assigned to head the election government. He would be taking up the job not as a much-touted-about &lsquo;consensus figure&rsquo; but amidst a sharp division regarding his choice for the job. Not only the opposition parties, but all four largest parties -- ruling UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madheshi Morcha -- are vertically split into two factions each, on Regmi&rsquo;s pick. And, some of the arguments of the dissenting factions in each party are worth pondering. Firstly, the move would directly prove that political parties are grossly incompetent and not trustworthy to head an election government. Second, they are oblivious of the very concept of balance of power among the major three organs -- executive, legislative and judicial -- of the state. And thirdly, what miracle could Regmi alone demonstrate as the country now languishes in a serious nature of constitutional vacuum. The institutions like Nepal Bar Association have voiced serious concern over the Chief Justice&rsquo;s lust for power at the cost of judicial independence. There are apprehensions that the UCPN (Maoist) has plans to rig the next polls by misusing the state-power yet would validate results by making the chief justice the head of the election government. Regmi&rsquo;s appointment automatically blocks the other parties to seek judicial remedy in case of electoral malpractices. These points of view definitely hold waters and cannot be glossed over instantaneously.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Crisis of Management&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Regmi&rsquo;s appointment requires a series of important makeovers under the guise of the constitutional provision of &lsquo;Power to Remove Difficulties&rsquo; by the President of Nepal. The constitution has not envisioned an incumbent justice becoming the prime minster (in whatever name, the chief executive of the country). This would require a special decree form the President, citing the political consensus among the major parties, which again looks a pure farce with so much discontent fumed around. Even if the appointment hurdle is cleared, there are several other constitutional issues that warrant a speedy sorting out. The positions in the Election Commission, including that of the chief commissioner, are vacant. Does Regmi want to play this role as well, as he is officially likely to be titled as the chief of Election Council? What happens to the positions of the chief justice itself whereas the constitutional spirit is that both the head of the government and the judiciary represent separate, independent capacities in several crucial institutions like the Constitutional Council, that make appointment of the heads and office-bearers of several constitutional bodies including the Election Commission. Incidentally, almost all constitutional bodies like Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Auditor General&rsquo;s Office and Election Commission are without the chiefs or office-bearers, for years in some cases. Even in the Supreme Court, three-fourth of positions of justices remains vacant. To fill these all would require a separate arrangement as there is no possibility of fulfilling the constitutional provisions through parliamentary hearing in absence of the legislature.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Competence and Delivery&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whether Regmi would be able to hold fresh elections by November this year is the cardinal of all questions here. This requires a lot of political work that begins from the point where he starts to choose the kind of people to fill in the positions in his government. The impartiality issue of himself and his picks will be crucial. And, worst of all he will be functioning under a situation where all major constitutional positions will have already violated to pave the way for his appointment and only resort to move ahead will be the kind of political support he gets as he moves ahead. This implies that there will be forces on the ground who would be constantly challenging his actions. As the nation has not decided on the number of constituencies for new elections, their modalities and, whether it would be an election for both Constituent Assembly and Legislature or only for the former, to propose a formula agreeable to all is impossible and purely a political rather than a bureaucratic exercise. Regmi has yet to try his art in this trade.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is too early to say anything whether he is competent enough and would be successful to deliver what he is expected of. But his track record is not very encouraging. The latest allegation is that he paralyzed the justice delivery system by not taking any initiative to appoint the judges in the Supreme Court in time. It was the Court verdict that had barred the extension of the then Constituent Assembly tenure beyond May 27 last year. Despite the fact that he knew the parliamentary hearing of new judges would be impossible beyond that date, he failed to initiate the action of extending the term of existing justices or to appoint new ones when there was adequate time left. At present, the result is that the Supreme Court is left with only six justices whereas in high times it used to have as many as two dozen justices. This indeed have made justice delivery difficult, and, at the same time put Regmi&rsquo;s credibility under huge interrogation mark.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>The Last Optimism&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whatever the cost or difficulty in the process involved for his appointment, the only hope is that Regmi as the accepted figure by four or five largest political parties could hold elections and those polls would be free and fair at an acceptable degree. Every party though has viewed Regmi&rsquo;s installation as their convenience for entirely different reasons than this, which again could complicate the situation in future. For Maoists, it was a great achievement to be able to stop Nepali Congress from heading an election government and it hopes that Regmi would duly oblige the party for surprisingly picking him to head the next government. Congress and UML are contended only at the ouster of Baburam Bhattarai from the prime ministerial position, who otherwise seemed unrelenting to relinquish the position. Other forces, including the international community wanted to trust on Regmi&rsquo;s legal credentials and his largely maintained non-corrupt image during a long legal career.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, interestingly again, even if new polls could be held within a year or so and a new Assembly is instituted, Nepal&rsquo;s political challenges will still be where they were immediately after April 2008 elections. Therefore, there is no point being over ambitious at this very moment about anyone heading another government or holding polls. Unless, political rationality, read it metamorphosis of parties from authoritarian to democratic mindset, prevails among the major political players the country, Nepal&rsquo;s political crisis will only deepen regardless of any drama we orchestrate, be that drama of government headed by the chief justice.&nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2013-11-08',
			'modified' => '2013-11-08',
			'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal,  current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events,  ongoing  political news of nepal',
			'description' => 'If no extremely dramatic events unfold in Nepali politics overnight, the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi, may have sworn in by the time this writing reaches to our readers. He, or whoever for that matter, will be the tenth chief executive of the nation in as many years, which exposes the gravity of the political instability and difficult transition the country is reeling under.',
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	(int) 14 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2084',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Manifesto Recast At Hetauda Commune',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The UCPN (M) truly wants to remain in the mainstream of Nepali Politics. It, therefore, has ventured into a dramatic change in policy paradigm through its Seventh National Congress. The seventh Congress was a hundred and eighty degree shift in the party&#39;s policy stand, from its Sixth Congress twenty-one years ago. The previous one had adopted the policy of raising arms against the state and the recent one has formally proposed to relinquish them altogether -- a changed face of revolution, as the party has baptized it.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>The Paradigm Shift</strong></span></div>
<div>
	UCPN (M)&rsquo;s Seventh General Congress held in Hetauda from February 2-7 undoubtedly heralded a new era in Nepal&#39;s politics. Thanks to a complete &nbsp;departure from the doctrine of &#39;bullets for political change&#39;, which had been the political mainstay of the party for the last two decades, to a fairly convincingly documented commitment to embrace &#39;the politics of ballots and open competition.&#39; With this development, the much needed optimism to restore a peaceful competitive democracy in Nepal has &nbsp;now revived, more reassuringly than ever before. Skeptics there are, but when the largest political force of the country resolutely announces that it would strip away the hangover of &#39;establishing the &nbsp;people&#39;s republic&#39; by all possible violent means, the country must give them a chance, at least for once. And, Nepal has no alternative to that for now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Understandably, this recast was not easy for the party which fought a ten-year long guerrilla war, sent its fighters home largely discontented with the resettlement arrangements and suffered a split recently. But the new policy paper crafted jointly by Chairman of the party, Puspa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) and Prime Minister Dr. Baburam &nbsp;Bhattarai who is also the senior vice-chair of the party needed to gather massive guts to face the present day reality and come out of the longheld revolutionary hegemony.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As evident at the Congress venue, it indeed was a daunting endeavour for the party leadership to rein in and satisfy the cadres about this change rather unexpected for many of them, who were initially indoctrinated, rather foolhardily, to establish a proletarian dictatorship before they would be asked to put their guns down. They were not ready to believe the claim that whatever the party could achieve politically from the 10-year &#39;revolution&#39; was optimum for now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In this context, the Dahal-Bhattarai duo deserves a real acclaim for not only making this ideological change possible, and that too relatively smoothly, but also for accepting the fact that there is no polity beyond political co-existence with other forces and a rule-based competition with them in polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It was not in a very distant past that the whole party rallied behind a highly mystified dogma of Prachandapath. But over the last seven years, when Prachanda himself has been at the centre of national politics, Prachanda-path emained a neverexplained political term and now it is completely out of the party&#39;s official literature. This is indicative of the urgency felt by Prachanda to come out of the violent legacy of the insurgency era. In addition to this, to the surprise of many, he has started to publicly criticize summary execution of his opponents by former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and cautiously negate Maoism for being &#39;not replicable in our different context.&#39; (It is a great irony though, for both Dahal and Bhattarai deliberately wore special hair-do to look like Stalin as early as a couple of years ago and the party&#39;s official banner still carries Stalin&#39;s portrait).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&#39;s meticulously crafted paper makes every effort possible to sound credible to both- his cadres by using lexicons akin to communist glossary and to the world by practically accepting the ground realities. &#39;Nepal no longer is a semi-feudal and semicolonial state, but rather a new comprador bourgeoisie capitalist one,&#39; &nbsp;reads his main policy paper suggesting that another armed rebellion under any pretext would be unjustifiable under these realities. His assessment that &#39;Nepal is also under the influence of a neo-colonialism of globalization is not much different from the standpoint taken by the underdeveloped world in the world arena, albeit with a bit different diplomatic decorum. He has repeatedly tried to reassure that the party would no longer indulge in a killing spree in the name of physically eliminating the class-enemy, as it has changed plank from the abolition of social classes to capitalistic growth leading to socialism.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This transformation is essentially not much different from the &#39;people&#39;s &nbsp;multi-party democracy&#39; (jantako &nbsp;bahudaliya janabad) propounded by late general secretary of the CPN-UML, Madan Bhandari, some 23 years ago. Dahal&#39;s detractors have even gone to the extent of calling him &lsquo;nothing but a mere shadow of the UML&rsquo;. Regardless of anything, this a was much-needed change in the Maoist fold for Nepal to &nbsp;resolve its political impasse peacefully and it was duly heeded by the Maoists, which is a welcome development.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&#39;s policy paper, finally adopted as the 7th Congress Resolution with some ritual modifications, at times is unexpectedly mild and flexible. As reason for this, Dahal has tried to vindicate that all inflexibility, irrationality, dogmatism and impractical policy rigidities had gone with the party&#39;s break-away Mohan Baidya faction and what now remains in the UCPN (M) is a political organization with modern, 21st century outlook and vision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Grip Not Loosened</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Despite all odds, Dahal has emerged quintessentially an unchallenged leader from this Congress as well. It appears that as long as Dahal and Bhattarai can work together, a third person is &nbsp;unlikely to claim the topmost position in the party, for the foreseeable future. At least, this looks like a smooth sail at the centre. But the situation at the</div>
<div>
	grassroots is much different as reported by the respective local representatives of the Congress. They complained that the party had failed to assign political responsibility to the entire rank and file in the organizational structure. Former cadres who returned home dejected are hardly under party discipline and a large &#39;garbage lot&#39; of socially discarded people who were used during the armed rebellion are proving a nuisance to entire party. These factors can erode Dahal&#39;s grip on the party in the long run. When the party actually goes to the polls sooner or later, Dahal is likely to face a steeply uphill task of differentiating his party with the one like the CPN-UML and establishing the rationale of killing so many thousands of people at the cost of the country&#39;s great opportunity for development and growth, ultimately, just to become another UML. But for now he is the helmsman, which in turn is an opportunity to keep his grip intact with tactical moves like the present one.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Confession Drama</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Dahal has confessed that his resignation from the prime ministerial position over the tussle with the then Chief of Nepal Army, Rookmangud Katwal, was a na&iuml;ve and unnecessary emotionalism. Though not explicitly expressed, his remorse was apparently for the anti-Indian tirade he belched out while leaving the post; perhaps in hope of placating the power blocs in the southern neighbour that he believes have gone against him since. In a bid to be seen as a &nbsp;mature political force, he has omitted all traditionally used vocabularies such as &#39;Indian &nbsp;expansionism, American and Russian imperialism, Chinese revisionism&#39; etc from the official party literature. &#39;The differences now should be dealt &nbsp;through mature diplomacy,&#39; he argued to pacify the cadres. But, that is what exactly should be done, &nbsp;practically.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Economy First&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The party&#39;s new policy paper has put the economic agenda in the forefront of its &#39;vision&#39;, so to speak. Its policy paper on harnessing the country&rsquo;s water resource by mobilizing the local and domestic resources and setting up a production and development brigade are testimony to this. But, these propositions lack maturity and need a gross &nbsp;overhaul that suits to the ground realities of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Developing hydropower projects on a commercial scale with only local resources is a sweet but impossible dream. It is not like a cooperative farming where labour-intensive production can be adopted. Capital, technology and market - all three have to be explored and traded across the national borders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to understand that Dahal needed some mechanism to adjust the party&rsquo;s erstwhile armed members. So, he proposed a production and development brigade. It sounds like a good idea from the supply side, but as a responsible political party, UCPN (M) needs to adequately consider the demand side of it as well. What to produce? How and where to produce? Where to sell it? And, will his cadres be willing to be in another labour camp of a sort for this purpose? These are a few example- questions to argue that the UCPN (M) needs further clarifications in these propositions to remain in the political forefront in future Nepal. Nevertheless, the party has made a good beginning by the cardinal policy change through its recently concluded 7th Congress.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite a good and encouraging beginning to transform his party into a contemporaneous force, Dahal has left many crucial unanswered questions which still cast doubts over his intentions. He has mentioned Nepali Congress as the &#39;prime enemy&#39; but has failed to enumerate the reasons. There is no mention of what the party would do to the land and property forcefully occupied by its cadres during the insurgency period. How will the party view the private property rights, civil &nbsp;rights and individual as well as press freedom? Until these questions are answered satisfactorily, the proposed transformations from the margins will not yield the benefits as aspired by Dahal and his party. But again, transformation is a continuous process and momentum is more important than the event.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/polt.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 168px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px;" /></div>',
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			'description' => 'The UCPN (M) truly wants to remain in the mainstream of Nepali Politics. It, therefore, has ventured into a dramatic change in policy paradigm through its Seventh National Congress. The seventh Congress was a hundred and eighty degree shift in the party's policy stand, from its Sixth Congress twenty-one years ago. The previous one had adopted the policy of raising arms against the state and the recent one has formally proposed to relinquish them altogether -- a changed face of revolution, as the party has baptized it.',
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			'id' => '2813',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Oli’s Climb, Prachanda’s Fall',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<em><span style="font-size: 14px;">By the magnitude of his &lsquo;flexibility&rsquo; shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year.</span></em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Akhilesh Tripathi&nbsp;</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Bikram Samvat 2072, the new Nepali year which started about two weeks ago, is going to be interesting. There are telltale signs of that. Consider the following incident!&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		On the eve of the New Year, Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Chandra Nemwang called a meeting of the top leaders of the major political parties to discuss the thorny issues of the new constitution. CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli was absent. The reason was he was climbing Dharahara! On this conspicuous absence, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda grumbled, &ldquo;For Oli, Dharahara is more important than the new constitution.&rdquo; Later, Oli, whose Dharahara climb was aided by an oxygen cylinder, retorted, &ldquo;It is difficult to climb up like the UML, but quite easy to go down like the Maoists!&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Why did Oli ignore an all-party meeting to climb the Dharahara? There are two possible answers. One, Oli, who is said to be playing the final innings of his life wanted to accomplish his wish of being atop the historical monument (Had he waited for 12more days to fulfill this wish of his, he wouldn&rsquo;t be able to do so because the historical monument built by Nepal&rsquo;s first prime minister Bhimsen Thapa was grounded in the April 25 earthquakes). Two, he deliberately ignored the meeting of the major parties to pile more pressure on the opposition parties, mainly the Maoists. Who says he doesn&rsquo;t aspire to become the next Prime Minister at the earliest possible? After all, he climbed the Dharahar to dismiss a major allegation against him that he is sick and unfit.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepali politicians speak in different ways. Oli climbs Dharahara, all 213 steps. By doing so, he is sending three clear messages: I am strong enough to climb; I can see the view from the top; the New Year is going to be beautiful.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Prachanda, while talking to the media, says he&rsquo;s willing to take any risk for the sake of delivering a constitution on time. In a meeting of the three major parties &ndash; Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) on April 20, Prachanda agreed to resume the constitution writing process. It&rsquo;s a big example of flexibility shown by him.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		By the magnitude of his &lsquo;flexibility&rsquo; shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year. Or at least, greater things are at stake that justify his move to alienate the Janajatis, anger the Madhesis, and shutting the door to unification among the six Maoist parties.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But why did Prachanda change and became flexible? Prachanda has lost a lot of political ground in recent times. The Nepal bandh called by the 30-party front led by him could not win public support. So it fell flat on the very first day. Similarly, Prachanda&rsquo;s party&rsquo;s candidate faced a humiliating defeat in the CA by-elections held recently. That is also a measurement of the people&rsquo;s support to the Maoist agenda. By now, Prachanda understands that he is not backed by any kind of popular support. All these factors have forced the UCPN (Maoist) leadership to review their position and become flexible in the political give and take.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		So, it&rsquo;s been a common knowledge in recent months that the Maoists have backtracked on their position on federalism. It may not have been just a coincidence that the Maoists&rsquo; softening of stance followed Baburam Bhattarai&rsquo;s India visit and Prachanda&rsquo;s China visit.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		By now, it seems, the Maoist leadership has understood that a general strike or a trip to the neighbourhood seeking help (intervention) will not help. That is perhaps why the three major parties &ndash; NC, UML and UCPN (Maoist) &ndash; have agreed to allow the constitution writing process to move forward. Oli&rsquo;s Dharahara climb has helped in this process. Oli cannot climb the Dharahara again because there si no Dharahara now. &nbsp;But the opposition parties, mainly the Maoists, now know that the UML chief can engage in any other similar undertaking to mount further political pressure on them. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<strong>Making Institutions Inclusive</strong></div>
	<div>
		Another thing we learned from the year gone by is that institutions, once designed, are difficult to change.</div>
	<div>
		The April Uprising of 2006 sought to change the way the state and political parties respond to the people&rsquo;s needs. But it did not have a clear vision of what new institutional structures might look like. Parties like the Nepali Congress and UML define this change in their own way while, the Maoists, Madhesis, and Janajatis, on the other hand, have their own agenda for reforms, including the form of government, federalism, and electoral system. The failure of the Maoists and Madhesis to push forward their agenda shows how entrenched and entangled existing institutions are in the Nepali society.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Restructuring of institutions is required at two levels: at the level of political parties, and at the level of the state. At the level of the political parties, the internal party structures allow a few leaders to extract from the ordinary party members and unions that have penetrated all levels of the society. The recent Supreme Court verdict trying to limit the role of employee unions is an example. Most employee unions are extractive institutional structures. They serve their members by lobbying for their promotion and transfers, especially when their party leaders are in power. Therefore, a meritorious government employee, if he or she is not a member of these extractive unions, has fewer chances of getting a promotion or a good position.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Given the existing state structure, top political leaders who have control over parties like the NC or the CPN-UML have few incentives to restructure the party and the state. Making the party and the state more inclusive means giving up on their monopoly of power and privileges. Reforming state and party structures, therefore, is a difficult proposition for almost all top politicians. As many studies have shown, once institutional structures are in place, it is difficult to change them in favour of the ordinary people.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		One of the implications of such a situation is that political divisions have crystallised at the local level also. Nepal is a deeply divided society. Nepal&rsquo;s political parties have created a social chasm that runs vertically, from the highest level to the community level. At the community level, the divisive political allegiance has more to do with getting access to state resources and opportunities than to development and ideology.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		As a result, allegiances are usually made to political parties that have a greater prospect of getting to power. Without such political allegiance, which is something more than just an affiliation, people rarely get access to state resources or even entry into the marketplace.</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'By the magnitude of his ‘flexibility’ shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year.',
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			'id' => '2803',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Democracy  Vs Minority Diktats',
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If the ongoing irresponsible behaviour of some of the key political players of the country doesn&#39;t come to a halt, it is certain that the Constituent Assembly-Two (CA-II) will also not be able to deliver a new democratic constitution for the &#39;federal new Nepal.&#39; The major impediment to the new constitution writing process has two folds: the first, no party is adhering to the mandate and processes of the CA, and crucial political bargaining are taking place out of the constitutional and the CA ambit. The second, smaller parties in and outside of the CA still rule the roost by forming a twenty-two party alliance to oppose any stand that the main two political parties in CA --Nepali Congress (NC) and UML --are likely to take with regard to potential provisions for the new constitution and its writing process. This al-liance led by UCPN Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal is resorting to tantrums akin to that of a pressure group -- organizing street protests, flexing muscles and causing disruptions to CA proceedings, in some pretext or the other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If a public meeting organized by this alliance in the mid-October at the open-air theatre in Tundikhel, Kathmandu, is any indication, the Maoists are again determined to ruin the second CA as they did to the first, rendering it hostage of blatant indecision at the high-level political committee (HLPC). The speakers in that meeting declared a number of daring things that are aimed at rendering the very authority of the CA non-existent and prevaricate the democratic mandate and process. It raises fears of another cycle of violent politics. This is because, Dahal made three crucial revelations: he would not respect the arithmetic of CA, no constitution could be written without incorporating his agenda of &#39;identity&#39; and he repented on agreeing to the &ldquo;management of his Red Army and the arms before the constitution of &lsquo;his choice&rsquo; was written&rdquo;. &nbsp;As can be recalled, the process through which some of the former Maoist rebels were given employment in the Nepal Army and rest were sent home by paying generous gratuity, is normally referred to as &ldquo;management of former Maoist rebels&rdquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to repeat, all these are clearly anti-democratic postures. His refusal to accept the &#39;numbers&#39; as they stand in the present CA disregards the people&#39;s mandate expressed through the last ballots. His adamance not to comply with the universally accepted democratic practice to decide every contending agenda by majority votes in CA would leave all major political differences undecided indefinitely, in absence of any other feasible alternative process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the issue of identity, Dahal has been successful to rally the support of other eleven fringe parties that are present in CA and equal number of others without any representative in the House. His insistence is that the earlier CA had somehow agreed to &#39;identity-based federalism&#39; and the current CA too shouldn&#39;t deviate from those understandings, written or unwritten. But the fact is: the identity agenda largely got defeated in the CA-II elections and electorates gave completely new verdict, pushing the Maoists into the third position and giving a two-thirds majority to the NC and the UML combined. The manifestoes of the latter two emphatically reassures the voters to write a pluralistic constitution with possible least number of provinces, above all, on the basis of their economic viability. But Dahal&#39;s deliberate intention seems to undermine this reality and try to thrust his agenda by exerting force to disrupt the CA proceedings and effecting road blockades. It is worth recalling that Dahal&rsquo;s party UCPN-Maoist too has mentioned in its election manifesto that voting will be resorted to if the efforts for consensus fail. Moreover, the CA-II has also adopted a rules book in which it mentions that issues in which no consensus could be reached shall be decided by voting.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&rsquo;s repentance on &#39;early surrender of arms and army&#39; also smacks of his ill intentions to use that guerrilla force as the tool to political blackmailing, as in the past. His partners in protests, the Madhesi and Janajati parties are more than enthused by the political patronage of the UCPN-Maoist and also by the fact that their agenda defeated in popular votes is now shouldered by the Maoists, the third largest party in CA. It is not difficult to understand that Dahal is now desperate as he is very fast losing his political ground. Not only his party got reduced to the third largest in the CA-II from the first in CA-I, it currently commands bare 14 percent of total votes in the House. That is why he is against of the CA arithmetic. Also, his party is at the verge of further division after the main ideologue Dr Baburam Bhattarai has challenged Dahal&#39;s authority from within and intensified the efforts to create a &#39;new force&#39;. For, all these reasons, Dahal is experimenting on any possible political adventurism to save his existence as leader to be reckoned with. This is understandable. What is completely incomprehensible is why other two larger parties, NC and UML, are succumbing to these tantrums of Dahal, resorting to one after another undemocratic moves and decisions. Why can&#39;t they say that no political decision regarding the constitution writing could be taken outside the CA and beyond the popular mandate?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the overused platitudes of Dahal has been &#39;consensus in constitution writing.&#39; On the surface, this appears as a benevolent idea. But, in essence, it is implicit design to take the constitution writing process away from CA to HLPC. Since the country has expensed so much to ensure diverse representation in CA, it is impossible to arrive at consensus at every motion mooted in the CA. Therefore, accepting to resolve all contentious issues through already defined CA rules and processes, including voting, is absolutely within democratic values and norms. Dahal and his allies has problem in this, because it is surely a losing game for them as they simply lack the number of members in CA to pass their agenda. But, if they believe in democracy, instead of exerting to disrupt the processes, they should accept the outcome by explaining their point of view such that can woo the public support in the next polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But that needed patience Dahal clearly lacks and he is now wielding a double-edged sword -- simultaneously leading the street protests and holding the convenorship of HLPC that was dug out last month off the grave of the last CA, merely to placate Dahal&#39;s ambition of chairing it. Interestingly, he successfully capitulated the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML leadership to form this apparently unconstitutional &#39;superpower centre&#39; that is often practically portrayed as above all the political mechanisms of the country -- including the prime minister, the CA and the parliament. Or, at least, Dahal wanted HLPC to function in that fashion. This too is an undemocratic demeanour.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Naturally, the voice of other allies in Tundikhel was more aggressive. Sadbhawan Party leader Rajendra Mahato said he would not let the constitution be finalised on the basis of &#39;majority vote in the CA&#39; and Ashok Rai of Federal Socialist Party warned of &#39;pulling the NC and UML leaders by their collars&#39; to agree to their demand of identity-first federalism. What all this means is: there is every effort going on not to recognize and treat the CA as the only constitutionally validated body to write the constitution. This is perhaps the gravest danger that Nepal&#39;s political process faces at this moment. For the UCPN-Maoist and other smaller parties, their action might be justifiable to the extent to make their presence felt in the national political spectrum. But it is highly surprising to see that the NC and UML are readily agreeing to the demands of these parties without considering their consequences and not working enough to deliver a timely constitution despite their clear majority in the CA-II that allows them to write the constitution themselves.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At this juncture, three political personalities have performed far short of their responsibilities and expectations from their respective public positions. First is Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who has failed to deliver the governance in every possible field you may name. His ministers are working berserk. His slogan of &#39;clean government&#39; has hit rock bottom in every appointment in the constitutional bodies, judiciary to executive branches. It took four months for the House to pass the appropriation bill. When issue of poor governance is raised, he retorts with saying &#39;the focus is on constitution writing.&#39; When the mayhem in constitution writing is pointed, he just vents anger on the people who dared to ask. His lacklustre performance is only costing the country very dear in every front, mainly as coupling hindrances in constitution writing process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The second person who could have changed the things for the better but doing very little or nothing is Subhash Chandra Nembang, the CA Chairman. When House was disrupted continuously for five weeks in September, his presence was nowhere felt. He kept on urging the political parties &#39;to agree&#39; on certain things. But, his responsibility was not to urge for agreement but to run the House business according to the already laid-down laws, rules and precedents. His failure is more acutely felt in his inability to &#39;educate&#39; the CA members in the processes and contents of the constitution writing. He even failed to inculcate in the minds of the CA members that they are representatives of the sovereign people, not the stooges of the political bigwigs. Over and above, he himself appears to be acting as the stooge of big leaders, waiting for signals to come from the quarters like HLPC.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The third personality who failed to deliver up to the expectation is Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Chairman of the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC) in the CA. He kept on jumping around to appear as if he is honestly trying to extract some magic consensus, but without doing proper homework particularly to finalize the agenda of state restructuring. He tried to forge the so-called consensus in the vacuum. One of the main bones of contention among the political parties has been the number of provinces that the new constitution should delineate to federalize Nepal. But these parties have all in unison failed to come up with the basic logic of any particular number they have picked to propose as their agenda. As such, Bhattarai should have been able to come up with data on economic and political viability of the possible provinces and presented them dispassionately to the political parties. Instead, he himself ventured to propose some eight, nine or ten provinces, without any database to support his proposal. This was naive move both as the Chairman of PDCC, who should have ideally remained neutral in all these bickering and, also as a learned man, he must have come with alternative data-supported analysis such as &#39;if we go for eight provinces, the per capita income of Nepalis will rise in X-rate while with eleven it goes up/down by Y-rate.&#39; But, alas, nothing of the sort is happening.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This is to conclude that, until and unless we revert back to essence of democracy from pressure tantrums, allow CA to function as the only legitimate place to discuss everything regarding the constitution writing and provide some factual basis to ascertain the number of provinces as well as the administrative structure of the &#39;new&#39; state, the new constitution will continue to remain a mirage, for unforeseen time to come.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'If the ongoing irresponsible behaviour of some of the key political players of the country doesn't come to a halt, it is certain that the Constituent Assembly-Two (CA-II) will also not be able to deliver a new democratic constitution for the 'federal new Nepal.' The major impediment to the new constitution writing process has two folds: the first, no party is adhering to the mandate and processes of the CA, and crucial political bargaining are taking place out of the constitutional and the CA ambit.',
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			'id' => '2809',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Derailing Democracy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Throughout Nepal&#39;s seven decade long modern political history, the biggest problem to institutionalize democracy has been sheer absence of democratic essence among the political actors - political parties and politicians, both. &nbsp;It has been true for all twists and turns in the history. Experience has it, those countries that could stabilize the democratic polity in relatively short period of political transition, say in two or three decades, enjoyed two common features. One, there was only two way fight between the democratic and autocratic forces, or colonizers and freedom fighters. Once the democrats outweighed the autocrats, the system got functionally stabilized. Second, at least for the initial transition, some charismatic and learned leader spearheaded those processes into an irrevocably functionalized and largely institutionalized form of democracy, before it could derail and eventually degenerate to anarchy or mayhem.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But Nepal&#39;s democracy has persistently been victim of a triangular instead of bipolar traction among the ultra-rights led by the palace, ultra-lefts led by Maoists or Leninists, and democrats. In fact, democracy has been invariably sandwiched between other two forces. To recall the history of common knowledge, for this very reason none of political changes in 1951, 1961, 1981, 1991 or 2006 could institutionalize Nepal&#39;s democracy. The country has been a constant victim of political uncertainty and hopelessness, which has taken toll not only on economy and development but has also teetered the age-old social cohesion and coexistence. Thanks again primarily to the three-way pulls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The recent turn of events also does not present any different picture. The political rhapsody of UCPN Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal certainly reflects his desperation in a bid to save his political existence in the light of rapidly eroding political clout of his party, but it is hardly limited only to that. As a person brought up as the Maoist, he is fundamentally against this country writing a democratic constitution. &nbsp;And, this is not a secret, but his commitment, vowed umpteen times in public. He still harbours dreams that one day this country could still be ruled by a communist dictator, perhaps himself at the helm, like North Korea and Cuba. He wants the new constitution to be written with those aims in mind. But he too is clueless on the way outs that clear the nasty debris of the civil war, en-route to that unreachable summit.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the other end, there are monarchists who want to resurrect the religious fundamentalism to the extreme of considering the King, again, as reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. The movement of Hindu fundamentalism is slowly gathering momentum as not-so-insignificant chunk in the ruling Nepali Congress has also found solace in taking refuge to this political perversion. There are other hybrid elements born out of marriage between the royalists and leftists who have dedicated their energies to defame and undermine the popularly elected parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The most recent example is the blatant disobedience of several parliamentary committee summons by Lokman Singh Karki, chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). It may be recalled that it was Puspa Kamal Dahal who engineered the appointment of Karki, an ardent royalist who served as chief secretary of the government during king Gyanendra&#39;s absolute rule, in CIAA position. The disgruntlement of some of the parliament members towards recalcitrant Karki was also meaningless as his appointment was formally approved by the chiefs of all major political parties &ndash; Sushil Koirala of Nepali Congress, Jhala Nath Khanal of CPN-UML, Dahal himself and other Terai-based forces while Khil Raj Regmi was heading the caretaker government a year ago. The career graph of Karki was a public knowledge but that surprisingly didn&#39;t bother these &#39;big&#39; leaders and they awarded him the position he deeply craved for, for some unexplained reasons. After such a big blunder, it is but natural that the cries of &#39;small fries&#39;, like members of parliament, go unheard. To extend the argument, the discretionary abuse of the constitutional bodies like CIAA also constitute a great degree of test case on the impartiality of these institutions that are expected to function compatibly with the norms and values of the democratic dispensation. &nbsp;These are definitely some sure signals that even the &#39;structure&#39; of democracy is being gravely in peril now, let alone essence.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ideally, the alliance of Nepali Congress and UML should have been able to steer the process of constitution writing and institutionalizing democracy given the strength of popular mandate they have and their largely tested credentials to multiparty, ballot-based democracy. But, persistence of &#39;sickness&#39; and performance dysfunction of the ruling alliance has indeed been a major impediment to any outcome that helps to the cause of democracy. The chiefs of both the parties, KP Oli of UML and Prime Minister Koirala, also the Congress chief, are sick in literal terms. And, deplorably ineffective role of Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Nembang has rendered this supposedly most crucial institution in present day Nepal as good as dead.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government has been oblivious to a number of its public commitments which, had they been executed, would have consolidated democracy at least by a step or prevent it from boiling down to vacuum of popular representation. One of such derelictions was government&#39;s imperviousness to hold the elections to the local bodies. On the contrary, the ruling political cartel has engaged heavily in appointing controversial names in many crucial positions, including the judiciary. Nevertheless, the joint stance taken lately by Koirala and Oli to take the constitution writing process ahead and promulgate the new constitution by January 2015is no doubt appreciable. But, given the fact that they have hardly been credible in the past and apparent challenges that need a great deal of political dexterity to surpass, hopes of smooth sail are still very grim, to say the least.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another very alarming signal that democratic forces would be pushed to further relegation is: the influential members among ruling elites are blatantly engaged in the acts which are morally indefensible. The Nepali Congress Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel&#39;s avarice to appoint his near and dear ones to lucrative public positions, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Saran Mahat&#39;s machinations to transfer a highly controversial civil servant into his ministry and above all K P Oli&#39;s design of giving ministerial berth to his henchmen defeated in recent elections give ground for both Left and Right forces to disregard the &#39;high talks&#39; of democratic forces. There are several other such decisions that only undermine the transparency and accountability parameters, which are cornerstones of democracy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As such, the CA has been rendered completely ineffective. There are public speeches made repeatedly, challenging to dishonour the arithmetic of CA; a crucial phenomenon as consensus is always elusive as is the case now. The political polarization has intensified. The political undercurrents are such that given the provision that the constitution needs to be ratified by two-thirds majority in the House, there could be some defectors from the ruling alliance who may dig holes in the ship.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No doubt, Dahal is ruining his political prospects due to his own activities outside of CA and repeated flimsy announcements like &#39;initiating another revolution&#39;, &#39;forming the government from outside of parliament&#39;, &#39;writing new constitution from the street,&#39; etc. Worse, his irresponsible politics has provided much needed springboard to fringe parties, with some abstract agenda of identity and regionalism-based politics that were badly defeated in the last CA elections. They are particularly enthused by Dahal&#39;s patronship to these agenda.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Anything said and done, Nepal seems to be heading towards another constitutional crisis. The stage is being gradually set for that. There is not even a marginal possibility of promulgating a new constitution by 22nd of January, the deadline set by the political parties themselves. The ongoing unrest in the eastern part of country is perhaps deeper than it is generally perceived. Whatever federal structure one may propose, at least without any factual basis but by bare political imposition, is sure to be rejected by one section or another. Managing these discontents stemming in many forms and guises are likely to push the country to new phase of unrest and violence.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As of writing these lines, the drama of signature campaign &#39;to moot the proposal of ruling coalition&#39; into the Constitutional Dialogue Committee headed by Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai suggests that the era of politics of consensus has been over. Democracy essentially is less about consensus but more about the rules of the game. But, here, rule breaking has been the first norm of politics. And, the politics of consensus generally endows better payoffs to weaker than the stronger. That is why Dahal and his 22-party opposition brigade is &#39;dying&#39; for this ever elusive consensus in the constitution making process. But, on the other end, Nepal now is not in a situation where it can afford to relegate potentially destructive forces from the mainstream political process. The journey from completion of drafting to promulgating the new constitution, even if takes place at all in near future, is going to be treacherous. The thought over another crucial phase of actual federalization of the state is yet to begin. Setting up new bureaucracies, reallocation of resources and dividing powers and authorities amongst the different layers of administration are the task that are going to be far more difficult than writing &nbsp;one set of generic document called &lsquo;constitution&rsquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Before any tall talk on any big issue, we have but no choice to begin from the basics -- putting the derailed democracy back on track. The point of departure for one and all is; to unconditionally express faith on the rule-based game of democracy, respect for the people&#39;s mandate and in essence adopt a forward looking approach, not in a sense as touted by communists but as per the best and time tested democratic practices adhered to by the world for several centuries now.</div>
<div>
	The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</div>',
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			'modified' => '2015-06-01',
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			'description' => 'Throughout Nepal's seven decade long modern political history, the biggest problem to institutionalize democracy has been sheer absence of democratic essence among the political actors - political parties and politicians, both.  It has been true for all twists and turns in the history. Experience has it, those countries that could stabilize the democratic polity in relatively short period of political transition, say in two or three decades, enjoyed two common features. One, there was only two way fight between the democratic and autocratic forces, or colonizers and freedom fighters. Once the democrats outweighed the autocrats, the system got functionally stabilized. Second, at least for the initial transition, some charismatic and learned leader spearheaded those processes into an irrevocably functionalized and largely institutionalized form of democracy, before it could derail and eventually degenerate to anarchy or mayhem.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2798',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Games To Delay The Constitution',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Akhilesh Tripathi</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As it happened to be, the much-awaited all-party political conference or round table conference &ndash; to use a more popular phrase- which was supposed to see a dialogue take place among the three major parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and the parties outside it, on the contentious issues of constitution drafting, fell flat. The reason was, as we all know, the 33-party alliance led by Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist which is not represented in the CA and which had been demanding such a conference for a long time rejected to participate in the conference in the eleventh hour. The leaders of the CPN-Maoist and the 33-party alliance outside the CA never turned up for the conference. The CPN-Maoist communicated its decision not to attend the conference when Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and other political leaders had taken their seats at the planned venue inside the CA building. Thus, the politicians&rsquo; latest effort to seek consensus on contentious constitutional issues went in vain. But thankfully, as the conference failed to take off, it became clear that the Maoists had thrown the conference card only to delay the new constitution by affecting the CA calendar.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some people might think that this was bad for the country and the constitution drafting process as an opportunity to forge consensus on thorny issues of constitution drafting inside as well as outside the CA was missed. But in fact, this was good for the country and the constitution drafting process as the real intent of the CPN-Maoist and other dissenting parties outside the CA was exposed without losing any further time. Their real intent was to delay the constitution drafting process by the CA under one or another pretext. In fact, Baidya and company have, time and again, publicly expressed their disenchantment with the constitution drafting process by the CA. After all, they boycotted the second CA elections terming it &ldquo;a meaningless exercise&rdquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One political game to affect the CA&rsquo;s calendar and delay the constitution drafting process was exposed in the form of the failed all-party political conference. But other such games continue - some within the CA itself - in the name of seeking consensus on the key issues including form of governance and restructuring of the state, election system and judiciary. One serious blame is leveled against the very Constitutional-Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC) of the CA that was formed to hold discussions on the thorny issues of constitution drafting and build consensus on them. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The blame is that the CPDCC has been trying to delay the constitution drafting process to find the mirage called consensus. The CPDCC led by UCPN (Maoist) leader and former PM Dr Baburam Bhattarai has already missed a deadline of September 6 to forge consensus on the prickly issues of constitution drafting. Then it was given another deadline of September 30 to build such consensus. As things stand now, the CPDCC will not be able to forge consensus on the contentious issues within this deadline as well. Now voices are emerging that it should be given another chance to forge such a consensus which has proved elusive so far. One such voice has been floated by the UCPN (Maoist) which thinks the CPDCC should get one more month, even if that means the amendment of the CA calendar, to forge consensus.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That should not be done. All lawmakers who had registered to speak on the contentious issues have spoken their mind at the deliberations organized by the CPDCC and consensus still looks a very far cry. So, extending the CPDCC &lsquo;s deadline would be just a waste of time and resources.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the other hand, it&rsquo;s been quite some time since the three major parties in CA II &ndash; the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) are trying to form a High Level Political Mechanism (HLPM) in the name of facilitating the constitution drafting process. It is said that UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda is eying the post of coordinator of this proposed mechanism. To put the truth bluntly, there is no need for such a mechanism. It is also a game to delay the constitution drafting process by weakening the sovereign CA&rsquo;s role in that process. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The word consensus sounds very sweet to the ear. Everybody&rsquo;s consent on the key crucial issues of the constitution would be an ideal situation. No one would disagree that it is best to settle the contentious issues through consensus. But what if it is not possible? Can the country be kept a hostage for an indefinite period if consensus on contentious issues continues to elude us? &nbsp;Politicians have already squandered seven years in the process of statute drafting, mainly because they tried to forge consensus on the so-called thorny issues. In fact, trying to forge consensus on the contentious issues was the main reason why the first CA was dissolved without delivering the new constitution.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal tried to forge consensus among all political parties on the contentious issues of constitution drafting during the first CA. Series after series of negotiations were held. Marathon meetings were held. But it simply did not work. The country reached nowhere perhaps because we tried to please all forces in the name of finding consensus. This should be why the major parties agreed, even before the second CA elections were held, to follow due process if they failed to reach consensus on contentious issues in CA II. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That due process means deciding the contentious issues of constitution drafting through voting in the CA, which is the sovereign body to decide such matters. Or, alternatively &ndash; if a more democratic measure is to be adopted &ndash; we can hold a referendum to decide these issues. Here, the politicians can take some lessons from the recent Scotland voting where the Scots decided their fate through a referendum. It is still possible to hold such a referendum on the contentious issues as there still remains more than three months to promulgate the new constitution. But the decision has to be taken swiftly, if the country is to go the referendum way.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, the bottom line is no more precious time should be wasted in the name of forging a consensus.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-10-10',
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			'description' => 'As it happened to be, the much-awaited all-party political conference or round table conference – to use a more popular phrase- which was supposed to see a dialogue take place among the three major parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and the parties outside it, on the contentious issues of constitution drafting, fell flat. The reason was, as we all know, the 33-party alliance led by Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist which is not represented in the CA and which had been demanding such a conference for a long time rejected to participate in the conference in the eleventh hour.',
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			'id' => '2792',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'UML's Transformation : Leninism To Panelism',
			'sub_title' => '',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) passed yet another acid test to vindicate its democratic credentials by electing the entire 159-member Central Committee (CC), including the new chairman through ballots, in the ninth general convention (GC) held in Kathmandu, July 3-10, 2014. In a closely contested bid to chairmanship, KP Sharma Oli defeated Party&#39;s former, two-time, general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal by a narrow margin of forty-four out of two thousand and two hundred votes of the GC delegates.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Democratic Domain&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	There is no dearth of cynics who claim that bitter factionalism that surfaced during the contest for chairmanship would further divide the party that is already mired by groupism. But what must be appreciated here is: UML is the only political party of the country that has developed best internal democratic practices. Unlike many communist outfits who choose to break-away as the separate entity once some differences crop-up within the group, the UML has exhibited tremendous level of resilience to save it from fragmentation; thanks to the democratic space it created to vent the differing views and ideologies. For this reason it has withstood the test of time as the mainstream left force amongst some three dozen odd communist &#39;parties&#39;. It must not also be forgotten that it is a communist party that has painstakingly and by now convincingly transformed itself to a credible democratic alternative of the country. More importantly, it has set a practical contemporaneous formula for democratic transformation of any communist force that is originally indoctrinated to rise to power of &#39;people&#39;s republic&#39; by using the &#39;bullets and barrels&#39;to a force that readies itself to multi-party competition through ballots. No doubt, for this party, metamorphosis of greater magnitude is still inevitable to shake-off many dogmas and nostalgia of Soviet era. But, whatever it has achieved and maintained itself is in no way instantly dismissive. The ninth GC too has proved to be a new milestone as it elected mainly new set of younger leaders in CC, who have firmer belief in democracy than the older generation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that the Party&#39;s polity has now shifted from &#39;Proletarianism&#39; or &#39;Leninism&#39; to Panelism, which from a democratic perspective is a welcome dimension of change. The political sportsmanship and democratic spirit was clearly demonstrated by the leaders at the official closing ceremony of the GC on July 17. Both the victor and vanquished, Oli and Nepal respectively, along with other elected central body members vowed to work for the party unity, terming the vertical division during the CC election mere &#39;democratic exercise&#39;. Not only both the factions won equal number of members as the office-bearers, the representatives seem to have guided to votemore by the quality of the candidate than the factional affiliation, electing a completely mixed panel. Any &#39;bright&#39; person from both panels got place in the new CC.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Road Ahead</strong></div>
<div>
	If the mood of the Declaration made at the UML headquarters on 17th of July, is any indication, the party would soon enter into an era of a joint-leadership of many influential leaders. The chairman-elect Oli in very clear terms, with tears in his swollen eyes, declared that he did not have many days to live, and extended his arms for unity. It was momentarily a piece of emotional melodrama, unique to political cruelty. He couldn&#39;t even complete his short written speech. It is his eighth year running since his kidney transplant and, of late, the infection has now spread to his whole body, with septic deep wounds and swellings. There was a whirling question in the minds of the entire rank and file, why did he at the first place choose to run for chairmanship despite such precarious health condition? There is a strong school of thought which believes, there were mischievous minds like that of Bamdev Gautam who harboured dream of running the party as officiating chief as Oli is already a dilapidated figure. But, this possibility is clearly thwarted by the &#39;ideologues&#39; belonging mainly to Nepal faction, who changed the party statute such that now there are five second men (vice-chairmen) in the hierarchy after the chairman. This is the very statute the GC ratified, albeit with some resistance. And, incidentally, Gautam ranked second among these five in terms of popular vote, behind Bhim Rawal, a Nepal loyalist. In any event of Oli&#39;s absence, there would be moral pressure (as there is no clear statutory provision) to handover charges to Rawal, not Gautam, or Bidya Bhandari, another vice-chair elect and the most trusted aid of Oli.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What the UML&#39;s change in leadership means for the nation, is another issue widely debated in the political circles after Oli&rsquo;s victory. Again, effectively it depends on the health of Oli. Should his health permit, he naturally dreams of becoming the next prime minister of the country. &nbsp;If the things move according to agreement between the Nepali Congress and UML to promulgate a new constitution by the end of January 2015, under the turn-key clause of the agreement, the premiership would automatically come to the UML candidate, as things stand now, to Oli as the Party&#39;s parliamentary party leader. There are newly emerged political equations within that party such that no single person, except the chairman given his current level of comfortable majority in CC, is likely to hold the sway in any decisions. The ambitions like that of Gautam are dampened as such, once the power gets transferred to lower ranks from the chairman.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Policy Paradigm</strong></div>
<div>
	During the run-up to the ninth convention, there was a sort of euphoria created by a &#39;club&#39; of party&#39;s young &#39;thinkers&#39; that Party&#39;s socio-politico-economic policy paradigm would be redefined and formalized through the GC. But, the entire GC was so much consumed by the fight for the posts that it hardly could undertake much deserved discussions with due seriousness on any policy document. At the end, when it came-out with the thirty-three point Declaration on July 17, many of the same old communist verbose again found the place in it. &#39;Awarding land-ownership rights to tillers&#39;, &#39;protecting trade union rights&#39;, &#39;deploring of infringements on human rights&#39; in some weird part of the world etc. were repeated, rather artlessly. Some of the hasty conclusions like the &#39;global economic crisis like that of 2008 justifies the rationale of socialism&#39; were also incorporated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Interestingly though, this Declaration has very carefully avoided over use of redundant communist jargons and jingoisms. Not only it doesn&#39;t carry terms like &#39;Indian expansionism&#39;, &#39;American imperialism&#39;, it also cautiously reduces the frequency of the words like &#39;revolution&#39;, &#39;struggle&#39; or &#39;class struggle&#39; that are invariably and clumsily thrusted into policy papers of almost all communist formations. The ninth GC Declaration instead proposes interesting separate economic prescriptions for their cadres and the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&#39;This GC urges all the local committees of the party, affiliated sister organizations and all members of the party to devise concrete plans for their respective locality to augment economic development, productivity and employment and involve in the production functions so as to establish themselves as the leading-lights of the economicprosperity,&#39; says the point number 23 of the Declaration. The Declaration has also &#39;appreciated&#39; the &#39;improving&#39; relations between India and China and has wished to make Nepal beneficiary to the impressive economic growth of both the neighbours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Opportunities and Challenges</strong></div>
<div>
	Perhaps the biggest opportunity for the CPN-UML is the growing compulsion for all other communist forces to follow its &#39;janatako bhudaliya janbad&#39; or multiparty democracy route, should they opt to remain relevant in modern day pluralistic politics. It is becoming increasingly difficult for parties with Maoist tags not to follow the exact process the UML did for the last two and half decades. If the party wereto equip itself to harness this opportunity, it could provide a major fillip to its organizational strength. Certainly, its increasing global recognition as trustworthy democratic force is another very powerful factor that helps to retain it as a major player in Nepali politics. Its gradual policy shift from Left to the Centre is crucial to ensure the outfit&#39;s long lasting relevance.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are challenges too, mostly emanated from three sources - policy confusions, organizational efficiency and &#39;class&#39; shifts. The ninth GC also could not change its name by dropping the &#39;Marxist-Leninist&#39; tag and the term &#39;Communist&#39; from its official name, despite the fact that there is a widespread realization of this need within the Party. The psychological divide in the mandarins is debilitating -- they often times love to retain communist identity and yet want to change this &#39;as soon as possible&#39; for public interface. &nbsp;The Party has failed to bring into effect a much-needed departure from three the decade-old nostalgia of &#39;classless society&#39;. &nbsp;Instead the Party itself has become the &#39;class&#39; of riches with &#39;too many, too big&#39; leaders. The only reason the Party substantially increased the number of office bearers from six to fourteen was to accommodate these &#39;big&#39; names with suitably high-sounding positions. Generally, those who have been prime ministers, deputy prime ministers and ministers in the past have sought those &#39;elitist&#39; titles. This is resulting into overlaps and duplications on responsibilities and duties, and ego clashes at every decision points. The cumulative effect of all these is sure to have telling effect in organizational efficiency and cadre-leader relations, not in so distant future.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Effectively, the UML has graduated from the party of &#39;proletariats&#39; to &#39;new riches&#39;, not only in terms of policy-base but as the class representation. &nbsp;To borrow a phrase from the communist literature itself, &#39;the class division&#39; within the party has been strikingly vivid in recent years. In many cases, its leaders have protected criminals just to extract money in return. There is not any binding ideology available in any political literature that can accommodate all these extremes. The task of managing all these paradoxes, the sooner the better, comes on the shoulder of the new leadership. But, unfortunately, the shoulders of the commander are now sick, severely.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) passed yet another acid test to vindicate its democratic credentials by electing the entire 159-member Central Committee (CC), including the new chairman through ballots, in the ninth general convention (GC) held in Kathmandu, July 3-10, 2014. In a closely contested bid to chairmanship, KP Sharma Oli defeated Party's former, two-time, general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal by a narrow margin of forty-four out of two thousand and two hundred votes of the GC delegates.',
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			'title' => 'UML’s Throb To Democratize',
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) exhaustively braces up for its ninth general convention, July 3-9 that is perhaps likely to see the fiercest battle ever to take the reins of this four decade-old outfit. The good news is, unlike in any archetypical communist organization, the chairman and other major office bearers will be chosen democratically through the ballots of the party cadres.The Party over the last two and half decades, since the successful reinstatement of democracy in 1990, has established itself not only as a quintessential political force of the country but also a relatively credible democratic alternative with left-to-the-centreideologies. It is now the second largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), which is also the legislature parliament, and the major coalition partner in the Nepali Congress-led government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This transformation from an out-and-out communist to largely a democratic force has definitely not been a cakewalk and yet far from complete. Thanks to late General Secretary of the Party, Madan Bhandari who coined a transitional lexicon &#39;janatako bahudaliya janabad (JBJ)&#39; or people&#39;s multi-party democracy that facilitated it to become a reckoning force in multi-party polity. In essence, except one seemingly unequivocal commitment to remain in the &#39;politics of ballots&#39;; forsaking the dogma of the &#39;power from the bullets&#39;, the task of redefining other philosophical foundations of the Party is still pending and currently undergoing a rigorous discourse. This is what going to be one of the characteristic features of the upcoming Convention as well. The pain experienced in the process of refurbishment of a force that carried over the legacy of Jhapa andolan of early 1970s, a naive killing spree of landlords to eliminate the class enemy andwith its cadres indoctrinated to &#39;establish a proletariat dictatorship&#39; or &#39;new people&#39;s democratic republic&#39; ostensibly through violent over throw of &#39;old regimes&#39; to a disciplined political party believing in a peaceful process of change is not unnatural. But, the most worrying factor is: it is taking too long a time to accept the changing realities of the world and declare that the party no longer remains &#39;a communist&#39; one. And, the debate also has been too fluid to shape a convincing new &#39;doctrine&#39; with a double edged sword which preserves the face of the communist party and, at the same time, adapts itself as a credible democratic force.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	To borrow the word from communist lingo, the &#39;class struggle&#39; within the party is at its height, but it is not two directional - between the exploiting and exploited classes as explained by Marx. It is in fact innumerably multi-directional and cover everything by a single &#39;blanket principle&#39; is requiring it to be too large to manage. There is still a fine dividing line between the factions that accept the JBJ as defined by Bhandari as a complete principle and that takes it only as one of the &#39;many&#39; components of philosophical evolution of the Party. KP Oli and Madhav Nepal, who are the two contenders for the post of chairman in the ninth convention, now represent these two factions respectively There is yet another traditional school that is not vocal but still considers JBJ hastened the aberration of the Party from a true communist force to operatives of &lsquo;comprador bourgeoisie. &#39;The current Party Chairman Jhalanath Khanal lost party leadership to Madan Bhandari in the fifth convention in 1993, as he campaigned in this potential aberration plank. By now, Khanal seems to be compelled to change as there is no escape from the vote politics, but the reservation to accept the JBJ as &#39;only&#39; guiding principle of the party still appears to be a bitter pill for him to swallow.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is also a tangible difference in opinion between the so called &lsquo;old school&rsquo; and the &lsquo;new school&rsquo;. The old school represented by the hawks of pre-panchayat underground era are persistent not to give-up the communist tag. The septuagenarian leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari categorically said, &lsquo;There is no need to change the party name to something that doesn&rsquo;t carry the word communist and the universal communist standard, hammer-and-sickle flag, should be retained.&rsquo; The new school, which calls itself a pragmatic left is keen to change the both, just limiting it to convey a &lsquo;socialistic&rsquo; meaning - far more softline approach than being a communist. The confusion has run long. So long that immediately after the UML formed a minority government in 1994, the Party dramatically removed the portraits of Marx and Lenin from the Party HQ meeting hall when the then US ambassador to Nepal visited UML headquarters. The act though was subject to acute mockery then but had a symbolic personification of confusion. First, it signified, the Party leadership had realized the redundancy of these figures but was unable to get rid of their hangovers. Second, from the inner self, it wanted to convey that the party doesn&rsquo;t want to be identified and viewed as the communist in classic sense of the term. And, the third, it wanted to interact with the world as liberal democratic or a social democratic force.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, over all these years, party has hardly been able to embark on this wishful direction it had then contemplated. All these confusions still persistently gnaw the party and all the policy debates still revolve around the same confusion &ndash; whether or not to remain a communist and how to keep-up with the pace of openness the world is now moving with. It is for this reason, different &lsquo;think tanks&rsquo; within the party are working to give a functional shape to their ideological basis such that it fits to modern-day political parlance.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of such recent exercises of the party has concluded that Nepali society has essentially become a capitalist one leaving behind the traditional agro related feudal production and productivity relations. This in fact is the theoretical basis to do away with the politics of proletarian supremacy and misery due to mass exploitation. However, the entire &lsquo;philosophical&rsquo; discourse suffers from a mindset that party cannot function without such &lsquo;grand narrative&rsquo;. The party very tactfully removed the anti-Indian and anti American diatribes as soon as it rode to power saddle in 1994, forming the first communist government in the world after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, that too through elections.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At present, the issues of the centre-stage debate include the massive criminalization of the party politics by protecting and promoting goons and underworld operators, colloquially known as dons&ndash;the word borrowed from taekwondo. This began with when Bamdev Gautam was made Home Minister in 1997 under Rastryia Prajatantra Party-led coalition government. He allegedly opened all smuggling channels and protected them using the security establishment. KP Oli did the same when he was Home Minister and now many noted dons are in party rank and file. Madhav Nepal faction has devised its campaign strategy focusing on the theme of &lsquo;cleaning the party from goons.&rsquo; But the weight in the balance gradually appears to be tilting to the kings of the goons. Therefore, it will not be a surprise if Oli wins the race.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Perhaps the greatest potential for the party to benefit arises from the fact that UCPN-Maoist is now forced to follow the same path the UML has traversed since its fifth convention. This can give a righteous sense of direction to the UML in making timely policy choices as a communist force that wants to survive in the competitive pluralistic politics. Theoretically speaking, UML should have been able to take great advantage given the vindication &nbsp;of timeliness JBJ. But, internal wrangling and factionalism has marred all its potentials of organizational growth.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the ninth convention inches closer, the campaign becomes nasty. The official manifestos of both Oli and Nepal do not differ much, which is an indication that there is not much differences in principles and policies. But when it comes to practical politics, the competition on mudslinging has crossed all possible decencies. Oli commands very strong organizational support and as an additional advantage Deputy Prime Minister BamdevGautam is in his favour. Oli&rsquo;s illness is debated in both the camps. Oli has tried to bank on his illness requesting to vote him for the last chance and Nepal faction has asked him to take &lsquo;rest&rsquo; on health grounds.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It would not be a practical assumption to expect UML to reincarnate by changing its name and revamping all of its communist ideologies . But the throb of need for this change is intensely realized, in more than one spheres &ndash; in ideology, organizational orientation, external relations and internal democracy. This certainly gives better hope for overall consolidation of country&rsquo;s democracy, sometime in near future.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) exhaustively braces up for its ninth general convention, July 3-9 that is perhaps likely to see the fiercest battle ever to take the reins of this four decade-old outfit. The good news is, unlike in any archetypical communist organization, the chairman and other major office bearers will be chosen democratically through the ballots of the party cadres.',
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			'id' => '2778',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Political Process: Tardy, Taxing And Tattered',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The leaders of all major political parties, including the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala are artlessly repeating the same statement: &#39;We will complete the drafting of the new constitution within a year&#39;; as if it is just the next day of the second Constituent Assembly (CA II) elections. They do not seem to realize a bare fact that exactly a good half of the year since these elections in the November last has elapsed without scoring any success in any front -- governance, diplomacy, legislation or constitution writing. The worst of all, lately things are hopelessly falling apart so as to making both the government and the CA once again hostage to essentially unnecessary bickering at the highest political level. Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Every possible executive decision is postponed without any tangible reason. In six months, the cabinet couldn&#39;t pick up twenty-six names to be appointed as CA members from among putatively the national &#39;elite&#39; personalities. The process of appointing of more than one and half dozen of ambassadors in important missions including New Delhi and Washington DC couldn&#39;t even begin. In absence of timely decision of Constitutional Council headed by the prime minister himself, the Supreme Court is left with mere five judges out of almost normally functional twenty positions. Ironically, the appointments in the prime minister&#39;s secretariat and National Planning Commission were not made in time. Almost all constitutional bodies too remain vacant. The advertisements published to fill in those constitutional positions like the commissioners in the Public Service Commission, National Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, by a sort of free competition is not attracting any dignified figures. They are most likely to be filled by typically clerical minded ex-bureaucrats rendering these crucial institutions, once again, retrograde.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government is backtracking from the vowed commitments like holding local elections by this month (May). The parliamentary party leader of the major coalition partner CPN-UML, K P Oli from the hospital bed in New Delhi in mid-April declared that the local body elections will be held only after &#39;promulgating the new constitution&#39;. Apparently, his statement didn&#39;t come in consultation with the prime minister who still reiterates, though not convincingly, to hold these elections, may be by June end. The reasons cited not to hold the polls are clearly unpalatable. &#39;There is not enough time now to hold them before monsoon,&#39; said Oli. But nothing had stopped the government announcing it right after taking the oath of office. Clearly, there was no political will to take-up this issue in the right earnest. The second argument, which is abetted by the UCPN (Maoist) too, is that the concentration in the local elections would take the focus off the constitution writing process. It sounds as if the CA proceedings are now going at the right direction as per the popular expectation. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which, thus for all practical purposes smells rat in very faith of democracy of these leaders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	And, more importantly, it will not be as easy to hold local elections immediately after completing the draft of the constitution as claimed by the UML and UCPN Maoists. The reasons to it are obvious. First, it is highly unlikely that the constitution drafting process will be completed anytime soon. Even some form of draft is agreed upon, say in a year from now, the most likely scenario is that it cannot be promulgated without going into more costly exercises like referendum. Therefore, postponing local elections now means that they are postponed again for an unforeseeable future, which indeed is highly unfortunate. The common people now need the local democratic institutions in place far more than the constitution, which indeed is the largely esoteric proposition for them compared to the elected local government next door. Once again the democracy has been ditched.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public speeches of the Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam from UML sound as if his party is not a junior partner but a majority government that has &#39;mercifully&#39; appended the Nepali Congress to be its partner. In all these orchestra of fools, the Prime Minister Koirala remains as faceless as ever. When the country desperately awaits his bold and speedy decisions in more than one front, he seems to have chosen to cover his absolute non-performance by cheap publicity stunts of forsaking some allowances and perks and avoiding five-star hotel accommodations. Such tantrums cannot be substitute to the aspired effective delivery of goods from the chief executive of the nation. If Koirala had real intentions of giving a clean and effective government to the nation and upholding the democratic practice, he should have guts to tell his coalition partners not to nominate ministers that were not the elected members of parliament and those who are the kiths and kins of the influential leaders of the fringe parties.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both the CA and legislature parliament have been rendered equally non-functional. In over four months, CA has failed to elect the subject committee conveners that are supposed to be key to formulate and moot respective constitutional provisions for discussion in the House. The chair of the crucial constitutional committee in CA remains vacant as of these lines were written. The CA virtually has not been given any business. Attendance in the scheduled meetings is so low that many of scheduled House sessions are often cancelled for lack of presence of minimum required number of members known as &#39;quota&#39;. Even the orientation of the (new) CA members about their roles, responsibilities and duties was not thought necessary.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The legislature parliament too is equally ineffective. Not only it has fallen short to ponder over the bottlenecks that the country is faced with in absence of laws in many spheres, it has also failed to pass a number of important bills that are gathering dust in wait of votes for years. The new bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has further estranged the Maoists from supposedly collaborative political process. The former jungle warfare Maoist guerrillas who are in favour of nothing less than blanket amnesty to them in the guise of &#39;wartime issues&#39; are highly apprehensive of legal action on many of them if the bill is allowed to pass as proposed by the joint committee of political parties. If the bill is made law as in the spirit spelt out by UML leader Oli, the Maoists&#39; rank and file may crumble like house of cards in legal battle on crime against humanity. &#39;Except for the deaths at the frontline, those involved in killings by dragging out persons from their beds at the midnight, killing them by plucking out the eyes, amputating the body parts and hanging or burying them alive cannot be put off the legal purview&#39;, he thundered a few weeks ago. He sounds fairly reasonable. But will that bring about solution to the political stalemate? Or, will this bill actually become an Act and implemented accordingly? These however are more pressing questions altogether.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Maoists have already begun their non-cooperation by boycotting even entirely unrelated political processes in protest of the current form of the TRC bill. It may be recalled that such a commission was part of the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006, thus a crucial part of the peace process. The formation of it was deliberately avoided during the past CA tenure of four years when the country saw two Maoist prime ministers in the period.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The another bone of contention has become the so called High Level Political Committee (HLPC) that was in existence during the last CA, and was considered largely responsible for derailing the due CA process; making it hostage to ever-elusive political consensus. Interestingly, the three major parties -the Congress, UML and Maoists did appeared to have agreed about a couple of months ago to revive it. But, when the UCPN (Maoist) supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal insisted on being the convener of it, other parties took it as his ambition to be a &#39;super&#39; prime minister and wanted to thwart the process. The constitutionality of this mechanism has always been under the interrogation mark and its actions in the past surely undermined the elected House.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All forms of slackness, inactions, procrastinations, machinations and squabbles have been highly taxing for the country. The perils are pronounced. The economy is in absolute tatters. New investment is not even trickling in. Governance and public service delivery have collapsed. People are exasperated for unnecessarily prolonged political transition. The hope of at least relative consolidation of democratic institutors after the Congress and UML jointly got majority in the House is now waning rapidly. The constitution writing process is still precariously fragile. Only solution to all these ailments is to act and act fast. The lead should unquestionably be taken by the ruling alliance and the prime minister in particular.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.',
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			'title' => 'Mirage Of A New Force',
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	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On May 15th, 2014, the senior deputy prime minister and, at that point in time, acting president of the ruling major coalition CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam, was happily dancing on a folk tune at a public function. On the same day, Nepal Human Development Report was released in another public function in a five-star hotel that ranked Nepal the lowest in the Human Development Index (HDI) even among the South Asian countries; let alone the global rank. The next day, the so called mainstream media placed Gautam&#39;s news on the front page with picture as if it were a major national happening while the HDI news was pushed asa routine filler to 9th or 17th page as if it were amere ritual.This is Nepal&#39;s eco-political reality personified, reflecting the degree of (in) sensitivity of both politics and media to the development and prosperity related issues of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What is it that makes politicians like Gautam so happy while country is at absolute political mess and economic stagnation, if not recession, for decades? It is unambiguously sheer apathy and ignorance of gravity of the situation that is coupled with vested interests and remnants of feudal psyche of a ruler. The current set of Nepal&#39;s all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s. Their last philosophical reorientation had taken place perhaps in the 1990, for the movement to reinstate the multi-party democracy by toppling the panchayat oligarchy. This 60-above generation has been left far behind in updating the knowledge required to run a country. They have been untouched by mesmerizing revolution mainly in information and communication technology, transportation and emerging new world order in power politics. For this reason, these leaders have failed to understand the aspirations of time and the generation that represents here-and-now. They have not even learnt the art to dream for the better future of the country and her people.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All these realities together, the persistent poverty and backwardness and apparent vacuum in leadership that is still willing to strive for ameliorating them, warrants a new political force that hopefully possesses desirable qualities like right kind of motive, integrity, energy, vision and willingness to serve the nation. Until such a new force replaces the existing parochial order, things too are obvious not to change for the better.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The need for such a force was acutely realized when the first constituent assembly (CA) despite its four year-long tenure ended without delivering a draft for a new constitution. The incessant blame game among the parties for the failures and their uniform adamancy to transform themselves with time multiplied the public disenchantment on them. The need of displacing these parties was more intensely felt after the current incumbent government formed even after the second CA elections appears completely dysfunctional and, mostly averse to the democratic norms in whatever little move sit is making. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala&#39;s unwanted &#39;lobbying&#39; to save the Judicial Council&#39;s controversial nominations to Supreme Court Judges is one of glaring examples of such aberrations. On fulfilling his own responsibility he has miserably failed, not even able to nominate 26 CA members through a cabinet decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Nepal&#39;s political history has witnessed literally hundreds of incidents of leaders or would-be leaders trying to form &#39;new&#39; political force at different junctures of time. But all of them in due course proved to be either protest outcomes to the mother partyby a dissenter or a newer interest group serving to a small circle of its constituents. Dozens of breakaways of communist parties and recent similar divisions in Terai-based parties may be everything as they claim but surely not the political parties of the quality that the country is desperately looking for, for long time now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, the UCPN Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai took the debate on the topic to newer heights by proposing a &#39;need of a new political force to address the new challenges the new Nepal faces.&#39; This initially appeared to be a statement aimed to fill the overarching gap of the national political vacuum by establishing a new, forward-looking, dynamic and democratic outfit. It created ripples too, at least among the left ideologues. But eventually, after much ado, Baburam&#39;s proposition of new force, at least for now,turned out to be nothing more than a trump-card to bargain barely some more space within the party from his party chief Puspa Kamal Dahal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The current series of debate also revealed a philosophical dichotomy in articulation of needs of such a new force. The more aggressive advocacy, or to some extent endeavours to form such a force from the communist ideologues, borne out of worries to contextualize their own existence in multi-party competitive politics that is inevitably going to be the political mainstay for the future. This sphere of debate therefore has focused more on rewriting archaic communist dogmas and replacing arcane vocabularies like &#39;power only from the barrel of the gun,&#39; &lsquo;dictatorship of the proletariat,&#39; &#39;class elimination&#39; etc. with more contemporaneous political jargons. Clearly, for those indoctrinated under Marx, Lenin or Mao-developed literatures, this simple departure has been difficult and piecemeal, yet inadequate to democratize themselves even at par of existing, relatively democratic forces like Nepali Congress. Therefore, birth of a true new force that is capable of addressing nation&#39;s overall governance and deemed prosperity considerations, through this slanted process is absolutely unlikely. However, if this process at least could transform some of communist outfits to reasonable democratic forces that too would be a desirable outcome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another sphere of the debate is, rather should have been, to explore the possibility of creating such a force that has some blueprint to address Nepal&#39;s multi-faceted problems which have rendered the country to a virtual brink of becoming a failed-state. Crisis of governance, deficit of democracy, bleeding economy and pervasive hopelessness of the common masses are some of the immediate concerns which, if not addressed soon, may in fact degrade the country to anarchy, unmanageable even in the long run. But, the current expanse and depth of the debate do not seem enough to give rise to such an all-encompassing political force. Surely, some of rational thinkers from academia and media tried to take the current discourse beyond the cocoons of the communist jargonism, but the triggerers of it from the Left band seemed unwilling to step out of Marxist philosophical umbrella.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Coming back to Bhattarai again, he appears to be less-than-ready to completely forsakethe UCPN Maoist at present. Understandably, it is difficult to desert political Alma Mater. But, at times it is more difficult to mould it to fit to the contemporary need, which justifies conception of the new force. Despite hiccups, Bhattarai has been reiterating the need of such a force. &#39;It may take a few years for such a force to take a shape&#39;, he said in an interaction in the third week of May. His recent China visit was also reported to be to gauge the pulse of Beijing on his plan, without jeopardizing his &#39;warm&#39; relations with New Delhi. For this reason, he dubbed his visit as &#39;pilgrimage to Mansarovar&#39; and chose to set the travel camp not in Beijing but Lhasa, the capital of Tibet autonomous region of China. But, the Chinese authorities left no stone unturned to accord his visit an official status fitting to a former prime minister of a neighbouring country. A number of high officials made a point to travel from Beijing for political discussions with him.With change in guards in New Delhi, he probably has to strike a different chord to attract attention from India&#39;s ruling rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If Modi could prevail over India&#39;s bureaucracy, he would perhaps like to see Nepal still a Hindu state, in contrary to Bhattarai&#39;s brandishing of Nepal as a secular state. This may need further fine-tuning of his new plans.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Why should only Bhattarai be at the centre of discussion for this new political force under consideration&rsquo; is a valid question. The common masses still consider him perhaps the most talented persona currently active in Nepali politics. While in government, particularly when he was the finance minister, he came out untainted in shady financial dealings. And, he is the one who is now unambiguously advocating of the need to transform the communist forces to democratic ones, which indeed is crucial component for the democratic future of Nepal. But, Bhattarai doesn&#39;t fully seem to realizehis strengths and perhaps lacks confidence to renounce the ideology that he has so far kept so close to his chest. But, still he could be the best choice to lead such a force if he dares to drop the old cloak and readies himself to lead a new Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Again, regardless of whether Bhattarai can exhibit enough courage to spear head a new force or not, the relevance and importance of it has been realized more intensely than ever before. The rampant criminalization of politics by the existing parties, their out of date &nbsp;- out of place leadership, sheer apathy to the needs and priorities of the country, widespread corruption on public resources and increasing culture of impunity, among many other malaises, are unlikely to be corrected by the existing forces. Or, just correction may not be enough. The culture of irresponsibility has become the norm in exercising, misusing to be precise, the state power.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a rational and functional political force to come into being, Nepal undoubtedly needed a more systematic discourse on the topic involving all ideologies and all possible identities. For last seven decades, Nepal as a nation has chased the dream of such a nationalist democratic force, but it still remains a game of chasing a mirage. The current debate has reignited hope, but just hope is not enough. Therefore, we only have leaders dancing in a wrong tune at the wrong time.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The current set of Nepal's all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s.',
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			'id' => '2772',
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			'title' => 'Undemocratic Overtures',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections. But there is still doubt on the possibility of these elections being held by end of June this year. It has been sixteen years since these elections were held last and the term of the office bearers expired some twelve years ago. In the absence of democratically elected local bodies, the public service delivery, grassroots public works and institution of democracy have faltered to the hilt. The consequences are apparent -- the capital expenditure for years has been far less than the allocated targets, the GDP growth has stagnated at yearly average of 3.5 percent for last eight years despite the fact that country has enjoyed relative political peace during this period, and the emergence of new generation of leadership in any possible political formation has been nipped in the bud.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even now, the dampener to the call to these crucial polls comes as a single voice of both factions of the Maoist parties that parted ways some three years ago, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Vaidya respectively. From the ideological prism, the opposition to the polls by the Maoists looks all natural. And, it was expected from the Vaidya group given the fact that it remained out of the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in last November. But, by contrast, the move appears rather anachronistic for Dahal and his party (UCPN Maoist) that has vowed to remain in competitive politics of ballots despite all odds. The political plunder the Party is now venturing into may well turn out to be a mammoth blunder not only for Dahal and Co. but for the entire country and the democratic process itself.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to decipher Dahal&#39;s calculations to oppose these polls. He is apprehensive of poor outcome for his party if it goes to polls without uniting the Vaidya faction. On top of it, not only Maoists, every party other than UML is fearful of the local polls conducted when Bamdev Gautam is at the helm of Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the opposition to these polls from Vaidya comes as entirely different reason: this group is determined to go against any proposition made by the parties in CA and under the present scheme of political arrangements. It is in fact Vaidya&#39;s chosen plank since it separated from the mother party UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But to hide real shortcomings, Dahal has adopted a new but unambiguously anti-democratic stance in the form of opposing these polls. &nbsp;His formal premise of this opposition is: the inevitable engagement of the government and political parties in the local elections would divert the focus away from the constitution writing. He has also trained his party rank and file to rant out that the poll competition among the parties would bitter the differences that could be reflected in constitution writing. &#39;It hardly causes any grave damage if we defer the polls by seven or eight months for these local bodies that have remained vacant for last sixteen years,&#39; Dahal has unequivocally said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apparently, Dahal&#39;s statement lacks creativity and craftsmanship. Every politician who wanted to procrastinate on the local elections through all these years has used the same platitude, pointing to some larger political urgency or priority to be addressed before these &#39;trivial&#39; polls. When the term of the local office-bearers expired, the Maoist insurgency had swept the country. The priority was &#39;saving democracy from terrorism&#39;. When the peace deal was sealed in 2006, agenda of saving the peace process overshadowed the local polls. Then, in 2008, the CA elections were natural priority. The Interim Constitution 2007 didn&#39;t even incorporate a provision for local elections, which is a real shame on our constitutionalism and so-called experts who drafted it. When the first CA came into existence, influencing experts had a take, &#39;since entire nation were to be federalised, the local elections would only be a nuisance in the larger process of restructuring the state.&#39; When the extended tenure of the first CA expired without writing the constitution, sense of national loss was so overwhelming; no leader had time to ponder over these &#39;unimportant&#39; local elections. Then came the second CA elections and existence. The change in political equations gave birth to NC-UML coalition in government that fortunately has begun at least the talk of these polls. But, unfortunately, efforts are already on to stall them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The crucial questions here are: Were all those cited reasons both necessary and sufficient conditions to procrastinate the local elections at different political turning points? Were these &#39;local&#39; elections so unimportant at the face of other &#39;national&#39; agenda? And, do they still deserve to be pushed further away in this or that pretext? Answer to all these questions is one big NO, but the background that leads to this simple NO is excruciatingly painful and treacherous.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first and perhaps the most powerful of all explanations is that the central leadership of any party strongly hated these elections. After 1992 local elections, the NC and UML saw that many articulate, learned young cadres elected as local leaders attracted national and international attention. They were the first to woo the public confidence as they had resources, public position and closest contact to the grassroots population. This created a very real threat of displacement to the national leadership if such a &#39;mass manufacturing&#39; of young breed of leaders were continued. A simple example to vindicate it could be enough to compute the proportion of members in current or past CAs that were elected in those local bodies during 1990s. The best way to allay this threat of &#39;big&#39; leaders was to stop this practice altogether wherever and whenever possible. The Maoist who came to mainstream through Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 2006, were no different from NC or UML in this regard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If that were not the case, there was not any convincing reason to not hold the local polls at least after the CPA. Had local bodies come into existence then, it could have been a great vehicle to bring the local political leadership of different parties at the same political platform. It could also have been the most effective mechanism to deliver the putative &#39;peace dividend&#39; to the people in general. These polls could have been conducted at the sidelines of both CA elections without much additional logistical and security costs. But, to repeat, leadership of no major party was honestly interested to hold these elections. Even the CA members were (still are) against it. Their naive complaint used to be &#39;DDC chairman, or a mayor, with all facilities and resources at his disposal is more powerful than a member of CA or legislature.&#39; These are real impediments&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	to these polls than any fabricated political logic.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Otherwise, these local elections on their own merit are very important from every possible paradigm of democracy, development, decentralization and true devolution of power. One can also convincingly argue that inputs to the constitution writing, state restructuring and political reconciliation would have come in more institutionalized fashion had these local bodies with elected representatives remained functional.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The argument that the local elections would derail or deviate the constitution writing process is extremely preposterous to say the least. First, the CA couldn&#39;t draft a constitution in four years of last CA where such polls were not even contemplated. And, there is no real trade-off between these two goals - namely, the constitution writing and holding the local polls. The CA can without aberration continue the process of writing the constitution. The Election Commission (EC) and the government can handle the logistics and other preparations for the local polls. The argument that local elections impair the possible political cooperation among the political parties is outright unpolitical. All the forces who believe in the rules of democracy cannot harbour animosity just for the fact that people voted for one party against other.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the contrary, local polls and the constitution writing, if managed wisely, can be mutually reinforcing and complementary processes. It is repeated in uncountable instances that without a framework of state restructuring incorporated, the constitution writing process cannot be completed. These local democratic bodies can serve as the real feedback institutions for delineations of the provinces and other administrative and electoral units. More importantly, these institutions will be the real tool to manage unrealistically spiraling ambitions of people with largely misrepresented notions of rights, inclusiveness and reservations, among many other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It appears that all contentious issues on constitution writing will not be resolved by the sitting CA and all major leaders have categorically said that these issues will be resolved through a referendum if required. This is a clear hint that completion of constitution writing may take several years. If such a scenario is imminent, it is illogical to stop the local elections from taking place now. Suppose, even if this CA completes the constitution drafting process, the promulgation of the same is not going to be easy. But, if these legitimate institutions are in place, they can help to create an atmosphere for relatively smoother promulgation. An elected political leader is far more responsible apparatus of the state mechanism than the one left in the streets just to protest on every petty issue.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even in the worst case scenario, say, the local elections delay the constitution writing by a few months; it is still a risk worth to be taken. With the local bodies in operation, people can feel the real strength and utility of the democracy than the distant CA or a vague constitution. It is however not to mean to undermine the importance of the constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is good to know that EC has reportedly started preparation for all required legal backdrop, including the amendment in the Interim Constitution 2007 to include the provisions for local polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone should be convinced that no democratic exercise of any fashion would weaken the democracy. A pragmatic rethinking is required on the part of the Maoists and real courage in government to translate its own promise of holding local elections into reality, sooner.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
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			'description' => 'The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2760',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Retreat Of The Meek Fellow',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, the new coalition government has taken a shape. But it took complete three months since the second elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA-II), on 19th of November, 2013. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered and temporarily back-tracked on this commitment; once he got sworn in to the post. It invited a nasty public exchange of diatribes between the leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and major partner, the UML. But, if he wanted to save his government, Koirala had no other viable alternative to succumbing to UML demands of Home Ministry to be led by none other than the &#39;big muscled&#39; &nbsp;UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam. Koirala&#39;s space of political maneuvering was further tapered by complete non-cooperation from his own party colleague Sher Bahadur Deuba which compounded the task of giving a complete shape to the government. The perception of insecurity in Koirala was not unfounded. He indeed was apprised of the potential danger by those who have knowledge of informal level of intimacy between Deuba and UML Parliamentary Party leader K P Oli. Unlike Koirala, who hardly suffered any mention-worthy length of jail term during the panchyat days, Deuba and Oli for years spent in the same prison cell. And, now they share same wavelength of banter and modus operandi of &#39;practical politics&#39; of money, muscle, maneuvering and machinations.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the bare arithmetic in the House has it, Nepali Congress doesn&rsquo;t have any other option than placating the UML unless it had chosen to appease both UCPN (Maoists) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) to sum up to the magic number of three hundred and one to save the government. But, the latter option to materialize involved a lot of ground-work and maneuvering, yet disposing the possible coalition always to walk on the razor-edge. Nonetheless, given the track record of the UML, the Maoists and the RPP-N would perhaps have been relatively easier bed-fellows for Congress. Yet, it is mere a conjecture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unpleasant episode of Home Ministry row at the very initial days of the Koirala-led coalition has three clear indications. First, Koirala as the prime minster has very little flexibility than resorting to the politics of give-and-take. Second, he takes hard stances at wrong turnings, the only consequence of which is to back-track rather humiliatingly, virtually in no time. Third, no party is reading the crucial arithmetic of the House before resorting to high-pitched verbal bashing in a political reality that is mandated for nothing but a coalition rule.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Why is the Home Ministry such a big controversy in every stage of government formation? Not only in the cross-party power sharing as is now, there are instances even when a single party majority rule, the portfolio is contested to the extreme among the aspirants. There may be some political arguments forwarded by its minister-aspirants to bag the post, but the craving is rather a political anti-thesis. This time around, Gautam could convince his party that the party would perform better if he became the home minister. The Congress aspirants who stopped Koirala from conceding the ministry to UML have had similar claims. Essentially, these were just the premonitions to destabilize and debase democracy by advocating straight rigging in the elections, misusing the state machinery. But the current political values of Nepal seem to have, unfortunately, accepted is as part of the game. If we evaluated history, any such impact of altering election results or adding the political clout of the party awarded with this portfolio, however, are mere perceptive fallacies. The reality is something different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Home Ministry is a marrying point of politics with crime. Apart from possible corruption avenues, the minister will have unhindered access to unearmarked security expenses under titles like &#39;for intelligence operation&#39; and &#39;FADA&#39; (financial assistance, donation and awards). Being the joint head of the civil administration with extensive quasi-judicial rights at the district level represented by the chief district officers (CDOs) and of two police organizations ensure the incumbent a stream of incomes in enormous sizes. Such lucre comes from every source you can think of, or may be even beyond that, including the contrabands, counterfeits, smuggling, extortion and human trafficking. Therefore, it is not any surprise why every ex-home minister has a noted underworld operator under his protection and some parties have even given them seats in the party central committees. That is that.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In his entire political career, Koirala&#39;s main working strategy has been the procrastination of the crucial decisions. This old habit of his doesn&#39;t seem to have died, even though he is the prime minister now. At his personal level, indecision comes in two forms; he doesn&#39;t read any file to be decided upon, it depends on some of his &#39;trusted&#39; lieutenants to do the job and brief him. And, he doesn&#39;t &#39;trust&#39; those briefings too and begins to investigate whether there could be any vested interest involved of the person who briefed thus. And, the safest he finds is not to decide anything. This is not a desirable quality in any chief executive, that too of Nepal in these pressing hours when many important agenda await decisions, rather sooner.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The phrase &#39;within one year&#39; becomes a wont in tongue of all major politicians in the coalition. The initial promise was to write and promulgate the new constitution within a year from the date of the CA elections-II. It is now the fourth month running since and parties are signing so called agreements to deliver a constitution again, within a year. The understanding between the two major coalition partners, Congress and UML, to shuffle the prime ministership after a year makes us apprehensive. Implicitly, they are saying shamelessly, that the constitution will not be written within a year from now on. The intentions are not honest.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For now, Koirala&#39;s quest for corruption-free governance is a task impossible in view of the coalition made shaky by severe intra-party wranglings and factionalisms in both of the major ruling parties. Gautam at the helm of Home Ministry is sure to let loose all possible &#39;channels&#39; of illegal trade in gold, currencies and goods. He proudly repeats &#39;one year in the ministry is enough to finance the personal politics for a decade and even larger benefit to the party in the longer-term.&#39; It is not difficult to foresee that Koirala would helplessly witness the drama of the ministers who behave more smartly than himself, albeit merely in their vested interests. Technically, he cannot afford to break the coalition. In practice, he cannot assert designs due to his meekness. And, politically he is a redundant deadwood who doesn&#39;t enthuse with vision and mission of his own, and keeps on bungling processes as he did in forming the current government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He has severe diplomatic drawbacks. He is not &#39;wholly&#39; trusted by the southern neighbour. There was a point in history when he was alleged of having connections with the people with dubious backgrounds like late Jamin Shah and the likes who were suspected of mobilizing funds from suspicious sources. The West is apprehensive for the same reason as India is and China knows &#39;very little&#39; about him as their official press points out. Therefore, his identity crisis couples with his crisis of confidence to run the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that even the second CA election has not taught any lesson to our leaders. Therefore, the priority is still being given to power-sharing games than to writing of the constitution. As pointed out by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal that constitution is &#39;unlikely&#39; to be written even by this CA appears to be self-fulfilling. The priorities of the coalition partners are different from constitution writing. The Oli-Gautam duo in UML wants to exploit every possible benefit of being in the government to win the party presidency for Oli in its national convention slated for coming May. There is even a widespread concern that the local elections now considered for April might be pushed further away due to the convention to elect new executive.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are enormous challenges and externalities. Leaders like Dahal and Kamal Thapa of RPP-N would be happier to see that this coalition failed, just because they wanted to prove that no one is better in terms of delivery. Being in the government is perhaps the sweetest part of the cake. When the process of finalizing the provisions of the new constitution actually begins, demands and impediments from outside of CA are likely to rule the roost. Madhesis, janjatis and pro-identity federalist have plans of forwarding their agenda through protests on streets to incorporate them in the constitution; ignoring the fact that they were largely rejected by the voters. The moves of Maoist-Baidya group could even be more irksome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The only good sign is that the two largest parties in the CA have been able to form a coalition. A couple of other fringe parties have come to their support. Ideologically, the coalition is perhaps the closest-- best explained by their unconditional stance on ballot-based democracy. Above all, the coalition commands more than two-thirds of majority in CA and the Legislature Parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the prime minister must develop a habit of deciding things than only being a meek onlooker. And, the work on constitution writing must now begin without any further delay.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered.',
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			'title' => 'Elections Over, Not The Conflict',
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The final results of the both parts, first-past-the-post and proportional representation of the Constituent Assembly (CA)-II elections held on November 19, 2013 are now out. The fortunate part was that the polls could take place, barring some exceptions, in relative peaceful and largely fairly manner. The high-pitched verbal intimidations of poll-opposing parties, led by CPN-Maoist (Baidya) to disrupt the polls, for all practical purposes, turned out to be a hoax. The interim election government headed by the incumbent Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi and Election Commission deserve appreciation for the effort they had put to make the polls a success, on the scheduled date. Mohan Baidya and his brigade of 33-party also deserve their due share of applause for not resorting to extreme violence which, given their strength, could have made the elections impossible. The support of international community for the elections was not in any way less important. A good silver-lining is that, Nepal slowly seems entering into an era of peaceful politics, for the groups like Baidya have too started to understand the importance of the less destructive politics.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s agenda of peace is far larger than the constitution itself. Lasting peace and a functional constitution in many contexts could be a &lsquo;chicken and egg&rsquo; story, but in our case, peace in the sense of non-violent politics, based on polls and opinions, has been the prerequisite to create a meaningful ambience and debate to begin to write a constitution; and ultimately to functionalise it. The entire objective of holding the second CA elections was in fact centered on Nepal&rsquo;s desire to transit from conflict to a constitutional era.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, what about the prospect of ending this conflict? It is the most excruciating of all questions and the answer is not yet emphatically affirmative. The only path to ending conflict is to respect the popular political mandate expressed through these ballots by all political forces of the country. And, the culture of such respect comes only out of unflinching faith on democracy and adherence to its true norms. This unfortunately, has long been one big black-hole in Nepali politics. The politics here is dominated by the &lsquo;opportunistic democrats&rsquo; in the guise of the left forces of all names and hues and the some regressive rightists. As long as they can exploit legitimate constitutional means they would utilise that and, the moment their constitutional might is in the receiving end, they, particularly the communists, would immediately resort to violent tactics to capitulate the State authority. The newly emerged regional forces are no different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	These features have become real bottlenecks to Nepal&rsquo;s democracy and peaceful politics. In addition to it, there is a cognizable force led by Maoist-Baidya which had ab initio boycotted this election process, thus posses extra challenge to the very functionality of the new CA. The forces now badly defeated in polls are also in all likelihood to resort to alternative course of violence to make their existence felt. The respect for popular mandate would be the first victim and ensured peace therefore could still be a mirage for a long time to come.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Regardless of that gloomy side of the picture, these elections have given clear mandate to write a pluralistic, democratic constitution. The people have put Nepali Congress on the lead closely followed by the CPN-UML with the duo jointly constituting almost two-thirds of the 601-member CA. The Congress as the oldest democratic force of the country and the UML by now transformed into liberal left force with faith on ballots than bullets have substantially increased the hopes of institutionalizing democracy, polity of plurality and patience for peaceful policy through the new constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	These elections pushed CPN-United Maoists into the third from the first position in the last CA. People were apparently deeply apprehensive about their agenda of &lsquo;ethnicity and caste-based federalism&rsquo; which might easily boil down to ethnic tensions and violence. The rise of staunchly pro-monarchist RPP-Nepal as the fourth force in the CA, is in fact an additional retort to the Maoist agenda of &lsquo;secularism&rsquo; in place of the Hindu state and ethnicity-based federalism at the cost of national integrity. The forces in the last CA with all potentially divisive voices have been virtually obliterated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The people&rsquo;s vote to every party has a very clear message - well balanced and well defined. This in aggregate gives idea about the kind of constitution people are looking for. The near two-thirds majority jointly to the Congress and UML means that the constitution should unambiguously be democratic in its essence. On federalism, people upheld the &lsquo;capability based federalism with the state ensuring multiple identity&rsquo;. &nbsp;The relegation of UCPN (Maoists) to the third position is still an opportunity to transform itself into a credible democratic force that doesn&rsquo;t believe in provoking religious and communal sentiments to have its political ends met. People didn&rsquo;t prefer the concept of all-powerful president proposed by the UCPN (Maoists) but have favoured to the idea of ceremonial president with elected prime minister with all executive powers as was proposed by the Congress and the UML to the voters.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even if the RPP-Nepal chooses to interpret its resurgence to the fourth force as people&rsquo;s increasing faith on monarchy, it is reading the wrong message. It is in fact a wish of a considerable number of &lsquo;cow-worshiping&rsquo; Hindu voters to retain the identity of Nepal as &lsquo;some sort of&rsquo; Hindu state. It is a clear serendipity that the party&rsquo;s election emblem happens to be the &lsquo;holy&rsquo; cow, which reaped an intrinsic symbolic advantage.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The regional parties, mainly from Madhesh, putatively with a separatist overture are largely sidelined by no other than the Madheshi voters. But, again, they still jointly could have been the forth force. The factionalism and petty interests in them have taken the toll on them. Therefore, their strength must not be underestimated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Putting all these aspects together, the future shape of the constitution becomes clear. &nbsp;Nepal will be a republic with a ceremonial president and elected executive prime minister. The federalism must not be based on single-ethnic identity alone but first on capability and them multiple identity. The division of provinces cannot be like the one of &lsquo;one-Madhesh-one-province&rsquo; as those manifestoes are clearly rejected. People want some form of religious &lsquo;Hindu identity&rsquo; than being unconditionally secular state.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, all these mandates could translate into constitutional provisions only if the constitution drafting process is not trampled by sheer non-respect to the popular mandate. Its ominous signs are already at the doorsteps. The UCPN (Maoist) along with other forces failing to fare as expected in elections are alleging &lsquo;structural rigging&rsquo; of the polls and threatening to boycott the CA process. &nbsp;Such politics of violence and blackmailing is not only likely to jeopardise the whole prospect of a truly democratic constitution but also distort and disturb the entire process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The onus of taking the entire process to ensure a democratic yet implementable constitution unquestionably lies on the shoulders of the Congress and the UML. They have the strength and the mandate and international support. But the danger is, their priority and efforts might just be limited to grab or share the state power and constitution writing might be pushed to shadow again, like in the past.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The rampant tri-forked factionalism in these both parties could pose a real stumbling block to the smooth sail of the process. The CPN-UML President Jhala Nath Khanal has already proposed that the two parties should lead the government on turnkey basis. But in both parties it is going to be a herculean task to select their prime ministerial candidate at first. Each of them has at least three front runners for the job. In Congress, the Party President Shushil Koirala, Senior Leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Party Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel are vying for, actually dying for, the post. Similarly, in UML, President Khanal, Senior Leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and powerful faction leader KP Oli have claim with their own logic of respective suitability. The natural democratic way out could be electing a parliamentary party leader in them and assigning the responsibility, but it is surely not going to be this simple; as even the defeated ones would continue to move their pawns for a checkmate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If the practice of premiership on turnkey is adopted between the Congress and the UML, why not even smaller parties got proportionate duration of time to head the government according to their strength? At least, they will not fall short of claiming it. All this means is, entire exercise might just be concentrated in making and unmaking of the government. The politics of consensus, no doubt, is imperative to make constitution writing a reality, but the need of consensus shouldn&rsquo;t be a tool to blackmail power, against the popular mandate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to say, this CA election has not been very instrumental to put the potential political conflict at the backburner for it excluded some potentially violent forces from the election process itself. The new political equation is more likely to give space to new form of frictions. In view of massive international financing to make Nepal &lsquo;secular&rsquo; and ethnic boiling pot and voters&rsquo; clear mandate against it, this is going to be a real source of conflict afresh. When Congress leads the process and the RRP-Nepal led by Kamal Thapa becomes a balancing force, it might repeat the infamous &lsquo;horse-trading&rsquo; episode of 1996.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The final results of the both parts, first-past-the-post and proportional representation of the Constituent Assembly (CA)-II elections held on November 19, 2013 are now out. The fortunate part was that the polls could take place, barring some exceptions, in relative peaceful and largely fairly manner.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2087',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Govern Like A Government',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the influential leaders in the United CPN Maoist Party -- UCPN (M), Barsha Man Pun has recently alleged that present government has started to behave like a &lsquo;political government.&rsquo; If that is the case, it is doing the right thing. The government must behave like a political than technical government, which can only solve political problems. It is irrelevant by now to keep hammering on the very nature of its structure just because a special kind of political equations that led to form this.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Once formed, it is the government of the country and it should function like a government, not as puppet show. Moreover, it is the government awarded with wider political legitimacy in the form of &lsquo;first consensus government in years&rsquo;. Every other petty detail automatically gets pushed to the background.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is no longer a news, rather a foregone conclusion, that the polls are impossible, at least, until November. Of course, it would still be a grand success story if they could be held by the end of this year, 2013. The growing inaction of the government has redoubled the doubts that are already thick in the air as regards real possibility of holding elections.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No doubt, it was perhaps one of the greatest mistakes that Nepal&rsquo;s political leaders made by choosing the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Khil Raj Regmi, to head the election government. To add to the woes, leaders of the four political parties through the High-level Political Mechanism are trying to control the government. It must be mentioned here that any such mechanism doesn&rsquo;t have a constitutional validation. Anything the Mechanism forwards can only be recommendatory, not mandatory for the government to adhere to. And if certain political parties are capable to continue to exert such pressure, how could the elections held by this government be free and fair?&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unnecessary practice has given rise to a double-fold nuisance. First, it has greatly affected the performance of the government. It sometimes appears as waiting for the &lsquo;direction&rsquo; from the Mechanism and, sometimes tries to assert its own course of actions. The end result is: it has lost its direction and pace. Second, it has created a situation where for all the failures of the government, it can directly put blame on the Mechanism and for any success it can claim its own.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Therefore, the political leadership should now come out of the mindset of plying a guardian angel to the government. It is only way that this government can be made responsible to its national duties and accountable to political contract of holding the Constituent Assembly elections sooner. But this rationality doesn&rsquo;t seem to have dawned upon the political top-hats of our country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The world has taken well into account that these four political leaders jointly declared themselves incapable of leading this country. They doubted their own level of integrity such that heading an election government by one of them would not produce impartial poll results. This was what led the situation of Regmi becoming the head of the government, virtually out of the blue.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It looks rather clumsy on the part of same set of leaders to act as the true &lsquo;drivers&rsquo; of the government. One of glaringly gauche example is the UCPN (M) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal&rsquo;s posture while departing for the &lsquo;official&rsquo; tour of China and then to India in the second and the third week of April, respectively. He tried to portray himself as a virtual head of the government going for a state visit, particularly in his dealing with media at home. But it is now a public knowledge how these countries matched the protocol to this visit. Outcome of course is limited to him, if any at all. But these things don&rsquo;t seem to have deterred our set of leaders feigning as grand saviours.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For this behaviour of our political leaders, Regmi and his cabinet colleagues have found more excuses, and, ironically, time to inaugurate painting exhibition, release some second-graded books or pose with gawky smiles in prize distribution ceremony of some primary school. The real business of governing the country is largely ignored.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The governance dysfunction was somewhat a foregone phenomenon as Regmi refused to resign from the post of Chief Justice to head the government. It was the message that he didn&rsquo;t want to be fully responsible. His greed to go back to the old position, just for a few remaining months, after heading the government, speaks in volume how calculative he would be in taking decisions. This is undesirable on the part of the country&rsquo;s chief executive. And, it must be corrected. He should govern, not dither.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Only remedy for all these ills, surfaced even in the day-to-day business of the government is to make this government entirely responsible for what it does and what it should do. It is in the interest of country and also, in the interest of the political parties concerned. Only when political parties step aside to give full space for the government to work, can they conduct a sort of performance audit on the government. Equally important, Regmi and his cabinet colleagues must be able to demonstrate their ability to govern, which so far seems unimpressive to say the least.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Putatively, holding the Constituent Assembly election is no doubt the cardinal of all responsibilities of this government. But, there are hundreds of other matters that have gone out of track and government can work to restore them in the interim. It will ultimately help to create a proper atmosphere for the polls.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is perhaps right time to control organized crime, which is largely thought to be protected by the influential political leaders. These leaders now can&rsquo;t have access to the official files of these goons and once the action is taken, these leaders, technically, will not be in position to defend them in public. This indeed will help decriminalize our politics in a great way.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another important issue it can decide is: it can bring down the number of seats in the proposed Constituent Assembly, to a reasonable level of say, one hundred fifty to two hundred. This will be both popular and wise decision. But on the contrary, it is reported to be succumbing to the political pressure to increase it again to six hundred.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The donor community is surprised by lack-luster performance of this learned bunch in the government. The international community, for example, had asked to enlist the kind of support the government would seek from them for the new elections. But the government has even failed to coordinate a meeting of all these donors even in two months time, after it took charge.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Recently, a message was circulated that Nepal cannot hold the next summit of South Asian Regional Cooperation (SAARC) within 2013. Reason given is weird: there is no government in Nepal now. Is this government in position to react and say &lsquo;we can&rsquo;? The head of the government has not even thought it necessary to address the nation to give a sense where we are exactly heading. The list could be very long. But much needed guts is apparently lacking in every respect of the decision-making in the government.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Will this government without political will on the one hand and totally paralyzed by undue, frequent interference from the Political Mechanism on the other be able to hold Constituent Assembly elections by this year end? Doubts are high. And, only way to ensure that this government doesn&rsquo;t shirk away from this responsibility is to make it look and act more like a true government than a club of volunteers.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For this, those political parties that think they obliged Regmi by choosing him to be the head of current government should stop interfering in the functioning of the government. And there is the role of the President, as a sole functional constitutional entity of the country, to remind this government to its duties and admonish when derailed. But, to repeat it again, this government must realize the fact that it is there to govern the country, not to appease any of the political masters. And it has true opportunity to choose than snooze.</div>',
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			'description' => 'One of the influential leaders in the United CPN Maoist Party -- UCPN (M), Barsha Man Pun has recently alleged that present government has started to behave like a ‘political government.’ If that is the case, it is doing the right thing. The government must behave like a political than technical government, which can only solve political problems. It is irrelevant by now to keep hammering on the very nature of its structure just because a special kind of political equations that led to form this.',
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			'id' => '2086',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Fears Of Polls Going Futile',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The chieftains of major four political parties -- United CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesi Morcha -- appear contended and relaxed for being able to install the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi as the head of the new interim &lsquo;election&rsquo; government. The questions related to constitutionality and conflict of interests between executive and judicial organs of the country, since the same person effectively heads the both, do yet remain unanswered.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are a number of cases under consideration in the court of law seeking appropriate interpretation of relevant constitutional provisions on it. Worst of all, the very first recommendation for constitutional appointment made by the government headed by the Chief Justice himself was returned by the President for &lsquo;further constitutional explanation.&rsquo; This controversy surrounding the appointment of Chief and other Commissioners in the Election Commission indeed gives some indication to the modus operandi of the new government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	More than that, the practice of extra-constitutional imposition of the political vested interests by the &lsquo;High Level Political Mechanism&rsquo; practically makes the Regmi government a faceless scarecrow. Apparently, all the new ministers got appointed on a shared quota-basis amongst the four political parties involved. And people are told to believe that it is politically neutral coalition government. &nbsp;This is a total farce. Yet, the whole coalition looks like a coalition game in economics game theory where there is no easy &lsquo;core&rsquo; or equitable distribution of pay-offs among the parties, but still they are clinging to it.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The much touted-about political consensus appears a total mockery as there are reckonable political forces out of this &lsquo;all party&rsquo; mechanism; disgruntled and determined to create any obstacle possible if they are not listened to any time soon. Among them, the break-away faction of the Maoists party (CPN-Maoist headed by Mohan Baidya), all three parties of former panchas (Rastriya Prajatantra Party-RPP, Rastriya Janashakti Party and RPP Nepal) and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum headed by Upendra Yadav are some of those that deserve consideration to include in the so called all party mechanism.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But absolute inflexibility and ungenerous attitude of the four parties to accommodate or address the concerns of these disgruntled political outfits in some way or the other raises further apprehensions about the possibility of polls any time sooner. And, UCPN (M) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal&rsquo;s over ambitious plan of hastening to polls within June this year smells rat in his design.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	True that Nepali people want to go for ballot sooner than later. But, the polls are not instant soup-making recipe. The national polls are massive management nightmare. Still, several legal arrangements are needed to be made to enable the Election Commission to hold putatively free and fair polls. The budgetary arrangement is equally difficult. No doubt, there are several donors ready to dole out money for elections here, but they also need adequate time to process our requests through their respective home governments and bureaucracies. Our own budget for the current fiscal year needs recasting if the polls were to be held within this fiscal year, say June.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Logistics and stationery arrangements including the designing and printing of ballot papers, transportation of polling boxes and machines etc. involve a substantial amount of time and human resources. Security mobilization is perhaps going to be the most extensive and exhaustive affair.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On top of it, controlling the violence carried-out by some fringe and purportedly political outfits, active in different part of the country, remains crucial. Whether the new government of bureaucrats and with limited technical mandate has authority to negotiate peace or, if required, will-power to obliterate them by combing operation is critical of all questions to make polls a success.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite these all obstacles evident than ever before, why Dahal is insistent on June date? Is he so keen to reestablish the democratic process sooner, which for so long has been derailed mainly because of him? &nbsp;There are suggestions that June is the month when common people hardly can find time to go to polls due to their seasonal engagement in cultivation as monsoon just begins. And, only those who come to vote are the committed party cadres of any party. Implicitly, the winning chance of UCPN (M) is likely to increase in such a scenario. Also, if polls are scheduled in such a short notice, number of international election observers arriving to monitor the polls is likely to be far less, giving room to rigging for the forces with organised and violent youth wings like Youth Communist League (YCL) of the UCPN (M), or similar outfit of CPN-UML. These arguments about Dahal&rsquo;s discrete planning are not unfounded since Dahal has been able to fill the key state positions by the people highly loyal or made so by several machinations, including the head of the election government, Regmi. All in all, Dahal wants absolute majority in new Constituent Assembly (CA) at any cost, that too without recognizing the splinted off Baidya faction and yet, legitimizing all his political moves making Nepali Congress and CPN-UML mere mute witnesses, compelled to sign on the margins of his political contract papers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite all maneuvers and scrambling of Dahal and his party, polls within June still look a distant possibility. And the fact that seven years have passed without any significant achievement towards ending the political transition, there is no point going so hastily just to cover a few months time without proper preparations. The most rational expectation would be to hold the polls in November with adequate perseverance and nuanced management of time and resources.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What if even the Regmi government couldn&rsquo;t hold the polls for all those reasons Dr. Baburam Bhattarai government failed to meet the two deadlines of November 2012 and April 2013? &nbsp;Interestingly, the political parties who signed the 11-point deal to enthrone Regmi perhaps have no clue about the possible next step if he failed to deliver the polls and choose to remain in power in whatever pretext.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even if the elections are held, regardless when, as the fact of matter remains, outcomes of these new CA polls would take Nepal only to a status quo of April 10, 2008, the day when the first election for the CA was held. Despite a number of extensions, that CA during its four years in existence had failed to make any headway in drafting a new constitution. All major political parties represented in that CA failed to reach a consensus to extend its tenure for the fourth time on 27th May, 2012. If one remembers it correctly, it was the Supreme Court verdict from a bench of justices including Regmi that had barred the extension of the CA term.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Without addressing the very causes which made the last CA dysfunctional and ultimately dead, the new CA, even if it is instituted by coming November -- the earliest possibility, would not be able to deliver new federal constitution as expected by the people. The politics has become so messy with rising ethnic hatred, unrealistic expectations of regionalism and culture of using violence to capitulate the authority to meet all implausible demands of divisive and sectarian nature.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No political party seems to be prepared to go to the polls with a concrete frame of the constitution they are planning to draft if they got elected. This in fact should have been the main basis of each party&rsquo;s CA election manifesto. It is because, people can rationalize their expectations before deciding whom to vote and what to expect when the CA takes shape. Even smaller parties with extreme demands may come up with their respective propositions and their issues could be addressed on the strength of votes they secure. It would have made things far easier to promulgate the new constitution once drafted. But the so called big parties are also not prepared to come up with any clarity on these crucial matters for the obvious ulterior motives of fishing in the rough waters. Such ill intentions are more ingrained in those parties who are inclined to one party dictatorship under the veil of democratic mandate. People again have to vote on the basis of the guesswork without knowing their distinct position on constitution drafting process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Election Commission&rsquo;s code of conduct can regulate such things by making every party mandatory to go to the polls with complete shape of their proposed constitution. But whether the Commission will have that guts and vision is an unanswered question here.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, if the parties do not plan on how they want to proceed once the CA elections are held, things are not going to change for the better in Nepal. Even if one party gets clear majority in CA, it will be impossible to move ahead without taking on board all big or small political players along both to draft and promulgate the new constitution. Therefore, this process is better if it began now. Otherwise, like in the past, we will be back to square one again after spending many valuable years for the same cause. The whole exercise of this CA election would also automatically go down the drain.</div>',
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			'description' => 'The chieftains of major four political parties -- United CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesi Morcha -- appear contended and relaxed for being able to install the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi as the head of the new interim ‘election’ government.',
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			'id' => '2085',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Fall Of The Last Pillar',
			'sub_title' => '',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If no extremely dramatic events unfold in Nepali politics overnight, the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi, may have sworn in by the time this writing reaches to our readers. He, or whoever for that matter, will be the tenth chief executive of the nation in as many years, which exposes the gravity of the political instability and difficult transition the country is reeling under.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Prey to Politics&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whether or not Regmi became prime minister is by now an issue of secondary importance. The prime concern here is: the judiciary also couldn&rsquo;t resist the temptation of political indulgence at the cost of its so far largely maintained independence and respect to professionalism. In this sense, the judiciary, that was somehow saving Nepal from falling into the abyss of acute form of anarchy and was the last testimony to the remnant feature of rule of law, has been the last pillar to fall prey to political machinations. Otherwise, Nepal is by now already faced with the consequences of the institutional degeneration, almost in every spectrum of life. Every professional and state institution is highly politicized. The security apparatus like army, police, intelligence, the civil service and diplomacy, the academia and civil society and to a large extent even the media now wear the cloak of some hue of politics. Lately, all government set-ups have been forced by design and default to act as the extended wings of the UCPN (Maoist). Democratic forces of the country remain defensive and indifferent to growing aggressiveness intrusion of the Party invariably into all state organs of the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>The Question of Constitutionality&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	The prevalent Interim Constitution of the Country doesn&rsquo;t provide for an incumbent chief justice to become the chief executive of the country as well. The Supreme Court still headed by Regmi has the ultimate authority to interpret the constitution. But, at this juncture, any interpretation of the provision that is completely absent in the constitution would tantamount to nothing but a blatant conflict of interest, since such an interpretation, technically presided by Regmi himself, is only likely to justify his decision to take-up the top job. The press statement issued by the Supreme Court in the last week of February, apparently at Regmi&rsquo;s will and design, already demonstrated the overall tilt of what it could be possibly like. The entire objective of the statement was that, he is only willing to go on &lsquo;deputation of duty&rsquo; from chief justice to the chief executive, without resigning from his present post. This is more of an ominous than welcome sign, both in view of judicial independence and concept of balance of power in democracy.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Controversial Beginning&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Let&rsquo;s suppose Justice Regmi is assigned to head the election government. He would be taking up the job not as a much-touted-about &lsquo;consensus figure&rsquo; but amidst a sharp division regarding his choice for the job. Not only the opposition parties, but all four largest parties -- ruling UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madheshi Morcha -- are vertically split into two factions each, on Regmi&rsquo;s pick. And, some of the arguments of the dissenting factions in each party are worth pondering. Firstly, the move would directly prove that political parties are grossly incompetent and not trustworthy to head an election government. Second, they are oblivious of the very concept of balance of power among the major three organs -- executive, legislative and judicial -- of the state. And thirdly, what miracle could Regmi alone demonstrate as the country now languishes in a serious nature of constitutional vacuum. The institutions like Nepal Bar Association have voiced serious concern over the Chief Justice&rsquo;s lust for power at the cost of judicial independence. There are apprehensions that the UCPN (Maoist) has plans to rig the next polls by misusing the state-power yet would validate results by making the chief justice the head of the election government. Regmi&rsquo;s appointment automatically blocks the other parties to seek judicial remedy in case of electoral malpractices. These points of view definitely hold waters and cannot be glossed over instantaneously.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Crisis of Management&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Regmi&rsquo;s appointment requires a series of important makeovers under the guise of the constitutional provision of &lsquo;Power to Remove Difficulties&rsquo; by the President of Nepal. The constitution has not envisioned an incumbent justice becoming the prime minster (in whatever name, the chief executive of the country). This would require a special decree form the President, citing the political consensus among the major parties, which again looks a pure farce with so much discontent fumed around. Even if the appointment hurdle is cleared, there are several other constitutional issues that warrant a speedy sorting out. The positions in the Election Commission, including that of the chief commissioner, are vacant. Does Regmi want to play this role as well, as he is officially likely to be titled as the chief of Election Council? What happens to the positions of the chief justice itself whereas the constitutional spirit is that both the head of the government and the judiciary represent separate, independent capacities in several crucial institutions like the Constitutional Council, that make appointment of the heads and office-bearers of several constitutional bodies including the Election Commission. Incidentally, almost all constitutional bodies like Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Auditor General&rsquo;s Office and Election Commission are without the chiefs or office-bearers, for years in some cases. Even in the Supreme Court, three-fourth of positions of justices remains vacant. To fill these all would require a separate arrangement as there is no possibility of fulfilling the constitutional provisions through parliamentary hearing in absence of the legislature.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Competence and Delivery&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whether Regmi would be able to hold fresh elections by November this year is the cardinal of all questions here. This requires a lot of political work that begins from the point where he starts to choose the kind of people to fill in the positions in his government. The impartiality issue of himself and his picks will be crucial. And, worst of all he will be functioning under a situation where all major constitutional positions will have already violated to pave the way for his appointment and only resort to move ahead will be the kind of political support he gets as he moves ahead. This implies that there will be forces on the ground who would be constantly challenging his actions. As the nation has not decided on the number of constituencies for new elections, their modalities and, whether it would be an election for both Constituent Assembly and Legislature or only for the former, to propose a formula agreeable to all is impossible and purely a political rather than a bureaucratic exercise. Regmi has yet to try his art in this trade.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is too early to say anything whether he is competent enough and would be successful to deliver what he is expected of. But his track record is not very encouraging. The latest allegation is that he paralyzed the justice delivery system by not taking any initiative to appoint the judges in the Supreme Court in time. It was the Court verdict that had barred the extension of the then Constituent Assembly tenure beyond May 27 last year. Despite the fact that he knew the parliamentary hearing of new judges would be impossible beyond that date, he failed to initiate the action of extending the term of existing justices or to appoint new ones when there was adequate time left. At present, the result is that the Supreme Court is left with only six justices whereas in high times it used to have as many as two dozen justices. This indeed have made justice delivery difficult, and, at the same time put Regmi&rsquo;s credibility under huge interrogation mark.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>The Last Optimism&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whatever the cost or difficulty in the process involved for his appointment, the only hope is that Regmi as the accepted figure by four or five largest political parties could hold elections and those polls would be free and fair at an acceptable degree. Every party though has viewed Regmi&rsquo;s installation as their convenience for entirely different reasons than this, which again could complicate the situation in future. For Maoists, it was a great achievement to be able to stop Nepali Congress from heading an election government and it hopes that Regmi would duly oblige the party for surprisingly picking him to head the next government. Congress and UML are contended only at the ouster of Baburam Bhattarai from the prime ministerial position, who otherwise seemed unrelenting to relinquish the position. Other forces, including the international community wanted to trust on Regmi&rsquo;s legal credentials and his largely maintained non-corrupt image during a long legal career.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, interestingly again, even if new polls could be held within a year or so and a new Assembly is instituted, Nepal&rsquo;s political challenges will still be where they were immediately after April 2008 elections. Therefore, there is no point being over ambitious at this very moment about anyone heading another government or holding polls. Unless, political rationality, read it metamorphosis of parties from authoritarian to democratic mindset, prevails among the major political players the country, Nepal&rsquo;s political crisis will only deepen regardless of any drama we orchestrate, be that drama of government headed by the chief justice.&nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2013-11-08',
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			'description' => 'If no extremely dramatic events unfold in Nepali politics overnight, the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi, may have sworn in by the time this writing reaches to our readers. He, or whoever for that matter, will be the tenth chief executive of the nation in as many years, which exposes the gravity of the political instability and difficult transition the country is reeling under.',
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	(int) 14 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2084',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Manifesto Recast At Hetauda Commune',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The UCPN (M) truly wants to remain in the mainstream of Nepali Politics. It, therefore, has ventured into a dramatic change in policy paradigm through its Seventh National Congress. The seventh Congress was a hundred and eighty degree shift in the party&#39;s policy stand, from its Sixth Congress twenty-one years ago. The previous one had adopted the policy of raising arms against the state and the recent one has formally proposed to relinquish them altogether -- a changed face of revolution, as the party has baptized it.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>The Paradigm Shift</strong></span></div>
<div>
	UCPN (M)&rsquo;s Seventh General Congress held in Hetauda from February 2-7 undoubtedly heralded a new era in Nepal&#39;s politics. Thanks to a complete &nbsp;departure from the doctrine of &#39;bullets for political change&#39;, which had been the political mainstay of the party for the last two decades, to a fairly convincingly documented commitment to embrace &#39;the politics of ballots and open competition.&#39; With this development, the much needed optimism to restore a peaceful competitive democracy in Nepal has &nbsp;now revived, more reassuringly than ever before. Skeptics there are, but when the largest political force of the country resolutely announces that it would strip away the hangover of &#39;establishing the &nbsp;people&#39;s republic&#39; by all possible violent means, the country must give them a chance, at least for once. And, Nepal has no alternative to that for now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Understandably, this recast was not easy for the party which fought a ten-year long guerrilla war, sent its fighters home largely discontented with the resettlement arrangements and suffered a split recently. But the new policy paper crafted jointly by Chairman of the party, Puspa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) and Prime Minister Dr. Baburam &nbsp;Bhattarai who is also the senior vice-chair of the party needed to gather massive guts to face the present day reality and come out of the longheld revolutionary hegemony.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As evident at the Congress venue, it indeed was a daunting endeavour for the party leadership to rein in and satisfy the cadres about this change rather unexpected for many of them, who were initially indoctrinated, rather foolhardily, to establish a proletarian dictatorship before they would be asked to put their guns down. They were not ready to believe the claim that whatever the party could achieve politically from the 10-year &#39;revolution&#39; was optimum for now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In this context, the Dahal-Bhattarai duo deserves a real acclaim for not only making this ideological change possible, and that too relatively smoothly, but also for accepting the fact that there is no polity beyond political co-existence with other forces and a rule-based competition with them in polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It was not in a very distant past that the whole party rallied behind a highly mystified dogma of Prachandapath. But over the last seven years, when Prachanda himself has been at the centre of national politics, Prachanda-path emained a neverexplained political term and now it is completely out of the party&#39;s official literature. This is indicative of the urgency felt by Prachanda to come out of the violent legacy of the insurgency era. In addition to this, to the surprise of many, he has started to publicly criticize summary execution of his opponents by former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and cautiously negate Maoism for being &#39;not replicable in our different context.&#39; (It is a great irony though, for both Dahal and Bhattarai deliberately wore special hair-do to look like Stalin as early as a couple of years ago and the party&#39;s official banner still carries Stalin&#39;s portrait).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&#39;s meticulously crafted paper makes every effort possible to sound credible to both- his cadres by using lexicons akin to communist glossary and to the world by practically accepting the ground realities. &#39;Nepal no longer is a semi-feudal and semicolonial state, but rather a new comprador bourgeoisie capitalist one,&#39; &nbsp;reads his main policy paper suggesting that another armed rebellion under any pretext would be unjustifiable under these realities. His assessment that &#39;Nepal is also under the influence of a neo-colonialism of globalization is not much different from the standpoint taken by the underdeveloped world in the world arena, albeit with a bit different diplomatic decorum. He has repeatedly tried to reassure that the party would no longer indulge in a killing spree in the name of physically eliminating the class-enemy, as it has changed plank from the abolition of social classes to capitalistic growth leading to socialism.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This transformation is essentially not much different from the &#39;people&#39;s &nbsp;multi-party democracy&#39; (jantako &nbsp;bahudaliya janabad) propounded by late general secretary of the CPN-UML, Madan Bhandari, some 23 years ago. Dahal&#39;s detractors have even gone to the extent of calling him &lsquo;nothing but a mere shadow of the UML&rsquo;. Regardless of anything, this a was much-needed change in the Maoist fold for Nepal to &nbsp;resolve its political impasse peacefully and it was duly heeded by the Maoists, which is a welcome development.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&#39;s policy paper, finally adopted as the 7th Congress Resolution with some ritual modifications, at times is unexpectedly mild and flexible. As reason for this, Dahal has tried to vindicate that all inflexibility, irrationality, dogmatism and impractical policy rigidities had gone with the party&#39;s break-away Mohan Baidya faction and what now remains in the UCPN (M) is a political organization with modern, 21st century outlook and vision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Grip Not Loosened</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Despite all odds, Dahal has emerged quintessentially an unchallenged leader from this Congress as well. It appears that as long as Dahal and Bhattarai can work together, a third person is &nbsp;unlikely to claim the topmost position in the party, for the foreseeable future. At least, this looks like a smooth sail at the centre. But the situation at the</div>
<div>
	grassroots is much different as reported by the respective local representatives of the Congress. They complained that the party had failed to assign political responsibility to the entire rank and file in the organizational structure. Former cadres who returned home dejected are hardly under party discipline and a large &#39;garbage lot&#39; of socially discarded people who were used during the armed rebellion are proving a nuisance to entire party. These factors can erode Dahal&#39;s grip on the party in the long run. When the party actually goes to the polls sooner or later, Dahal is likely to face a steeply uphill task of differentiating his party with the one like the CPN-UML and establishing the rationale of killing so many thousands of people at the cost of the country&#39;s great opportunity for development and growth, ultimately, just to become another UML. But for now he is the helmsman, which in turn is an opportunity to keep his grip intact with tactical moves like the present one.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Confession Drama</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Dahal has confessed that his resignation from the prime ministerial position over the tussle with the then Chief of Nepal Army, Rookmangud Katwal, was a na&iuml;ve and unnecessary emotionalism. Though not explicitly expressed, his remorse was apparently for the anti-Indian tirade he belched out while leaving the post; perhaps in hope of placating the power blocs in the southern neighbour that he believes have gone against him since. In a bid to be seen as a &nbsp;mature political force, he has omitted all traditionally used vocabularies such as &#39;Indian &nbsp;expansionism, American and Russian imperialism, Chinese revisionism&#39; etc from the official party literature. &#39;The differences now should be dealt &nbsp;through mature diplomacy,&#39; he argued to pacify the cadres. But, that is what exactly should be done, &nbsp;practically.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Economy First&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The party&#39;s new policy paper has put the economic agenda in the forefront of its &#39;vision&#39;, so to speak. Its policy paper on harnessing the country&rsquo;s water resource by mobilizing the local and domestic resources and setting up a production and development brigade are testimony to this. But, these propositions lack maturity and need a gross &nbsp;overhaul that suits to the ground realities of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Developing hydropower projects on a commercial scale with only local resources is a sweet but impossible dream. It is not like a cooperative farming where labour-intensive production can be adopted. Capital, technology and market - all three have to be explored and traded across the national borders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to understand that Dahal needed some mechanism to adjust the party&rsquo;s erstwhile armed members. So, he proposed a production and development brigade. It sounds like a good idea from the supply side, but as a responsible political party, UCPN (M) needs to adequately consider the demand side of it as well. What to produce? How and where to produce? Where to sell it? And, will his cadres be willing to be in another labour camp of a sort for this purpose? These are a few example- questions to argue that the UCPN (M) needs further clarifications in these propositions to remain in the political forefront in future Nepal. Nevertheless, the party has made a good beginning by the cardinal policy change through its recently concluded 7th Congress.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite a good and encouraging beginning to transform his party into a contemporaneous force, Dahal has left many crucial unanswered questions which still cast doubts over his intentions. He has mentioned Nepali Congress as the &#39;prime enemy&#39; but has failed to enumerate the reasons. There is no mention of what the party would do to the land and property forcefully occupied by its cadres during the insurgency period. How will the party view the private property rights, civil &nbsp;rights and individual as well as press freedom? Until these questions are answered satisfactorily, the proposed transformations from the margins will not yield the benefits as aspired by Dahal and his party. But again, transformation is a continuous process and momentum is more important than the event.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/polt.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 168px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px;" /></div>',
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			'description' => 'The UCPN (M) truly wants to remain in the mainstream of Nepali Politics. It, therefore, has ventured into a dramatic change in policy paradigm through its Seventh National Congress. The seventh Congress was a hundred and eighty degree shift in the party's policy stand, from its Sixth Congress twenty-one years ago. The previous one had adopted the policy of raising arms against the state and the recent one has formally proposed to relinquish them altogether -- a changed face of revolution, as the party has baptized it.',
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			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Oli’s Climb, Prachanda’s Fall',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<em><span style="font-size: 14px;">By the magnitude of his &lsquo;flexibility&rsquo; shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year.</span></em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Akhilesh Tripathi&nbsp;</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Bikram Samvat 2072, the new Nepali year which started about two weeks ago, is going to be interesting. There are telltale signs of that. Consider the following incident!&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		On the eve of the New Year, Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Chandra Nemwang called a meeting of the top leaders of the major political parties to discuss the thorny issues of the new constitution. CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli was absent. The reason was he was climbing Dharahara! On this conspicuous absence, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda grumbled, &ldquo;For Oli, Dharahara is more important than the new constitution.&rdquo; Later, Oli, whose Dharahara climb was aided by an oxygen cylinder, retorted, &ldquo;It is difficult to climb up like the UML, but quite easy to go down like the Maoists!&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Why did Oli ignore an all-party meeting to climb the Dharahara? There are two possible answers. One, Oli, who is said to be playing the final innings of his life wanted to accomplish his wish of being atop the historical monument (Had he waited for 12more days to fulfill this wish of his, he wouldn&rsquo;t be able to do so because the historical monument built by Nepal&rsquo;s first prime minister Bhimsen Thapa was grounded in the April 25 earthquakes). Two, he deliberately ignored the meeting of the major parties to pile more pressure on the opposition parties, mainly the Maoists. Who says he doesn&rsquo;t aspire to become the next Prime Minister at the earliest possible? After all, he climbed the Dharahar to dismiss a major allegation against him that he is sick and unfit.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepali politicians speak in different ways. Oli climbs Dharahara, all 213 steps. By doing so, he is sending three clear messages: I am strong enough to climb; I can see the view from the top; the New Year is going to be beautiful.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Prachanda, while talking to the media, says he&rsquo;s willing to take any risk for the sake of delivering a constitution on time. In a meeting of the three major parties &ndash; Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) on April 20, Prachanda agreed to resume the constitution writing process. It&rsquo;s a big example of flexibility shown by him.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		By the magnitude of his &lsquo;flexibility&rsquo; shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year. Or at least, greater things are at stake that justify his move to alienate the Janajatis, anger the Madhesis, and shutting the door to unification among the six Maoist parties.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But why did Prachanda change and became flexible? Prachanda has lost a lot of political ground in recent times. The Nepal bandh called by the 30-party front led by him could not win public support. So it fell flat on the very first day. Similarly, Prachanda&rsquo;s party&rsquo;s candidate faced a humiliating defeat in the CA by-elections held recently. That is also a measurement of the people&rsquo;s support to the Maoist agenda. By now, Prachanda understands that he is not backed by any kind of popular support. All these factors have forced the UCPN (Maoist) leadership to review their position and become flexible in the political give and take.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		So, it&rsquo;s been a common knowledge in recent months that the Maoists have backtracked on their position on federalism. It may not have been just a coincidence that the Maoists&rsquo; softening of stance followed Baburam Bhattarai&rsquo;s India visit and Prachanda&rsquo;s China visit.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		By now, it seems, the Maoist leadership has understood that a general strike or a trip to the neighbourhood seeking help (intervention) will not help. That is perhaps why the three major parties &ndash; NC, UML and UCPN (Maoist) &ndash; have agreed to allow the constitution writing process to move forward. Oli&rsquo;s Dharahara climb has helped in this process. Oli cannot climb the Dharahara again because there si no Dharahara now. &nbsp;But the opposition parties, mainly the Maoists, now know that the UML chief can engage in any other similar undertaking to mount further political pressure on them. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<strong>Making Institutions Inclusive</strong></div>
	<div>
		Another thing we learned from the year gone by is that institutions, once designed, are difficult to change.</div>
	<div>
		The April Uprising of 2006 sought to change the way the state and political parties respond to the people&rsquo;s needs. But it did not have a clear vision of what new institutional structures might look like. Parties like the Nepali Congress and UML define this change in their own way while, the Maoists, Madhesis, and Janajatis, on the other hand, have their own agenda for reforms, including the form of government, federalism, and electoral system. The failure of the Maoists and Madhesis to push forward their agenda shows how entrenched and entangled existing institutions are in the Nepali society.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Restructuring of institutions is required at two levels: at the level of political parties, and at the level of the state. At the level of the political parties, the internal party structures allow a few leaders to extract from the ordinary party members and unions that have penetrated all levels of the society. The recent Supreme Court verdict trying to limit the role of employee unions is an example. Most employee unions are extractive institutional structures. They serve their members by lobbying for their promotion and transfers, especially when their party leaders are in power. Therefore, a meritorious government employee, if he or she is not a member of these extractive unions, has fewer chances of getting a promotion or a good position.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Given the existing state structure, top political leaders who have control over parties like the NC or the CPN-UML have few incentives to restructure the party and the state. Making the party and the state more inclusive means giving up on their monopoly of power and privileges. Reforming state and party structures, therefore, is a difficult proposition for almost all top politicians. As many studies have shown, once institutional structures are in place, it is difficult to change them in favour of the ordinary people.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		One of the implications of such a situation is that political divisions have crystallised at the local level also. Nepal is a deeply divided society. Nepal&rsquo;s political parties have created a social chasm that runs vertically, from the highest level to the community level. At the community level, the divisive political allegiance has more to do with getting access to state resources and opportunities than to development and ideology.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		As a result, allegiances are usually made to political parties that have a greater prospect of getting to power. Without such political allegiance, which is something more than just an affiliation, people rarely get access to state resources or even entry into the marketplace.</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'description' => 'By the magnitude of his ‘flexibility’ shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2803',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Democracy  Vs Minority Diktats',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If the ongoing irresponsible behaviour of some of the key political players of the country doesn&#39;t come to a halt, it is certain that the Constituent Assembly-Two (CA-II) will also not be able to deliver a new democratic constitution for the &#39;federal new Nepal.&#39; The major impediment to the new constitution writing process has two folds: the first, no party is adhering to the mandate and processes of the CA, and crucial political bargaining are taking place out of the constitutional and the CA ambit. The second, smaller parties in and outside of the CA still rule the roost by forming a twenty-two party alliance to oppose any stand that the main two political parties in CA --Nepali Congress (NC) and UML --are likely to take with regard to potential provisions for the new constitution and its writing process. This al-liance led by UCPN Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal is resorting to tantrums akin to that of a pressure group -- organizing street protests, flexing muscles and causing disruptions to CA proceedings, in some pretext or the other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If a public meeting organized by this alliance in the mid-October at the open-air theatre in Tundikhel, Kathmandu, is any indication, the Maoists are again determined to ruin the second CA as they did to the first, rendering it hostage of blatant indecision at the high-level political committee (HLPC). The speakers in that meeting declared a number of daring things that are aimed at rendering the very authority of the CA non-existent and prevaricate the democratic mandate and process. It raises fears of another cycle of violent politics. This is because, Dahal made three crucial revelations: he would not respect the arithmetic of CA, no constitution could be written without incorporating his agenda of &#39;identity&#39; and he repented on agreeing to the &ldquo;management of his Red Army and the arms before the constitution of &lsquo;his choice&rsquo; was written&rdquo;. &nbsp;As can be recalled, the process through which some of the former Maoist rebels were given employment in the Nepal Army and rest were sent home by paying generous gratuity, is normally referred to as &ldquo;management of former Maoist rebels&rdquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to repeat, all these are clearly anti-democratic postures. His refusal to accept the &#39;numbers&#39; as they stand in the present CA disregards the people&#39;s mandate expressed through the last ballots. His adamance not to comply with the universally accepted democratic practice to decide every contending agenda by majority votes in CA would leave all major political differences undecided indefinitely, in absence of any other feasible alternative process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the issue of identity, Dahal has been successful to rally the support of other eleven fringe parties that are present in CA and equal number of others without any representative in the House. His insistence is that the earlier CA had somehow agreed to &#39;identity-based federalism&#39; and the current CA too shouldn&#39;t deviate from those understandings, written or unwritten. But the fact is: the identity agenda largely got defeated in the CA-II elections and electorates gave completely new verdict, pushing the Maoists into the third position and giving a two-thirds majority to the NC and the UML combined. The manifestoes of the latter two emphatically reassures the voters to write a pluralistic constitution with possible least number of provinces, above all, on the basis of their economic viability. But Dahal&#39;s deliberate intention seems to undermine this reality and try to thrust his agenda by exerting force to disrupt the CA proceedings and effecting road blockades. It is worth recalling that Dahal&rsquo;s party UCPN-Maoist too has mentioned in its election manifesto that voting will be resorted to if the efforts for consensus fail. Moreover, the CA-II has also adopted a rules book in which it mentions that issues in which no consensus could be reached shall be decided by voting.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&rsquo;s repentance on &#39;early surrender of arms and army&#39; also smacks of his ill intentions to use that guerrilla force as the tool to political blackmailing, as in the past. His partners in protests, the Madhesi and Janajati parties are more than enthused by the political patronage of the UCPN-Maoist and also by the fact that their agenda defeated in popular votes is now shouldered by the Maoists, the third largest party in CA. It is not difficult to understand that Dahal is now desperate as he is very fast losing his political ground. Not only his party got reduced to the third largest in the CA-II from the first in CA-I, it currently commands bare 14 percent of total votes in the House. That is why he is against of the CA arithmetic. Also, his party is at the verge of further division after the main ideologue Dr Baburam Bhattarai has challenged Dahal&#39;s authority from within and intensified the efforts to create a &#39;new force&#39;. For, all these reasons, Dahal is experimenting on any possible political adventurism to save his existence as leader to be reckoned with. This is understandable. What is completely incomprehensible is why other two larger parties, NC and UML, are succumbing to these tantrums of Dahal, resorting to one after another undemocratic moves and decisions. Why can&#39;t they say that no political decision regarding the constitution writing could be taken outside the CA and beyond the popular mandate?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the overused platitudes of Dahal has been &#39;consensus in constitution writing.&#39; On the surface, this appears as a benevolent idea. But, in essence, it is implicit design to take the constitution writing process away from CA to HLPC. Since the country has expensed so much to ensure diverse representation in CA, it is impossible to arrive at consensus at every motion mooted in the CA. Therefore, accepting to resolve all contentious issues through already defined CA rules and processes, including voting, is absolutely within democratic values and norms. Dahal and his allies has problem in this, because it is surely a losing game for them as they simply lack the number of members in CA to pass their agenda. But, if they believe in democracy, instead of exerting to disrupt the processes, they should accept the outcome by explaining their point of view such that can woo the public support in the next polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But that needed patience Dahal clearly lacks and he is now wielding a double-edged sword -- simultaneously leading the street protests and holding the convenorship of HLPC that was dug out last month off the grave of the last CA, merely to placate Dahal&#39;s ambition of chairing it. Interestingly, he successfully capitulated the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML leadership to form this apparently unconstitutional &#39;superpower centre&#39; that is often practically portrayed as above all the political mechanisms of the country -- including the prime minister, the CA and the parliament. Or, at least, Dahal wanted HLPC to function in that fashion. This too is an undemocratic demeanour.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Naturally, the voice of other allies in Tundikhel was more aggressive. Sadbhawan Party leader Rajendra Mahato said he would not let the constitution be finalised on the basis of &#39;majority vote in the CA&#39; and Ashok Rai of Federal Socialist Party warned of &#39;pulling the NC and UML leaders by their collars&#39; to agree to their demand of identity-first federalism. What all this means is: there is every effort going on not to recognize and treat the CA as the only constitutionally validated body to write the constitution. This is perhaps the gravest danger that Nepal&#39;s political process faces at this moment. For the UCPN-Maoist and other smaller parties, their action might be justifiable to the extent to make their presence felt in the national political spectrum. But it is highly surprising to see that the NC and UML are readily agreeing to the demands of these parties without considering their consequences and not working enough to deliver a timely constitution despite their clear majority in the CA-II that allows them to write the constitution themselves.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At this juncture, three political personalities have performed far short of their responsibilities and expectations from their respective public positions. First is Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who has failed to deliver the governance in every possible field you may name. His ministers are working berserk. His slogan of &#39;clean government&#39; has hit rock bottom in every appointment in the constitutional bodies, judiciary to executive branches. It took four months for the House to pass the appropriation bill. When issue of poor governance is raised, he retorts with saying &#39;the focus is on constitution writing.&#39; When the mayhem in constitution writing is pointed, he just vents anger on the people who dared to ask. His lacklustre performance is only costing the country very dear in every front, mainly as coupling hindrances in constitution writing process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The second person who could have changed the things for the better but doing very little or nothing is Subhash Chandra Nembang, the CA Chairman. When House was disrupted continuously for five weeks in September, his presence was nowhere felt. He kept on urging the political parties &#39;to agree&#39; on certain things. But, his responsibility was not to urge for agreement but to run the House business according to the already laid-down laws, rules and precedents. His failure is more acutely felt in his inability to &#39;educate&#39; the CA members in the processes and contents of the constitution writing. He even failed to inculcate in the minds of the CA members that they are representatives of the sovereign people, not the stooges of the political bigwigs. Over and above, he himself appears to be acting as the stooge of big leaders, waiting for signals to come from the quarters like HLPC.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The third personality who failed to deliver up to the expectation is Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Chairman of the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC) in the CA. He kept on jumping around to appear as if he is honestly trying to extract some magic consensus, but without doing proper homework particularly to finalize the agenda of state restructuring. He tried to forge the so-called consensus in the vacuum. One of the main bones of contention among the political parties has been the number of provinces that the new constitution should delineate to federalize Nepal. But these parties have all in unison failed to come up with the basic logic of any particular number they have picked to propose as their agenda. As such, Bhattarai should have been able to come up with data on economic and political viability of the possible provinces and presented them dispassionately to the political parties. Instead, he himself ventured to propose some eight, nine or ten provinces, without any database to support his proposal. This was naive move both as the Chairman of PDCC, who should have ideally remained neutral in all these bickering and, also as a learned man, he must have come with alternative data-supported analysis such as &#39;if we go for eight provinces, the per capita income of Nepalis will rise in X-rate while with eleven it goes up/down by Y-rate.&#39; But, alas, nothing of the sort is happening.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This is to conclude that, until and unless we revert back to essence of democracy from pressure tantrums, allow CA to function as the only legitimate place to discuss everything regarding the constitution writing and provide some factual basis to ascertain the number of provinces as well as the administrative structure of the &#39;new&#39; state, the new constitution will continue to remain a mirage, for unforeseen time to come.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'If the ongoing irresponsible behaviour of some of the key political players of the country doesn't come to a halt, it is certain that the Constituent Assembly-Two (CA-II) will also not be able to deliver a new democratic constitution for the 'federal new Nepal.' The major impediment to the new constitution writing process has two folds: the first, no party is adhering to the mandate and processes of the CA, and crucial political bargaining are taking place out of the constitutional and the CA ambit.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2809',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Derailing Democracy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Throughout Nepal&#39;s seven decade long modern political history, the biggest problem to institutionalize democracy has been sheer absence of democratic essence among the political actors - political parties and politicians, both. &nbsp;It has been true for all twists and turns in the history. Experience has it, those countries that could stabilize the democratic polity in relatively short period of political transition, say in two or three decades, enjoyed two common features. One, there was only two way fight between the democratic and autocratic forces, or colonizers and freedom fighters. Once the democrats outweighed the autocrats, the system got functionally stabilized. Second, at least for the initial transition, some charismatic and learned leader spearheaded those processes into an irrevocably functionalized and largely institutionalized form of democracy, before it could derail and eventually degenerate to anarchy or mayhem.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But Nepal&#39;s democracy has persistently been victim of a triangular instead of bipolar traction among the ultra-rights led by the palace, ultra-lefts led by Maoists or Leninists, and democrats. In fact, democracy has been invariably sandwiched between other two forces. To recall the history of common knowledge, for this very reason none of political changes in 1951, 1961, 1981, 1991 or 2006 could institutionalize Nepal&#39;s democracy. The country has been a constant victim of political uncertainty and hopelessness, which has taken toll not only on economy and development but has also teetered the age-old social cohesion and coexistence. Thanks again primarily to the three-way pulls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The recent turn of events also does not present any different picture. The political rhapsody of UCPN Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal certainly reflects his desperation in a bid to save his political existence in the light of rapidly eroding political clout of his party, but it is hardly limited only to that. As a person brought up as the Maoist, he is fundamentally against this country writing a democratic constitution. &nbsp;And, this is not a secret, but his commitment, vowed umpteen times in public. He still harbours dreams that one day this country could still be ruled by a communist dictator, perhaps himself at the helm, like North Korea and Cuba. He wants the new constitution to be written with those aims in mind. But he too is clueless on the way outs that clear the nasty debris of the civil war, en-route to that unreachable summit.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the other end, there are monarchists who want to resurrect the religious fundamentalism to the extreme of considering the King, again, as reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. The movement of Hindu fundamentalism is slowly gathering momentum as not-so-insignificant chunk in the ruling Nepali Congress has also found solace in taking refuge to this political perversion. There are other hybrid elements born out of marriage between the royalists and leftists who have dedicated their energies to defame and undermine the popularly elected parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The most recent example is the blatant disobedience of several parliamentary committee summons by Lokman Singh Karki, chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). It may be recalled that it was Puspa Kamal Dahal who engineered the appointment of Karki, an ardent royalist who served as chief secretary of the government during king Gyanendra&#39;s absolute rule, in CIAA position. The disgruntlement of some of the parliament members towards recalcitrant Karki was also meaningless as his appointment was formally approved by the chiefs of all major political parties &ndash; Sushil Koirala of Nepali Congress, Jhala Nath Khanal of CPN-UML, Dahal himself and other Terai-based forces while Khil Raj Regmi was heading the caretaker government a year ago. The career graph of Karki was a public knowledge but that surprisingly didn&#39;t bother these &#39;big&#39; leaders and they awarded him the position he deeply craved for, for some unexplained reasons. After such a big blunder, it is but natural that the cries of &#39;small fries&#39;, like members of parliament, go unheard. To extend the argument, the discretionary abuse of the constitutional bodies like CIAA also constitute a great degree of test case on the impartiality of these institutions that are expected to function compatibly with the norms and values of the democratic dispensation. &nbsp;These are definitely some sure signals that even the &#39;structure&#39; of democracy is being gravely in peril now, let alone essence.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ideally, the alliance of Nepali Congress and UML should have been able to steer the process of constitution writing and institutionalizing democracy given the strength of popular mandate they have and their largely tested credentials to multiparty, ballot-based democracy. But, persistence of &#39;sickness&#39; and performance dysfunction of the ruling alliance has indeed been a major impediment to any outcome that helps to the cause of democracy. The chiefs of both the parties, KP Oli of UML and Prime Minister Koirala, also the Congress chief, are sick in literal terms. And, deplorably ineffective role of Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Nembang has rendered this supposedly most crucial institution in present day Nepal as good as dead.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government has been oblivious to a number of its public commitments which, had they been executed, would have consolidated democracy at least by a step or prevent it from boiling down to vacuum of popular representation. One of such derelictions was government&#39;s imperviousness to hold the elections to the local bodies. On the contrary, the ruling political cartel has engaged heavily in appointing controversial names in many crucial positions, including the judiciary. Nevertheless, the joint stance taken lately by Koirala and Oli to take the constitution writing process ahead and promulgate the new constitution by January 2015is no doubt appreciable. But, given the fact that they have hardly been credible in the past and apparent challenges that need a great deal of political dexterity to surpass, hopes of smooth sail are still very grim, to say the least.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another very alarming signal that democratic forces would be pushed to further relegation is: the influential members among ruling elites are blatantly engaged in the acts which are morally indefensible. The Nepali Congress Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel&#39;s avarice to appoint his near and dear ones to lucrative public positions, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Saran Mahat&#39;s machinations to transfer a highly controversial civil servant into his ministry and above all K P Oli&#39;s design of giving ministerial berth to his henchmen defeated in recent elections give ground for both Left and Right forces to disregard the &#39;high talks&#39; of democratic forces. There are several other such decisions that only undermine the transparency and accountability parameters, which are cornerstones of democracy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As such, the CA has been rendered completely ineffective. There are public speeches made repeatedly, challenging to dishonour the arithmetic of CA; a crucial phenomenon as consensus is always elusive as is the case now. The political polarization has intensified. The political undercurrents are such that given the provision that the constitution needs to be ratified by two-thirds majority in the House, there could be some defectors from the ruling alliance who may dig holes in the ship.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No doubt, Dahal is ruining his political prospects due to his own activities outside of CA and repeated flimsy announcements like &#39;initiating another revolution&#39;, &#39;forming the government from outside of parliament&#39;, &#39;writing new constitution from the street,&#39; etc. Worse, his irresponsible politics has provided much needed springboard to fringe parties, with some abstract agenda of identity and regionalism-based politics that were badly defeated in the last CA elections. They are particularly enthused by Dahal&#39;s patronship to these agenda.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Anything said and done, Nepal seems to be heading towards another constitutional crisis. The stage is being gradually set for that. There is not even a marginal possibility of promulgating a new constitution by 22nd of January, the deadline set by the political parties themselves. The ongoing unrest in the eastern part of country is perhaps deeper than it is generally perceived. Whatever federal structure one may propose, at least without any factual basis but by bare political imposition, is sure to be rejected by one section or another. Managing these discontents stemming in many forms and guises are likely to push the country to new phase of unrest and violence.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As of writing these lines, the drama of signature campaign &#39;to moot the proposal of ruling coalition&#39; into the Constitutional Dialogue Committee headed by Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai suggests that the era of politics of consensus has been over. Democracy essentially is less about consensus but more about the rules of the game. But, here, rule breaking has been the first norm of politics. And, the politics of consensus generally endows better payoffs to weaker than the stronger. That is why Dahal and his 22-party opposition brigade is &#39;dying&#39; for this ever elusive consensus in the constitution making process. But, on the other end, Nepal now is not in a situation where it can afford to relegate potentially destructive forces from the mainstream political process. The journey from completion of drafting to promulgating the new constitution, even if takes place at all in near future, is going to be treacherous. The thought over another crucial phase of actual federalization of the state is yet to begin. Setting up new bureaucracies, reallocation of resources and dividing powers and authorities amongst the different layers of administration are the task that are going to be far more difficult than writing &nbsp;one set of generic document called &lsquo;constitution&rsquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Before any tall talk on any big issue, we have but no choice to begin from the basics -- putting the derailed democracy back on track. The point of departure for one and all is; to unconditionally express faith on the rule-based game of democracy, respect for the people&#39;s mandate and in essence adopt a forward looking approach, not in a sense as touted by communists but as per the best and time tested democratic practices adhered to by the world for several centuries now.</div>
<div>
	The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</div>',
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			'description' => 'Throughout Nepal's seven decade long modern political history, the biggest problem to institutionalize democracy has been sheer absence of democratic essence among the political actors - political parties and politicians, both.  It has been true for all twists and turns in the history. Experience has it, those countries that could stabilize the democratic polity in relatively short period of political transition, say in two or three decades, enjoyed two common features. One, there was only two way fight between the democratic and autocratic forces, or colonizers and freedom fighters. Once the democrats outweighed the autocrats, the system got functionally stabilized. Second, at least for the initial transition, some charismatic and learned leader spearheaded those processes into an irrevocably functionalized and largely institutionalized form of democracy, before it could derail and eventually degenerate to anarchy or mayhem.',
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			'id' => '2798',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Games To Delay The Constitution',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Akhilesh Tripathi</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As it happened to be, the much-awaited all-party political conference or round table conference &ndash; to use a more popular phrase- which was supposed to see a dialogue take place among the three major parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and the parties outside it, on the contentious issues of constitution drafting, fell flat. The reason was, as we all know, the 33-party alliance led by Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist which is not represented in the CA and which had been demanding such a conference for a long time rejected to participate in the conference in the eleventh hour. The leaders of the CPN-Maoist and the 33-party alliance outside the CA never turned up for the conference. The CPN-Maoist communicated its decision not to attend the conference when Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and other political leaders had taken their seats at the planned venue inside the CA building. Thus, the politicians&rsquo; latest effort to seek consensus on contentious constitutional issues went in vain. But thankfully, as the conference failed to take off, it became clear that the Maoists had thrown the conference card only to delay the new constitution by affecting the CA calendar.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some people might think that this was bad for the country and the constitution drafting process as an opportunity to forge consensus on thorny issues of constitution drafting inside as well as outside the CA was missed. But in fact, this was good for the country and the constitution drafting process as the real intent of the CPN-Maoist and other dissenting parties outside the CA was exposed without losing any further time. Their real intent was to delay the constitution drafting process by the CA under one or another pretext. In fact, Baidya and company have, time and again, publicly expressed their disenchantment with the constitution drafting process by the CA. After all, they boycotted the second CA elections terming it &ldquo;a meaningless exercise&rdquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One political game to affect the CA&rsquo;s calendar and delay the constitution drafting process was exposed in the form of the failed all-party political conference. But other such games continue - some within the CA itself - in the name of seeking consensus on the key issues including form of governance and restructuring of the state, election system and judiciary. One serious blame is leveled against the very Constitutional-Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC) of the CA that was formed to hold discussions on the thorny issues of constitution drafting and build consensus on them. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The blame is that the CPDCC has been trying to delay the constitution drafting process to find the mirage called consensus. The CPDCC led by UCPN (Maoist) leader and former PM Dr Baburam Bhattarai has already missed a deadline of September 6 to forge consensus on the prickly issues of constitution drafting. Then it was given another deadline of September 30 to build such consensus. As things stand now, the CPDCC will not be able to forge consensus on the contentious issues within this deadline as well. Now voices are emerging that it should be given another chance to forge such a consensus which has proved elusive so far. One such voice has been floated by the UCPN (Maoist) which thinks the CPDCC should get one more month, even if that means the amendment of the CA calendar, to forge consensus.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That should not be done. All lawmakers who had registered to speak on the contentious issues have spoken their mind at the deliberations organized by the CPDCC and consensus still looks a very far cry. So, extending the CPDCC &lsquo;s deadline would be just a waste of time and resources.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the other hand, it&rsquo;s been quite some time since the three major parties in CA II &ndash; the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) are trying to form a High Level Political Mechanism (HLPM) in the name of facilitating the constitution drafting process. It is said that UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda is eying the post of coordinator of this proposed mechanism. To put the truth bluntly, there is no need for such a mechanism. It is also a game to delay the constitution drafting process by weakening the sovereign CA&rsquo;s role in that process. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The word consensus sounds very sweet to the ear. Everybody&rsquo;s consent on the key crucial issues of the constitution would be an ideal situation. No one would disagree that it is best to settle the contentious issues through consensus. But what if it is not possible? Can the country be kept a hostage for an indefinite period if consensus on contentious issues continues to elude us? &nbsp;Politicians have already squandered seven years in the process of statute drafting, mainly because they tried to forge consensus on the so-called thorny issues. In fact, trying to forge consensus on the contentious issues was the main reason why the first CA was dissolved without delivering the new constitution.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal tried to forge consensus among all political parties on the contentious issues of constitution drafting during the first CA. Series after series of negotiations were held. Marathon meetings were held. But it simply did not work. The country reached nowhere perhaps because we tried to please all forces in the name of finding consensus. This should be why the major parties agreed, even before the second CA elections were held, to follow due process if they failed to reach consensus on contentious issues in CA II. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That due process means deciding the contentious issues of constitution drafting through voting in the CA, which is the sovereign body to decide such matters. Or, alternatively &ndash; if a more democratic measure is to be adopted &ndash; we can hold a referendum to decide these issues. Here, the politicians can take some lessons from the recent Scotland voting where the Scots decided their fate through a referendum. It is still possible to hold such a referendum on the contentious issues as there still remains more than three months to promulgate the new constitution. But the decision has to be taken swiftly, if the country is to go the referendum way.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, the bottom line is no more precious time should be wasted in the name of forging a consensus.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-10-10',
			'modified' => '2014-12-23',
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			'description' => 'As it happened to be, the much-awaited all-party political conference or round table conference – to use a more popular phrase- which was supposed to see a dialogue take place among the three major parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and the parties outside it, on the contentious issues of constitution drafting, fell flat. The reason was, as we all know, the 33-party alliance led by Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist which is not represented in the CA and which had been demanding such a conference for a long time rejected to participate in the conference in the eleventh hour.',
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			'id' => '2792',
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			'title' => 'UML's Transformation : Leninism To Panelism',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) passed yet another acid test to vindicate its democratic credentials by electing the entire 159-member Central Committee (CC), including the new chairman through ballots, in the ninth general convention (GC) held in Kathmandu, July 3-10, 2014. In a closely contested bid to chairmanship, KP Sharma Oli defeated Party&#39;s former, two-time, general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal by a narrow margin of forty-four out of two thousand and two hundred votes of the GC delegates.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Democratic Domain&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	There is no dearth of cynics who claim that bitter factionalism that surfaced during the contest for chairmanship would further divide the party that is already mired by groupism. But what must be appreciated here is: UML is the only political party of the country that has developed best internal democratic practices. Unlike many communist outfits who choose to break-away as the separate entity once some differences crop-up within the group, the UML has exhibited tremendous level of resilience to save it from fragmentation; thanks to the democratic space it created to vent the differing views and ideologies. For this reason it has withstood the test of time as the mainstream left force amongst some three dozen odd communist &#39;parties&#39;. It must not also be forgotten that it is a communist party that has painstakingly and by now convincingly transformed itself to a credible democratic alternative of the country. More importantly, it has set a practical contemporaneous formula for democratic transformation of any communist force that is originally indoctrinated to rise to power of &#39;people&#39;s republic&#39; by using the &#39;bullets and barrels&#39;to a force that readies itself to multi-party competition through ballots. No doubt, for this party, metamorphosis of greater magnitude is still inevitable to shake-off many dogmas and nostalgia of Soviet era. But, whatever it has achieved and maintained itself is in no way instantly dismissive. The ninth GC too has proved to be a new milestone as it elected mainly new set of younger leaders in CC, who have firmer belief in democracy than the older generation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that the Party&#39;s polity has now shifted from &#39;Proletarianism&#39; or &#39;Leninism&#39; to Panelism, which from a democratic perspective is a welcome dimension of change. The political sportsmanship and democratic spirit was clearly demonstrated by the leaders at the official closing ceremony of the GC on July 17. Both the victor and vanquished, Oli and Nepal respectively, along with other elected central body members vowed to work for the party unity, terming the vertical division during the CC election mere &#39;democratic exercise&#39;. Not only both the factions won equal number of members as the office-bearers, the representatives seem to have guided to votemore by the quality of the candidate than the factional affiliation, electing a completely mixed panel. Any &#39;bright&#39; person from both panels got place in the new CC.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Road Ahead</strong></div>
<div>
	If the mood of the Declaration made at the UML headquarters on 17th of July, is any indication, the party would soon enter into an era of a joint-leadership of many influential leaders. The chairman-elect Oli in very clear terms, with tears in his swollen eyes, declared that he did not have many days to live, and extended his arms for unity. It was momentarily a piece of emotional melodrama, unique to political cruelty. He couldn&#39;t even complete his short written speech. It is his eighth year running since his kidney transplant and, of late, the infection has now spread to his whole body, with septic deep wounds and swellings. There was a whirling question in the minds of the entire rank and file, why did he at the first place choose to run for chairmanship despite such precarious health condition? There is a strong school of thought which believes, there were mischievous minds like that of Bamdev Gautam who harboured dream of running the party as officiating chief as Oli is already a dilapidated figure. But, this possibility is clearly thwarted by the &#39;ideologues&#39; belonging mainly to Nepal faction, who changed the party statute such that now there are five second men (vice-chairmen) in the hierarchy after the chairman. This is the very statute the GC ratified, albeit with some resistance. And, incidentally, Gautam ranked second among these five in terms of popular vote, behind Bhim Rawal, a Nepal loyalist. In any event of Oli&#39;s absence, there would be moral pressure (as there is no clear statutory provision) to handover charges to Rawal, not Gautam, or Bidya Bhandari, another vice-chair elect and the most trusted aid of Oli.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What the UML&#39;s change in leadership means for the nation, is another issue widely debated in the political circles after Oli&rsquo;s victory. Again, effectively it depends on the health of Oli. Should his health permit, he naturally dreams of becoming the next prime minister of the country. &nbsp;If the things move according to agreement between the Nepali Congress and UML to promulgate a new constitution by the end of January 2015, under the turn-key clause of the agreement, the premiership would automatically come to the UML candidate, as things stand now, to Oli as the Party&#39;s parliamentary party leader. There are newly emerged political equations within that party such that no single person, except the chairman given his current level of comfortable majority in CC, is likely to hold the sway in any decisions. The ambitions like that of Gautam are dampened as such, once the power gets transferred to lower ranks from the chairman.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Policy Paradigm</strong></div>
<div>
	During the run-up to the ninth convention, there was a sort of euphoria created by a &#39;club&#39; of party&#39;s young &#39;thinkers&#39; that Party&#39;s socio-politico-economic policy paradigm would be redefined and formalized through the GC. But, the entire GC was so much consumed by the fight for the posts that it hardly could undertake much deserved discussions with due seriousness on any policy document. At the end, when it came-out with the thirty-three point Declaration on July 17, many of the same old communist verbose again found the place in it. &#39;Awarding land-ownership rights to tillers&#39;, &#39;protecting trade union rights&#39;, &#39;deploring of infringements on human rights&#39; in some weird part of the world etc. were repeated, rather artlessly. Some of the hasty conclusions like the &#39;global economic crisis like that of 2008 justifies the rationale of socialism&#39; were also incorporated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Interestingly though, this Declaration has very carefully avoided over use of redundant communist jargons and jingoisms. Not only it doesn&#39;t carry terms like &#39;Indian expansionism&#39;, &#39;American imperialism&#39;, it also cautiously reduces the frequency of the words like &#39;revolution&#39;, &#39;struggle&#39; or &#39;class struggle&#39; that are invariably and clumsily thrusted into policy papers of almost all communist formations. The ninth GC Declaration instead proposes interesting separate economic prescriptions for their cadres and the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&#39;This GC urges all the local committees of the party, affiliated sister organizations and all members of the party to devise concrete plans for their respective locality to augment economic development, productivity and employment and involve in the production functions so as to establish themselves as the leading-lights of the economicprosperity,&#39; says the point number 23 of the Declaration. The Declaration has also &#39;appreciated&#39; the &#39;improving&#39; relations between India and China and has wished to make Nepal beneficiary to the impressive economic growth of both the neighbours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Opportunities and Challenges</strong></div>
<div>
	Perhaps the biggest opportunity for the CPN-UML is the growing compulsion for all other communist forces to follow its &#39;janatako bhudaliya janbad&#39; or multiparty democracy route, should they opt to remain relevant in modern day pluralistic politics. It is becoming increasingly difficult for parties with Maoist tags not to follow the exact process the UML did for the last two and half decades. If the party wereto equip itself to harness this opportunity, it could provide a major fillip to its organizational strength. Certainly, its increasing global recognition as trustworthy democratic force is another very powerful factor that helps to retain it as a major player in Nepali politics. Its gradual policy shift from Left to the Centre is crucial to ensure the outfit&#39;s long lasting relevance.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are challenges too, mostly emanated from three sources - policy confusions, organizational efficiency and &#39;class&#39; shifts. The ninth GC also could not change its name by dropping the &#39;Marxist-Leninist&#39; tag and the term &#39;Communist&#39; from its official name, despite the fact that there is a widespread realization of this need within the Party. The psychological divide in the mandarins is debilitating -- they often times love to retain communist identity and yet want to change this &#39;as soon as possible&#39; for public interface. &nbsp;The Party has failed to bring into effect a much-needed departure from three the decade-old nostalgia of &#39;classless society&#39;. &nbsp;Instead the Party itself has become the &#39;class&#39; of riches with &#39;too many, too big&#39; leaders. The only reason the Party substantially increased the number of office bearers from six to fourteen was to accommodate these &#39;big&#39; names with suitably high-sounding positions. Generally, those who have been prime ministers, deputy prime ministers and ministers in the past have sought those &#39;elitist&#39; titles. This is resulting into overlaps and duplications on responsibilities and duties, and ego clashes at every decision points. The cumulative effect of all these is sure to have telling effect in organizational efficiency and cadre-leader relations, not in so distant future.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Effectively, the UML has graduated from the party of &#39;proletariats&#39; to &#39;new riches&#39;, not only in terms of policy-base but as the class representation. &nbsp;To borrow a phrase from the communist literature itself, &#39;the class division&#39; within the party has been strikingly vivid in recent years. In many cases, its leaders have protected criminals just to extract money in return. There is not any binding ideology available in any political literature that can accommodate all these extremes. The task of managing all these paradoxes, the sooner the better, comes on the shoulder of the new leadership. But, unfortunately, the shoulders of the commander are now sick, severely.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) passed yet another acid test to vindicate its democratic credentials by electing the entire 159-member Central Committee (CC), including the new chairman through ballots, in the ninth general convention (GC) held in Kathmandu, July 3-10, 2014. In a closely contested bid to chairmanship, KP Sharma Oli defeated Party's former, two-time, general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal by a narrow margin of forty-four out of two thousand and two hundred votes of the GC delegates.',
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			'id' => '2787',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'UML’s Throb To Democratize',
			'sub_title' => '',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) exhaustively braces up for its ninth general convention, July 3-9 that is perhaps likely to see the fiercest battle ever to take the reins of this four decade-old outfit. The good news is, unlike in any archetypical communist organization, the chairman and other major office bearers will be chosen democratically through the ballots of the party cadres.The Party over the last two and half decades, since the successful reinstatement of democracy in 1990, has established itself not only as a quintessential political force of the country but also a relatively credible democratic alternative with left-to-the-centreideologies. It is now the second largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), which is also the legislature parliament, and the major coalition partner in the Nepali Congress-led government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This transformation from an out-and-out communist to largely a democratic force has definitely not been a cakewalk and yet far from complete. Thanks to late General Secretary of the Party, Madan Bhandari who coined a transitional lexicon &#39;janatako bahudaliya janabad (JBJ)&#39; or people&#39;s multi-party democracy that facilitated it to become a reckoning force in multi-party polity. In essence, except one seemingly unequivocal commitment to remain in the &#39;politics of ballots&#39;; forsaking the dogma of the &#39;power from the bullets&#39;, the task of redefining other philosophical foundations of the Party is still pending and currently undergoing a rigorous discourse. This is what going to be one of the characteristic features of the upcoming Convention as well. The pain experienced in the process of refurbishment of a force that carried over the legacy of Jhapa andolan of early 1970s, a naive killing spree of landlords to eliminate the class enemy andwith its cadres indoctrinated to &#39;establish a proletariat dictatorship&#39; or &#39;new people&#39;s democratic republic&#39; ostensibly through violent over throw of &#39;old regimes&#39; to a disciplined political party believing in a peaceful process of change is not unnatural. But, the most worrying factor is: it is taking too long a time to accept the changing realities of the world and declare that the party no longer remains &#39;a communist&#39; one. And, the debate also has been too fluid to shape a convincing new &#39;doctrine&#39; with a double edged sword which preserves the face of the communist party and, at the same time, adapts itself as a credible democratic force.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	To borrow the word from communist lingo, the &#39;class struggle&#39; within the party is at its height, but it is not two directional - between the exploiting and exploited classes as explained by Marx. It is in fact innumerably multi-directional and cover everything by a single &#39;blanket principle&#39; is requiring it to be too large to manage. There is still a fine dividing line between the factions that accept the JBJ as defined by Bhandari as a complete principle and that takes it only as one of the &#39;many&#39; components of philosophical evolution of the Party. KP Oli and Madhav Nepal, who are the two contenders for the post of chairman in the ninth convention, now represent these two factions respectively There is yet another traditional school that is not vocal but still considers JBJ hastened the aberration of the Party from a true communist force to operatives of &lsquo;comprador bourgeoisie. &#39;The current Party Chairman Jhalanath Khanal lost party leadership to Madan Bhandari in the fifth convention in 1993, as he campaigned in this potential aberration plank. By now, Khanal seems to be compelled to change as there is no escape from the vote politics, but the reservation to accept the JBJ as &#39;only&#39; guiding principle of the party still appears to be a bitter pill for him to swallow.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There is also a tangible difference in opinion between the so called &lsquo;old school&rsquo; and the &lsquo;new school&rsquo;. The old school represented by the hawks of pre-panchayat underground era are persistent not to give-up the communist tag. The septuagenarian leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari categorically said, &lsquo;There is no need to change the party name to something that doesn&rsquo;t carry the word communist and the universal communist standard, hammer-and-sickle flag, should be retained.&rsquo; The new school, which calls itself a pragmatic left is keen to change the both, just limiting it to convey a &lsquo;socialistic&rsquo; meaning - far more softline approach than being a communist. The confusion has run long. So long that immediately after the UML formed a minority government in 1994, the Party dramatically removed the portraits of Marx and Lenin from the Party HQ meeting hall when the then US ambassador to Nepal visited UML headquarters. The act though was subject to acute mockery then but had a symbolic personification of confusion. First, it signified, the Party leadership had realized the redundancy of these figures but was unable to get rid of their hangovers. Second, from the inner self, it wanted to convey that the party doesn&rsquo;t want to be identified and viewed as the communist in classic sense of the term. And, the third, it wanted to interact with the world as liberal democratic or a social democratic force.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, over all these years, party has hardly been able to embark on this wishful direction it had then contemplated. All these confusions still persistently gnaw the party and all the policy debates still revolve around the same confusion &ndash; whether or not to remain a communist and how to keep-up with the pace of openness the world is now moving with. It is for this reason, different &lsquo;think tanks&rsquo; within the party are working to give a functional shape to their ideological basis such that it fits to modern-day political parlance.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of such recent exercises of the party has concluded that Nepali society has essentially become a capitalist one leaving behind the traditional agro related feudal production and productivity relations. This in fact is the theoretical basis to do away with the politics of proletarian supremacy and misery due to mass exploitation. However, the entire &lsquo;philosophical&rsquo; discourse suffers from a mindset that party cannot function without such &lsquo;grand narrative&rsquo;. The party very tactfully removed the anti-Indian and anti American diatribes as soon as it rode to power saddle in 1994, forming the first communist government in the world after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, that too through elections.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At present, the issues of the centre-stage debate include the massive criminalization of the party politics by protecting and promoting goons and underworld operators, colloquially known as dons&ndash;the word borrowed from taekwondo. This began with when Bamdev Gautam was made Home Minister in 1997 under Rastryia Prajatantra Party-led coalition government. He allegedly opened all smuggling channels and protected them using the security establishment. KP Oli did the same when he was Home Minister and now many noted dons are in party rank and file. Madhav Nepal faction has devised its campaign strategy focusing on the theme of &lsquo;cleaning the party from goons.&rsquo; But the weight in the balance gradually appears to be tilting to the kings of the goons. Therefore, it will not be a surprise if Oli wins the race.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Perhaps the greatest potential for the party to benefit arises from the fact that UCPN-Maoist is now forced to follow the same path the UML has traversed since its fifth convention. This can give a righteous sense of direction to the UML in making timely policy choices as a communist force that wants to survive in the competitive pluralistic politics. Theoretically speaking, UML should have been able to take great advantage given the vindication &nbsp;of timeliness JBJ. But, internal wrangling and factionalism has marred all its potentials of organizational growth.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the ninth convention inches closer, the campaign becomes nasty. The official manifestos of both Oli and Nepal do not differ much, which is an indication that there is not much differences in principles and policies. But when it comes to practical politics, the competition on mudslinging has crossed all possible decencies. Oli commands very strong organizational support and as an additional advantage Deputy Prime Minister BamdevGautam is in his favour. Oli&rsquo;s illness is debated in both the camps. Oli has tried to bank on his illness requesting to vote him for the last chance and Nepal faction has asked him to take &lsquo;rest&rsquo; on health grounds.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It would not be a practical assumption to expect UML to reincarnate by changing its name and revamping all of its communist ideologies . But the throb of need for this change is intensely realized, in more than one spheres &ndash; in ideology, organizational orientation, external relations and internal democracy. This certainly gives better hope for overall consolidation of country&rsquo;s democracy, sometime in near future.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) exhaustively braces up for its ninth general convention, July 3-9 that is perhaps likely to see the fiercest battle ever to take the reins of this four decade-old outfit. The good news is, unlike in any archetypical communist organization, the chairman and other major office bearers will be chosen democratically through the ballots of the party cadres.',
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			'title' => 'Political Process: Tardy, Taxing And Tattered',
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The leaders of all major political parties, including the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala are artlessly repeating the same statement: &#39;We will complete the drafting of the new constitution within a year&#39;; as if it is just the next day of the second Constituent Assembly (CA II) elections. They do not seem to realize a bare fact that exactly a good half of the year since these elections in the November last has elapsed without scoring any success in any front -- governance, diplomacy, legislation or constitution writing. The worst of all, lately things are hopelessly falling apart so as to making both the government and the CA once again hostage to essentially unnecessary bickering at the highest political level. Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Every possible executive decision is postponed without any tangible reason. In six months, the cabinet couldn&#39;t pick up twenty-six names to be appointed as CA members from among putatively the national &#39;elite&#39; personalities. The process of appointing of more than one and half dozen of ambassadors in important missions including New Delhi and Washington DC couldn&#39;t even begin. In absence of timely decision of Constitutional Council headed by the prime minister himself, the Supreme Court is left with mere five judges out of almost normally functional twenty positions. Ironically, the appointments in the prime minister&#39;s secretariat and National Planning Commission were not made in time. Almost all constitutional bodies too remain vacant. The advertisements published to fill in those constitutional positions like the commissioners in the Public Service Commission, National Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, by a sort of free competition is not attracting any dignified figures. They are most likely to be filled by typically clerical minded ex-bureaucrats rendering these crucial institutions, once again, retrograde.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government is backtracking from the vowed commitments like holding local elections by this month (May). The parliamentary party leader of the major coalition partner CPN-UML, K P Oli from the hospital bed in New Delhi in mid-April declared that the local body elections will be held only after &#39;promulgating the new constitution&#39;. Apparently, his statement didn&#39;t come in consultation with the prime minister who still reiterates, though not convincingly, to hold these elections, may be by June end. The reasons cited not to hold the polls are clearly unpalatable. &#39;There is not enough time now to hold them before monsoon,&#39; said Oli. But nothing had stopped the government announcing it right after taking the oath of office. Clearly, there was no political will to take-up this issue in the right earnest. The second argument, which is abetted by the UCPN (Maoist) too, is that the concentration in the local elections would take the focus off the constitution writing process. It sounds as if the CA proceedings are now going at the right direction as per the popular expectation. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which, thus for all practical purposes smells rat in very faith of democracy of these leaders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	And, more importantly, it will not be as easy to hold local elections immediately after completing the draft of the constitution as claimed by the UML and UCPN Maoists. The reasons to it are obvious. First, it is highly unlikely that the constitution drafting process will be completed anytime soon. Even some form of draft is agreed upon, say in a year from now, the most likely scenario is that it cannot be promulgated without going into more costly exercises like referendum. Therefore, postponing local elections now means that they are postponed again for an unforeseeable future, which indeed is highly unfortunate. The common people now need the local democratic institutions in place far more than the constitution, which indeed is the largely esoteric proposition for them compared to the elected local government next door. Once again the democracy has been ditched.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public speeches of the Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam from UML sound as if his party is not a junior partner but a majority government that has &#39;mercifully&#39; appended the Nepali Congress to be its partner. In all these orchestra of fools, the Prime Minister Koirala remains as faceless as ever. When the country desperately awaits his bold and speedy decisions in more than one front, he seems to have chosen to cover his absolute non-performance by cheap publicity stunts of forsaking some allowances and perks and avoiding five-star hotel accommodations. Such tantrums cannot be substitute to the aspired effective delivery of goods from the chief executive of the nation. If Koirala had real intentions of giving a clean and effective government to the nation and upholding the democratic practice, he should have guts to tell his coalition partners not to nominate ministers that were not the elected members of parliament and those who are the kiths and kins of the influential leaders of the fringe parties.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both the CA and legislature parliament have been rendered equally non-functional. In over four months, CA has failed to elect the subject committee conveners that are supposed to be key to formulate and moot respective constitutional provisions for discussion in the House. The chair of the crucial constitutional committee in CA remains vacant as of these lines were written. The CA virtually has not been given any business. Attendance in the scheduled meetings is so low that many of scheduled House sessions are often cancelled for lack of presence of minimum required number of members known as &#39;quota&#39;. Even the orientation of the (new) CA members about their roles, responsibilities and duties was not thought necessary.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The legislature parliament too is equally ineffective. Not only it has fallen short to ponder over the bottlenecks that the country is faced with in absence of laws in many spheres, it has also failed to pass a number of important bills that are gathering dust in wait of votes for years. The new bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has further estranged the Maoists from supposedly collaborative political process. The former jungle warfare Maoist guerrillas who are in favour of nothing less than blanket amnesty to them in the guise of &#39;wartime issues&#39; are highly apprehensive of legal action on many of them if the bill is allowed to pass as proposed by the joint committee of political parties. If the bill is made law as in the spirit spelt out by UML leader Oli, the Maoists&#39; rank and file may crumble like house of cards in legal battle on crime against humanity. &#39;Except for the deaths at the frontline, those involved in killings by dragging out persons from their beds at the midnight, killing them by plucking out the eyes, amputating the body parts and hanging or burying them alive cannot be put off the legal purview&#39;, he thundered a few weeks ago. He sounds fairly reasonable. But will that bring about solution to the political stalemate? Or, will this bill actually become an Act and implemented accordingly? These however are more pressing questions altogether.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Maoists have already begun their non-cooperation by boycotting even entirely unrelated political processes in protest of the current form of the TRC bill. It may be recalled that such a commission was part of the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006, thus a crucial part of the peace process. The formation of it was deliberately avoided during the past CA tenure of four years when the country saw two Maoist prime ministers in the period.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The another bone of contention has become the so called High Level Political Committee (HLPC) that was in existence during the last CA, and was considered largely responsible for derailing the due CA process; making it hostage to ever-elusive political consensus. Interestingly, the three major parties -the Congress, UML and Maoists did appeared to have agreed about a couple of months ago to revive it. But, when the UCPN (Maoist) supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal insisted on being the convener of it, other parties took it as his ambition to be a &#39;super&#39; prime minister and wanted to thwart the process. The constitutionality of this mechanism has always been under the interrogation mark and its actions in the past surely undermined the elected House.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All forms of slackness, inactions, procrastinations, machinations and squabbles have been highly taxing for the country. The perils are pronounced. The economy is in absolute tatters. New investment is not even trickling in. Governance and public service delivery have collapsed. People are exasperated for unnecessarily prolonged political transition. The hope of at least relative consolidation of democratic institutors after the Congress and UML jointly got majority in the House is now waning rapidly. The constitution writing process is still precariously fragile. Only solution to all these ailments is to act and act fast. The lead should unquestionably be taken by the ruling alliance and the prime minister in particular.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.',
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			'title' => 'Mirage Of A New Force',
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			'content' => '<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On May 15th, 2014, the senior deputy prime minister and, at that point in time, acting president of the ruling major coalition CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam, was happily dancing on a folk tune at a public function. On the same day, Nepal Human Development Report was released in another public function in a five-star hotel that ranked Nepal the lowest in the Human Development Index (HDI) even among the South Asian countries; let alone the global rank. The next day, the so called mainstream media placed Gautam&#39;s news on the front page with picture as if it were a major national happening while the HDI news was pushed asa routine filler to 9th or 17th page as if it were amere ritual.This is Nepal&#39;s eco-political reality personified, reflecting the degree of (in) sensitivity of both politics and media to the development and prosperity related issues of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What is it that makes politicians like Gautam so happy while country is at absolute political mess and economic stagnation, if not recession, for decades? It is unambiguously sheer apathy and ignorance of gravity of the situation that is coupled with vested interests and remnants of feudal psyche of a ruler. The current set of Nepal&#39;s all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s. Their last philosophical reorientation had taken place perhaps in the 1990, for the movement to reinstate the multi-party democracy by toppling the panchayat oligarchy. This 60-above generation has been left far behind in updating the knowledge required to run a country. They have been untouched by mesmerizing revolution mainly in information and communication technology, transportation and emerging new world order in power politics. For this reason, these leaders have failed to understand the aspirations of time and the generation that represents here-and-now. They have not even learnt the art to dream for the better future of the country and her people.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All these realities together, the persistent poverty and backwardness and apparent vacuum in leadership that is still willing to strive for ameliorating them, warrants a new political force that hopefully possesses desirable qualities like right kind of motive, integrity, energy, vision and willingness to serve the nation. Until such a new force replaces the existing parochial order, things too are obvious not to change for the better.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The need for such a force was acutely realized when the first constituent assembly (CA) despite its four year-long tenure ended without delivering a draft for a new constitution. The incessant blame game among the parties for the failures and their uniform adamancy to transform themselves with time multiplied the public disenchantment on them. The need of displacing these parties was more intensely felt after the current incumbent government formed even after the second CA elections appears completely dysfunctional and, mostly averse to the democratic norms in whatever little move sit is making. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala&#39;s unwanted &#39;lobbying&#39; to save the Judicial Council&#39;s controversial nominations to Supreme Court Judges is one of glaring examples of such aberrations. On fulfilling his own responsibility he has miserably failed, not even able to nominate 26 CA members through a cabinet decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Nepal&#39;s political history has witnessed literally hundreds of incidents of leaders or would-be leaders trying to form &#39;new&#39; political force at different junctures of time. But all of them in due course proved to be either protest outcomes to the mother partyby a dissenter or a newer interest group serving to a small circle of its constituents. Dozens of breakaways of communist parties and recent similar divisions in Terai-based parties may be everything as they claim but surely not the political parties of the quality that the country is desperately looking for, for long time now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, the UCPN Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai took the debate on the topic to newer heights by proposing a &#39;need of a new political force to address the new challenges the new Nepal faces.&#39; This initially appeared to be a statement aimed to fill the overarching gap of the national political vacuum by establishing a new, forward-looking, dynamic and democratic outfit. It created ripples too, at least among the left ideologues. But eventually, after much ado, Baburam&#39;s proposition of new force, at least for now,turned out to be nothing more than a trump-card to bargain barely some more space within the party from his party chief Puspa Kamal Dahal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The current series of debate also revealed a philosophical dichotomy in articulation of needs of such a new force. The more aggressive advocacy, or to some extent endeavours to form such a force from the communist ideologues, borne out of worries to contextualize their own existence in multi-party competitive politics that is inevitably going to be the political mainstay for the future. This sphere of debate therefore has focused more on rewriting archaic communist dogmas and replacing arcane vocabularies like &#39;power only from the barrel of the gun,&#39; &lsquo;dictatorship of the proletariat,&#39; &#39;class elimination&#39; etc. with more contemporaneous political jargons. Clearly, for those indoctrinated under Marx, Lenin or Mao-developed literatures, this simple departure has been difficult and piecemeal, yet inadequate to democratize themselves even at par of existing, relatively democratic forces like Nepali Congress. Therefore, birth of a true new force that is capable of addressing nation&#39;s overall governance and deemed prosperity considerations, through this slanted process is absolutely unlikely. However, if this process at least could transform some of communist outfits to reasonable democratic forces that too would be a desirable outcome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another sphere of the debate is, rather should have been, to explore the possibility of creating such a force that has some blueprint to address Nepal&#39;s multi-faceted problems which have rendered the country to a virtual brink of becoming a failed-state. Crisis of governance, deficit of democracy, bleeding economy and pervasive hopelessness of the common masses are some of the immediate concerns which, if not addressed soon, may in fact degrade the country to anarchy, unmanageable even in the long run. But, the current expanse and depth of the debate do not seem enough to give rise to such an all-encompassing political force. Surely, some of rational thinkers from academia and media tried to take the current discourse beyond the cocoons of the communist jargonism, but the triggerers of it from the Left band seemed unwilling to step out of Marxist philosophical umbrella.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Coming back to Bhattarai again, he appears to be less-than-ready to completely forsakethe UCPN Maoist at present. Understandably, it is difficult to desert political Alma Mater. But, at times it is more difficult to mould it to fit to the contemporary need, which justifies conception of the new force. Despite hiccups, Bhattarai has been reiterating the need of such a force. &#39;It may take a few years for such a force to take a shape&#39;, he said in an interaction in the third week of May. His recent China visit was also reported to be to gauge the pulse of Beijing on his plan, without jeopardizing his &#39;warm&#39; relations with New Delhi. For this reason, he dubbed his visit as &#39;pilgrimage to Mansarovar&#39; and chose to set the travel camp not in Beijing but Lhasa, the capital of Tibet autonomous region of China. But, the Chinese authorities left no stone unturned to accord his visit an official status fitting to a former prime minister of a neighbouring country. A number of high officials made a point to travel from Beijing for political discussions with him.With change in guards in New Delhi, he probably has to strike a different chord to attract attention from India&#39;s ruling rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If Modi could prevail over India&#39;s bureaucracy, he would perhaps like to see Nepal still a Hindu state, in contrary to Bhattarai&#39;s brandishing of Nepal as a secular state. This may need further fine-tuning of his new plans.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Why should only Bhattarai be at the centre of discussion for this new political force under consideration&rsquo; is a valid question. The common masses still consider him perhaps the most talented persona currently active in Nepali politics. While in government, particularly when he was the finance minister, he came out untainted in shady financial dealings. And, he is the one who is now unambiguously advocating of the need to transform the communist forces to democratic ones, which indeed is crucial component for the democratic future of Nepal. But, Bhattarai doesn&#39;t fully seem to realizehis strengths and perhaps lacks confidence to renounce the ideology that he has so far kept so close to his chest. But, still he could be the best choice to lead such a force if he dares to drop the old cloak and readies himself to lead a new Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Again, regardless of whether Bhattarai can exhibit enough courage to spear head a new force or not, the relevance and importance of it has been realized more intensely than ever before. The rampant criminalization of politics by the existing parties, their out of date &nbsp;- out of place leadership, sheer apathy to the needs and priorities of the country, widespread corruption on public resources and increasing culture of impunity, among many other malaises, are unlikely to be corrected by the existing forces. Or, just correction may not be enough. The culture of irresponsibility has become the norm in exercising, misusing to be precise, the state power.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a rational and functional political force to come into being, Nepal undoubtedly needed a more systematic discourse on the topic involving all ideologies and all possible identities. For last seven decades, Nepal as a nation has chased the dream of such a nationalist democratic force, but it still remains a game of chasing a mirage. The current debate has reignited hope, but just hope is not enough. Therefore, we only have leaders dancing in a wrong tune at the wrong time.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The current set of Nepal's all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s.',
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			'title' => 'Undemocratic Overtures',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections. But there is still doubt on the possibility of these elections being held by end of June this year. It has been sixteen years since these elections were held last and the term of the office bearers expired some twelve years ago. In the absence of democratically elected local bodies, the public service delivery, grassroots public works and institution of democracy have faltered to the hilt. The consequences are apparent -- the capital expenditure for years has been far less than the allocated targets, the GDP growth has stagnated at yearly average of 3.5 percent for last eight years despite the fact that country has enjoyed relative political peace during this period, and the emergence of new generation of leadership in any possible political formation has been nipped in the bud.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even now, the dampener to the call to these crucial polls comes as a single voice of both factions of the Maoist parties that parted ways some three years ago, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Vaidya respectively. From the ideological prism, the opposition to the polls by the Maoists looks all natural. And, it was expected from the Vaidya group given the fact that it remained out of the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in last November. But, by contrast, the move appears rather anachronistic for Dahal and his party (UCPN Maoist) that has vowed to remain in competitive politics of ballots despite all odds. The political plunder the Party is now venturing into may well turn out to be a mammoth blunder not only for Dahal and Co. but for the entire country and the democratic process itself.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to decipher Dahal&#39;s calculations to oppose these polls. He is apprehensive of poor outcome for his party if it goes to polls without uniting the Vaidya faction. On top of it, not only Maoists, every party other than UML is fearful of the local polls conducted when Bamdev Gautam is at the helm of Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the opposition to these polls from Vaidya comes as entirely different reason: this group is determined to go against any proposition made by the parties in CA and under the present scheme of political arrangements. It is in fact Vaidya&#39;s chosen plank since it separated from the mother party UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But to hide real shortcomings, Dahal has adopted a new but unambiguously anti-democratic stance in the form of opposing these polls. &nbsp;His formal premise of this opposition is: the inevitable engagement of the government and political parties in the local elections would divert the focus away from the constitution writing. He has also trained his party rank and file to rant out that the poll competition among the parties would bitter the differences that could be reflected in constitution writing. &#39;It hardly causes any grave damage if we defer the polls by seven or eight months for these local bodies that have remained vacant for last sixteen years,&#39; Dahal has unequivocally said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apparently, Dahal&#39;s statement lacks creativity and craftsmanship. Every politician who wanted to procrastinate on the local elections through all these years has used the same platitude, pointing to some larger political urgency or priority to be addressed before these &#39;trivial&#39; polls. When the term of the local office-bearers expired, the Maoist insurgency had swept the country. The priority was &#39;saving democracy from terrorism&#39;. When the peace deal was sealed in 2006, agenda of saving the peace process overshadowed the local polls. Then, in 2008, the CA elections were natural priority. The Interim Constitution 2007 didn&#39;t even incorporate a provision for local elections, which is a real shame on our constitutionalism and so-called experts who drafted it. When the first CA came into existence, influencing experts had a take, &#39;since entire nation were to be federalised, the local elections would only be a nuisance in the larger process of restructuring the state.&#39; When the extended tenure of the first CA expired without writing the constitution, sense of national loss was so overwhelming; no leader had time to ponder over these &#39;unimportant&#39; local elections. Then came the second CA elections and existence. The change in political equations gave birth to NC-UML coalition in government that fortunately has begun at least the talk of these polls. But, unfortunately, efforts are already on to stall them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The crucial questions here are: Were all those cited reasons both necessary and sufficient conditions to procrastinate the local elections at different political turning points? Were these &#39;local&#39; elections so unimportant at the face of other &#39;national&#39; agenda? And, do they still deserve to be pushed further away in this or that pretext? Answer to all these questions is one big NO, but the background that leads to this simple NO is excruciatingly painful and treacherous.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first and perhaps the most powerful of all explanations is that the central leadership of any party strongly hated these elections. After 1992 local elections, the NC and UML saw that many articulate, learned young cadres elected as local leaders attracted national and international attention. They were the first to woo the public confidence as they had resources, public position and closest contact to the grassroots population. This created a very real threat of displacement to the national leadership if such a &#39;mass manufacturing&#39; of young breed of leaders were continued. A simple example to vindicate it could be enough to compute the proportion of members in current or past CAs that were elected in those local bodies during 1990s. The best way to allay this threat of &#39;big&#39; leaders was to stop this practice altogether wherever and whenever possible. The Maoist who came to mainstream through Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 2006, were no different from NC or UML in this regard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If that were not the case, there was not any convincing reason to not hold the local polls at least after the CPA. Had local bodies come into existence then, it could have been a great vehicle to bring the local political leadership of different parties at the same political platform. It could also have been the most effective mechanism to deliver the putative &#39;peace dividend&#39; to the people in general. These polls could have been conducted at the sidelines of both CA elections without much additional logistical and security costs. But, to repeat, leadership of no major party was honestly interested to hold these elections. Even the CA members were (still are) against it. Their naive complaint used to be &#39;DDC chairman, or a mayor, with all facilities and resources at his disposal is more powerful than a member of CA or legislature.&#39; These are real impediments&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	to these polls than any fabricated political logic.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Otherwise, these local elections on their own merit are very important from every possible paradigm of democracy, development, decentralization and true devolution of power. One can also convincingly argue that inputs to the constitution writing, state restructuring and political reconciliation would have come in more institutionalized fashion had these local bodies with elected representatives remained functional.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The argument that the local elections would derail or deviate the constitution writing process is extremely preposterous to say the least. First, the CA couldn&#39;t draft a constitution in four years of last CA where such polls were not even contemplated. And, there is no real trade-off between these two goals - namely, the constitution writing and holding the local polls. The CA can without aberration continue the process of writing the constitution. The Election Commission (EC) and the government can handle the logistics and other preparations for the local polls. The argument that local elections impair the possible political cooperation among the political parties is outright unpolitical. All the forces who believe in the rules of democracy cannot harbour animosity just for the fact that people voted for one party against other.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the contrary, local polls and the constitution writing, if managed wisely, can be mutually reinforcing and complementary processes. It is repeated in uncountable instances that without a framework of state restructuring incorporated, the constitution writing process cannot be completed. These local democratic bodies can serve as the real feedback institutions for delineations of the provinces and other administrative and electoral units. More importantly, these institutions will be the real tool to manage unrealistically spiraling ambitions of people with largely misrepresented notions of rights, inclusiveness and reservations, among many other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It appears that all contentious issues on constitution writing will not be resolved by the sitting CA and all major leaders have categorically said that these issues will be resolved through a referendum if required. This is a clear hint that completion of constitution writing may take several years. If such a scenario is imminent, it is illogical to stop the local elections from taking place now. Suppose, even if this CA completes the constitution drafting process, the promulgation of the same is not going to be easy. But, if these legitimate institutions are in place, they can help to create an atmosphere for relatively smoother promulgation. An elected political leader is far more responsible apparatus of the state mechanism than the one left in the streets just to protest on every petty issue.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even in the worst case scenario, say, the local elections delay the constitution writing by a few months; it is still a risk worth to be taken. With the local bodies in operation, people can feel the real strength and utility of the democracy than the distant CA or a vague constitution. It is however not to mean to undermine the importance of the constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is good to know that EC has reportedly started preparation for all required legal backdrop, including the amendment in the Interim Constitution 2007 to include the provisions for local polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone should be convinced that no democratic exercise of any fashion would weaken the democracy. A pragmatic rethinking is required on the part of the Maoists and real courage in government to translate its own promise of holding local elections into reality, sooner.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
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			'id' => '2760',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Retreat Of The Meek Fellow',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, the new coalition government has taken a shape. But it took complete three months since the second elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA-II), on 19th of November, 2013. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered and temporarily back-tracked on this commitment; once he got sworn in to the post. It invited a nasty public exchange of diatribes between the leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and major partner, the UML. But, if he wanted to save his government, Koirala had no other viable alternative to succumbing to UML demands of Home Ministry to be led by none other than the &#39;big muscled&#39; &nbsp;UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam. Koirala&#39;s space of political maneuvering was further tapered by complete non-cooperation from his own party colleague Sher Bahadur Deuba which compounded the task of giving a complete shape to the government. The perception of insecurity in Koirala was not unfounded. He indeed was apprised of the potential danger by those who have knowledge of informal level of intimacy between Deuba and UML Parliamentary Party leader K P Oli. Unlike Koirala, who hardly suffered any mention-worthy length of jail term during the panchyat days, Deuba and Oli for years spent in the same prison cell. And, now they share same wavelength of banter and modus operandi of &#39;practical politics&#39; of money, muscle, maneuvering and machinations.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the bare arithmetic in the House has it, Nepali Congress doesn&rsquo;t have any other option than placating the UML unless it had chosen to appease both UCPN (Maoists) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) to sum up to the magic number of three hundred and one to save the government. But, the latter option to materialize involved a lot of ground-work and maneuvering, yet disposing the possible coalition always to walk on the razor-edge. Nonetheless, given the track record of the UML, the Maoists and the RPP-N would perhaps have been relatively easier bed-fellows for Congress. Yet, it is mere a conjecture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unpleasant episode of Home Ministry row at the very initial days of the Koirala-led coalition has three clear indications. First, Koirala as the prime minster has very little flexibility than resorting to the politics of give-and-take. Second, he takes hard stances at wrong turnings, the only consequence of which is to back-track rather humiliatingly, virtually in no time. Third, no party is reading the crucial arithmetic of the House before resorting to high-pitched verbal bashing in a political reality that is mandated for nothing but a coalition rule.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Why is the Home Ministry such a big controversy in every stage of government formation? Not only in the cross-party power sharing as is now, there are instances even when a single party majority rule, the portfolio is contested to the extreme among the aspirants. There may be some political arguments forwarded by its minister-aspirants to bag the post, but the craving is rather a political anti-thesis. This time around, Gautam could convince his party that the party would perform better if he became the home minister. The Congress aspirants who stopped Koirala from conceding the ministry to UML have had similar claims. Essentially, these were just the premonitions to destabilize and debase democracy by advocating straight rigging in the elections, misusing the state machinery. But the current political values of Nepal seem to have, unfortunately, accepted is as part of the game. If we evaluated history, any such impact of altering election results or adding the political clout of the party awarded with this portfolio, however, are mere perceptive fallacies. The reality is something different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Home Ministry is a marrying point of politics with crime. Apart from possible corruption avenues, the minister will have unhindered access to unearmarked security expenses under titles like &#39;for intelligence operation&#39; and &#39;FADA&#39; (financial assistance, donation and awards). Being the joint head of the civil administration with extensive quasi-judicial rights at the district level represented by the chief district officers (CDOs) and of two police organizations ensure the incumbent a stream of incomes in enormous sizes. Such lucre comes from every source you can think of, or may be even beyond that, including the contrabands, counterfeits, smuggling, extortion and human trafficking. Therefore, it is not any surprise why every ex-home minister has a noted underworld operator under his protection and some parties have even given them seats in the party central committees. That is that.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In his entire political career, Koirala&#39;s main working strategy has been the procrastination of the crucial decisions. This old habit of his doesn&#39;t seem to have died, even though he is the prime minister now. At his personal level, indecision comes in two forms; he doesn&#39;t read any file to be decided upon, it depends on some of his &#39;trusted&#39; lieutenants to do the job and brief him. And, he doesn&#39;t &#39;trust&#39; those briefings too and begins to investigate whether there could be any vested interest involved of the person who briefed thus. And, the safest he finds is not to decide anything. This is not a desirable quality in any chief executive, that too of Nepal in these pressing hours when many important agenda await decisions, rather sooner.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The phrase &#39;within one year&#39; becomes a wont in tongue of all major politicians in the coalition. The initial promise was to write and promulgate the new constitution within a year from the date of the CA elections-II. It is now the fourth month running since and parties are signing so called agreements to deliver a constitution again, within a year. The understanding between the two major coalition partners, Congress and UML, to shuffle the prime ministership after a year makes us apprehensive. Implicitly, they are saying shamelessly, that the constitution will not be written within a year from now on. The intentions are not honest.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For now, Koirala&#39;s quest for corruption-free governance is a task impossible in view of the coalition made shaky by severe intra-party wranglings and factionalisms in both of the major ruling parties. Gautam at the helm of Home Ministry is sure to let loose all possible &#39;channels&#39; of illegal trade in gold, currencies and goods. He proudly repeats &#39;one year in the ministry is enough to finance the personal politics for a decade and even larger benefit to the party in the longer-term.&#39; It is not difficult to foresee that Koirala would helplessly witness the drama of the ministers who behave more smartly than himself, albeit merely in their vested interests. Technically, he cannot afford to break the coalition. In practice, he cannot assert designs due to his meekness. And, politically he is a redundant deadwood who doesn&#39;t enthuse with vision and mission of his own, and keeps on bungling processes as he did in forming the current government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He has severe diplomatic drawbacks. He is not &#39;wholly&#39; trusted by the southern neighbour. There was a point in history when he was alleged of having connections with the people with dubious backgrounds like late Jamin Shah and the likes who were suspected of mobilizing funds from suspicious sources. The West is apprehensive for the same reason as India is and China knows &#39;very little&#39; about him as their official press points out. Therefore, his identity crisis couples with his crisis of confidence to run the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that even the second CA election has not taught any lesson to our leaders. Therefore, the priority is still being given to power-sharing games than to writing of the constitution. As pointed out by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal that constitution is &#39;unlikely&#39; to be written even by this CA appears to be self-fulfilling. The priorities of the coalition partners are different from constitution writing. The Oli-Gautam duo in UML wants to exploit every possible benefit of being in the government to win the party presidency for Oli in its national convention slated for coming May. There is even a widespread concern that the local elections now considered for April might be pushed further away due to the convention to elect new executive.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are enormous challenges and externalities. Leaders like Dahal and Kamal Thapa of RPP-N would be happier to see that this coalition failed, just because they wanted to prove that no one is better in terms of delivery. Being in the government is perhaps the sweetest part of the cake. When the process of finalizing the provisions of the new constitution actually begins, demands and impediments from outside of CA are likely to rule the roost. Madhesis, janjatis and pro-identity federalist have plans of forwarding their agenda through protests on streets to incorporate them in the constitution; ignoring the fact that they were largely rejected by the voters. The moves of Maoist-Baidya group could even be more irksome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The only good sign is that the two largest parties in the CA have been able to form a coalition. A couple of other fringe parties have come to their support. Ideologically, the coalition is perhaps the closest-- best explained by their unconditional stance on ballot-based democracy. Above all, the coalition commands more than two-thirds of majority in CA and the Legislature Parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the prime minister must develop a habit of deciding things than only being a meek onlooker. And, the work on constitution writing must now begin without any further delay.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-03-11',
			'modified' => '2014-04-11',
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			'description' => 'Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered.',
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	(int) 10 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2393',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Elections Over, Not The Conflict',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The final results of the both parts, first-past-the-post and proportional representation of the Constituent Assembly (CA)-II elections held on November 19, 2013 are now out. The fortunate part was that the polls could take place, barring some exceptions, in relative peaceful and largely fairly manner. The high-pitched verbal intimidations of poll-opposing parties, led by CPN-Maoist (Baidya) to disrupt the polls, for all practical purposes, turned out to be a hoax. The interim election government headed by the incumbent Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi and Election Commission deserve appreciation for the effort they had put to make the polls a success, on the scheduled date. Mohan Baidya and his brigade of 33-party also deserve their due share of applause for not resorting to extreme violence which, given their strength, could have made the elections impossible. The support of international community for the elections was not in any way less important. A good silver-lining is that, Nepal slowly seems entering into an era of peaceful politics, for the groups like Baidya have too started to understand the importance of the less destructive politics.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s agenda of peace is far larger than the constitution itself. Lasting peace and a functional constitution in many contexts could be a &lsquo;chicken and egg&rsquo; story, but in our case, peace in the sense of non-violent politics, based on polls and opinions, has been the prerequisite to create a meaningful ambience and debate to begin to write a constitution; and ultimately to functionalise it. The entire objective of holding the second CA elections was in fact centered on Nepal&rsquo;s desire to transit from conflict to a constitutional era.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, what about the prospect of ending this conflict? It is the most excruciating of all questions and the answer is not yet emphatically affirmative. The only path to ending conflict is to respect the popular political mandate expressed through these ballots by all political forces of the country. And, the culture of such respect comes only out of unflinching faith on democracy and adherence to its true norms. This unfortunately, has long been one big black-hole in Nepali politics. The politics here is dominated by the &lsquo;opportunistic democrats&rsquo; in the guise of the left forces of all names and hues and the some regressive rightists. As long as they can exploit legitimate constitutional means they would utilise that and, the moment their constitutional might is in the receiving end, they, particularly the communists, would immediately resort to violent tactics to capitulate the State authority. The newly emerged regional forces are no different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	These features have become real bottlenecks to Nepal&rsquo;s democracy and peaceful politics. In addition to it, there is a cognizable force led by Maoist-Baidya which had ab initio boycotted this election process, thus posses extra challenge to the very functionality of the new CA. The forces now badly defeated in polls are also in all likelihood to resort to alternative course of violence to make their existence felt. The respect for popular mandate would be the first victim and ensured peace therefore could still be a mirage for a long time to come.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Regardless of that gloomy side of the picture, these elections have given clear mandate to write a pluralistic, democratic constitution. The people have put Nepali Congress on the lead closely followed by the CPN-UML with the duo jointly constituting almost two-thirds of the 601-member CA. The Congress as the oldest democratic force of the country and the UML by now transformed into liberal left force with faith on ballots than bullets have substantially increased the hopes of institutionalizing democracy, polity of plurality and patience for peaceful policy through the new constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	These elections pushed CPN-United Maoists into the third from the first position in the last CA. People were apparently deeply apprehensive about their agenda of &lsquo;ethnicity and caste-based federalism&rsquo; which might easily boil down to ethnic tensions and violence. The rise of staunchly pro-monarchist RPP-Nepal as the fourth force in the CA, is in fact an additional retort to the Maoist agenda of &lsquo;secularism&rsquo; in place of the Hindu state and ethnicity-based federalism at the cost of national integrity. The forces in the last CA with all potentially divisive voices have been virtually obliterated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The people&rsquo;s vote to every party has a very clear message - well balanced and well defined. This in aggregate gives idea about the kind of constitution people are looking for. The near two-thirds majority jointly to the Congress and UML means that the constitution should unambiguously be democratic in its essence. On federalism, people upheld the &lsquo;capability based federalism with the state ensuring multiple identity&rsquo;. &nbsp;The relegation of UCPN (Maoists) to the third position is still an opportunity to transform itself into a credible democratic force that doesn&rsquo;t believe in provoking religious and communal sentiments to have its political ends met. People didn&rsquo;t prefer the concept of all-powerful president proposed by the UCPN (Maoists) but have favoured to the idea of ceremonial president with elected prime minister with all executive powers as was proposed by the Congress and the UML to the voters.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even if the RPP-Nepal chooses to interpret its resurgence to the fourth force as people&rsquo;s increasing faith on monarchy, it is reading the wrong message. It is in fact a wish of a considerable number of &lsquo;cow-worshiping&rsquo; Hindu voters to retain the identity of Nepal as &lsquo;some sort of&rsquo; Hindu state. It is a clear serendipity that the party&rsquo;s election emblem happens to be the &lsquo;holy&rsquo; cow, which reaped an intrinsic symbolic advantage.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The regional parties, mainly from Madhesh, putatively with a separatist overture are largely sidelined by no other than the Madheshi voters. But, again, they still jointly could have been the forth force. The factionalism and petty interests in them have taken the toll on them. Therefore, their strength must not be underestimated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Putting all these aspects together, the future shape of the constitution becomes clear. &nbsp;Nepal will be a republic with a ceremonial president and elected executive prime minister. The federalism must not be based on single-ethnic identity alone but first on capability and them multiple identity. The division of provinces cannot be like the one of &lsquo;one-Madhesh-one-province&rsquo; as those manifestoes are clearly rejected. People want some form of religious &lsquo;Hindu identity&rsquo; than being unconditionally secular state.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, all these mandates could translate into constitutional provisions only if the constitution drafting process is not trampled by sheer non-respect to the popular mandate. Its ominous signs are already at the doorsteps. The UCPN (Maoist) along with other forces failing to fare as expected in elections are alleging &lsquo;structural rigging&rsquo; of the polls and threatening to boycott the CA process. &nbsp;Such politics of violence and blackmailing is not only likely to jeopardise the whole prospect of a truly democratic constitution but also distort and disturb the entire process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The onus of taking the entire process to ensure a democratic yet implementable constitution unquestionably lies on the shoulders of the Congress and the UML. They have the strength and the mandate and international support. But the danger is, their priority and efforts might just be limited to grab or share the state power and constitution writing might be pushed to shadow again, like in the past.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The rampant tri-forked factionalism in these both parties could pose a real stumbling block to the smooth sail of the process. The CPN-UML President Jhala Nath Khanal has already proposed that the two parties should lead the government on turnkey basis. But in both parties it is going to be a herculean task to select their prime ministerial candidate at first. Each of them has at least three front runners for the job. In Congress, the Party President Shushil Koirala, Senior Leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Party Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel are vying for, actually dying for, the post. Similarly, in UML, President Khanal, Senior Leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and powerful faction leader KP Oli have claim with their own logic of respective suitability. The natural democratic way out could be electing a parliamentary party leader in them and assigning the responsibility, but it is surely not going to be this simple; as even the defeated ones would continue to move their pawns for a checkmate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If the practice of premiership on turnkey is adopted between the Congress and the UML, why not even smaller parties got proportionate duration of time to head the government according to their strength? At least, they will not fall short of claiming it. All this means is, entire exercise might just be concentrated in making and unmaking of the government. The politics of consensus, no doubt, is imperative to make constitution writing a reality, but the need of consensus shouldn&rsquo;t be a tool to blackmail power, against the popular mandate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to say, this CA election has not been very instrumental to put the potential political conflict at the backburner for it excluded some potentially violent forces from the election process itself. The new political equation is more likely to give space to new form of frictions. In view of massive international financing to make Nepal &lsquo;secular&rsquo; and ethnic boiling pot and voters&rsquo; clear mandate against it, this is going to be a real source of conflict afresh. When Congress leads the process and the RRP-Nepal led by Kamal Thapa becomes a balancing force, it might repeat the infamous &lsquo;horse-trading&rsquo; episode of 1996.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'created' => '2014-01-04',
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			'description' => 'The final results of the both parts, first-past-the-post and proportional representation of the Constituent Assembly (CA)-II elections held on November 19, 2013 are now out. The fortunate part was that the polls could take place, barring some exceptions, in relative peaceful and largely fairly manner.',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2087',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Govern Like A Government',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the influential leaders in the United CPN Maoist Party -- UCPN (M), Barsha Man Pun has recently alleged that present government has started to behave like a &lsquo;political government.&rsquo; If that is the case, it is doing the right thing. The government must behave like a political than technical government, which can only solve political problems. It is irrelevant by now to keep hammering on the very nature of its structure just because a special kind of political equations that led to form this.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Once formed, it is the government of the country and it should function like a government, not as puppet show. Moreover, it is the government awarded with wider political legitimacy in the form of &lsquo;first consensus government in years&rsquo;. Every other petty detail automatically gets pushed to the background.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is no longer a news, rather a foregone conclusion, that the polls are impossible, at least, until November. Of course, it would still be a grand success story if they could be held by the end of this year, 2013. The growing inaction of the government has redoubled the doubts that are already thick in the air as regards real possibility of holding elections.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No doubt, it was perhaps one of the greatest mistakes that Nepal&rsquo;s political leaders made by choosing the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Khil Raj Regmi, to head the election government. To add to the woes, leaders of the four political parties through the High-level Political Mechanism are trying to control the government. It must be mentioned here that any such mechanism doesn&rsquo;t have a constitutional validation. Anything the Mechanism forwards can only be recommendatory, not mandatory for the government to adhere to. And if certain political parties are capable to continue to exert such pressure, how could the elections held by this government be free and fair?&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unnecessary practice has given rise to a double-fold nuisance. First, it has greatly affected the performance of the government. It sometimes appears as waiting for the &lsquo;direction&rsquo; from the Mechanism and, sometimes tries to assert its own course of actions. The end result is: it has lost its direction and pace. Second, it has created a situation where for all the failures of the government, it can directly put blame on the Mechanism and for any success it can claim its own.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Therefore, the political leadership should now come out of the mindset of plying a guardian angel to the government. It is only way that this government can be made responsible to its national duties and accountable to political contract of holding the Constituent Assembly elections sooner. But this rationality doesn&rsquo;t seem to have dawned upon the political top-hats of our country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The world has taken well into account that these four political leaders jointly declared themselves incapable of leading this country. They doubted their own level of integrity such that heading an election government by one of them would not produce impartial poll results. This was what led the situation of Regmi becoming the head of the government, virtually out of the blue.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It looks rather clumsy on the part of same set of leaders to act as the true &lsquo;drivers&rsquo; of the government. One of glaringly gauche example is the UCPN (M) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal&rsquo;s posture while departing for the &lsquo;official&rsquo; tour of China and then to India in the second and the third week of April, respectively. He tried to portray himself as a virtual head of the government going for a state visit, particularly in his dealing with media at home. But it is now a public knowledge how these countries matched the protocol to this visit. Outcome of course is limited to him, if any at all. But these things don&rsquo;t seem to have deterred our set of leaders feigning as grand saviours.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For this behaviour of our political leaders, Regmi and his cabinet colleagues have found more excuses, and, ironically, time to inaugurate painting exhibition, release some second-graded books or pose with gawky smiles in prize distribution ceremony of some primary school. The real business of governing the country is largely ignored.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The governance dysfunction was somewhat a foregone phenomenon as Regmi refused to resign from the post of Chief Justice to head the government. It was the message that he didn&rsquo;t want to be fully responsible. His greed to go back to the old position, just for a few remaining months, after heading the government, speaks in volume how calculative he would be in taking decisions. This is undesirable on the part of the country&rsquo;s chief executive. And, it must be corrected. He should govern, not dither.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Only remedy for all these ills, surfaced even in the day-to-day business of the government is to make this government entirely responsible for what it does and what it should do. It is in the interest of country and also, in the interest of the political parties concerned. Only when political parties step aside to give full space for the government to work, can they conduct a sort of performance audit on the government. Equally important, Regmi and his cabinet colleagues must be able to demonstrate their ability to govern, which so far seems unimpressive to say the least.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Putatively, holding the Constituent Assembly election is no doubt the cardinal of all responsibilities of this government. But, there are hundreds of other matters that have gone out of track and government can work to restore them in the interim. It will ultimately help to create a proper atmosphere for the polls.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is perhaps right time to control organized crime, which is largely thought to be protected by the influential political leaders. These leaders now can&rsquo;t have access to the official files of these goons and once the action is taken, these leaders, technically, will not be in position to defend them in public. This indeed will help decriminalize our politics in a great way.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another important issue it can decide is: it can bring down the number of seats in the proposed Constituent Assembly, to a reasonable level of say, one hundred fifty to two hundred. This will be both popular and wise decision. But on the contrary, it is reported to be succumbing to the political pressure to increase it again to six hundred.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The donor community is surprised by lack-luster performance of this learned bunch in the government. The international community, for example, had asked to enlist the kind of support the government would seek from them for the new elections. But the government has even failed to coordinate a meeting of all these donors even in two months time, after it took charge.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Recently, a message was circulated that Nepal cannot hold the next summit of South Asian Regional Cooperation (SAARC) within 2013. Reason given is weird: there is no government in Nepal now. Is this government in position to react and say &lsquo;we can&rsquo;? The head of the government has not even thought it necessary to address the nation to give a sense where we are exactly heading. The list could be very long. But much needed guts is apparently lacking in every respect of the decision-making in the government.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Will this government without political will on the one hand and totally paralyzed by undue, frequent interference from the Political Mechanism on the other be able to hold Constituent Assembly elections by this year end? Doubts are high. And, only way to ensure that this government doesn&rsquo;t shirk away from this responsibility is to make it look and act more like a true government than a club of volunteers.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For this, those political parties that think they obliged Regmi by choosing him to be the head of current government should stop interfering in the functioning of the government. And there is the role of the President, as a sole functional constitutional entity of the country, to remind this government to its duties and admonish when derailed. But, to repeat it again, this government must realize the fact that it is there to govern the country, not to appease any of the political masters. And it has true opportunity to choose than snooze.</div>',
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			'created' => '2013-11-08',
			'modified' => '2013-11-10',
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			'description' => 'One of the influential leaders in the United CPN Maoist Party -- UCPN (M), Barsha Man Pun has recently alleged that present government has started to behave like a ‘political government.’ If that is the case, it is doing the right thing. The government must behave like a political than technical government, which can only solve political problems. It is irrelevant by now to keep hammering on the very nature of its structure just because a special kind of political equations that led to form this.',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2086',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Fears Of Polls Going Futile',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The chieftains of major four political parties -- United CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesi Morcha -- appear contended and relaxed for being able to install the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi as the head of the new interim &lsquo;election&rsquo; government. The questions related to constitutionality and conflict of interests between executive and judicial organs of the country, since the same person effectively heads the both, do yet remain unanswered.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are a number of cases under consideration in the court of law seeking appropriate interpretation of relevant constitutional provisions on it. Worst of all, the very first recommendation for constitutional appointment made by the government headed by the Chief Justice himself was returned by the President for &lsquo;further constitutional explanation.&rsquo; This controversy surrounding the appointment of Chief and other Commissioners in the Election Commission indeed gives some indication to the modus operandi of the new government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	More than that, the practice of extra-constitutional imposition of the political vested interests by the &lsquo;High Level Political Mechanism&rsquo; practically makes the Regmi government a faceless scarecrow. Apparently, all the new ministers got appointed on a shared quota-basis amongst the four political parties involved. And people are told to believe that it is politically neutral coalition government. &nbsp;This is a total farce. Yet, the whole coalition looks like a coalition game in economics game theory where there is no easy &lsquo;core&rsquo; or equitable distribution of pay-offs among the parties, but still they are clinging to it.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The much touted-about political consensus appears a total mockery as there are reckonable political forces out of this &lsquo;all party&rsquo; mechanism; disgruntled and determined to create any obstacle possible if they are not listened to any time soon. Among them, the break-away faction of the Maoists party (CPN-Maoist headed by Mohan Baidya), all three parties of former panchas (Rastriya Prajatantra Party-RPP, Rastriya Janashakti Party and RPP Nepal) and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum headed by Upendra Yadav are some of those that deserve consideration to include in the so called all party mechanism.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But absolute inflexibility and ungenerous attitude of the four parties to accommodate or address the concerns of these disgruntled political outfits in some way or the other raises further apprehensions about the possibility of polls any time sooner. And, UCPN (M) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal&rsquo;s over ambitious plan of hastening to polls within June this year smells rat in his design.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	True that Nepali people want to go for ballot sooner than later. But, the polls are not instant soup-making recipe. The national polls are massive management nightmare. Still, several legal arrangements are needed to be made to enable the Election Commission to hold putatively free and fair polls. The budgetary arrangement is equally difficult. No doubt, there are several donors ready to dole out money for elections here, but they also need adequate time to process our requests through their respective home governments and bureaucracies. Our own budget for the current fiscal year needs recasting if the polls were to be held within this fiscal year, say June.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Logistics and stationery arrangements including the designing and printing of ballot papers, transportation of polling boxes and machines etc. involve a substantial amount of time and human resources. Security mobilization is perhaps going to be the most extensive and exhaustive affair.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On top of it, controlling the violence carried-out by some fringe and purportedly political outfits, active in different part of the country, remains crucial. Whether the new government of bureaucrats and with limited technical mandate has authority to negotiate peace or, if required, will-power to obliterate them by combing operation is critical of all questions to make polls a success.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite these all obstacles evident than ever before, why Dahal is insistent on June date? Is he so keen to reestablish the democratic process sooner, which for so long has been derailed mainly because of him? &nbsp;There are suggestions that June is the month when common people hardly can find time to go to polls due to their seasonal engagement in cultivation as monsoon just begins. And, only those who come to vote are the committed party cadres of any party. Implicitly, the winning chance of UCPN (M) is likely to increase in such a scenario. Also, if polls are scheduled in such a short notice, number of international election observers arriving to monitor the polls is likely to be far less, giving room to rigging for the forces with organised and violent youth wings like Youth Communist League (YCL) of the UCPN (M), or similar outfit of CPN-UML. These arguments about Dahal&rsquo;s discrete planning are not unfounded since Dahal has been able to fill the key state positions by the people highly loyal or made so by several machinations, including the head of the election government, Regmi. All in all, Dahal wants absolute majority in new Constituent Assembly (CA) at any cost, that too without recognizing the splinted off Baidya faction and yet, legitimizing all his political moves making Nepali Congress and CPN-UML mere mute witnesses, compelled to sign on the margins of his political contract papers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite all maneuvers and scrambling of Dahal and his party, polls within June still look a distant possibility. And the fact that seven years have passed without any significant achievement towards ending the political transition, there is no point going so hastily just to cover a few months time without proper preparations. The most rational expectation would be to hold the polls in November with adequate perseverance and nuanced management of time and resources.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What if even the Regmi government couldn&rsquo;t hold the polls for all those reasons Dr. Baburam Bhattarai government failed to meet the two deadlines of November 2012 and April 2013? &nbsp;Interestingly, the political parties who signed the 11-point deal to enthrone Regmi perhaps have no clue about the possible next step if he failed to deliver the polls and choose to remain in power in whatever pretext.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even if the elections are held, regardless when, as the fact of matter remains, outcomes of these new CA polls would take Nepal only to a status quo of April 10, 2008, the day when the first election for the CA was held. Despite a number of extensions, that CA during its four years in existence had failed to make any headway in drafting a new constitution. All major political parties represented in that CA failed to reach a consensus to extend its tenure for the fourth time on 27th May, 2012. If one remembers it correctly, it was the Supreme Court verdict from a bench of justices including Regmi that had barred the extension of the CA term.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Without addressing the very causes which made the last CA dysfunctional and ultimately dead, the new CA, even if it is instituted by coming November -- the earliest possibility, would not be able to deliver new federal constitution as expected by the people. The politics has become so messy with rising ethnic hatred, unrealistic expectations of regionalism and culture of using violence to capitulate the authority to meet all implausible demands of divisive and sectarian nature.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No political party seems to be prepared to go to the polls with a concrete frame of the constitution they are planning to draft if they got elected. This in fact should have been the main basis of each party&rsquo;s CA election manifesto. It is because, people can rationalize their expectations before deciding whom to vote and what to expect when the CA takes shape. Even smaller parties with extreme demands may come up with their respective propositions and their issues could be addressed on the strength of votes they secure. It would have made things far easier to promulgate the new constitution once drafted. But the so called big parties are also not prepared to come up with any clarity on these crucial matters for the obvious ulterior motives of fishing in the rough waters. Such ill intentions are more ingrained in those parties who are inclined to one party dictatorship under the veil of democratic mandate. People again have to vote on the basis of the guesswork without knowing their distinct position on constitution drafting process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Election Commission&rsquo;s code of conduct can regulate such things by making every party mandatory to go to the polls with complete shape of their proposed constitution. But whether the Commission will have that guts and vision is an unanswered question here.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, if the parties do not plan on how they want to proceed once the CA elections are held, things are not going to change for the better in Nepal. Even if one party gets clear majority in CA, it will be impossible to move ahead without taking on board all big or small political players along both to draft and promulgate the new constitution. Therefore, this process is better if it began now. Otherwise, like in the past, we will be back to square one again after spending many valuable years for the same cause. The whole exercise of this CA election would also automatically go down the drain.</div>',
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			'created' => '2013-11-08',
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			'description' => 'The chieftains of major four political parties -- United CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesi Morcha -- appear contended and relaxed for being able to install the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi as the head of the new interim ‘election’ government.',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2085',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Fall Of The Last Pillar',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If no extremely dramatic events unfold in Nepali politics overnight, the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi, may have sworn in by the time this writing reaches to our readers. He, or whoever for that matter, will be the tenth chief executive of the nation in as many years, which exposes the gravity of the political instability and difficult transition the country is reeling under.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Prey to Politics&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whether or not Regmi became prime minister is by now an issue of secondary importance. The prime concern here is: the judiciary also couldn&rsquo;t resist the temptation of political indulgence at the cost of its so far largely maintained independence and respect to professionalism. In this sense, the judiciary, that was somehow saving Nepal from falling into the abyss of acute form of anarchy and was the last testimony to the remnant feature of rule of law, has been the last pillar to fall prey to political machinations. Otherwise, Nepal is by now already faced with the consequences of the institutional degeneration, almost in every spectrum of life. Every professional and state institution is highly politicized. The security apparatus like army, police, intelligence, the civil service and diplomacy, the academia and civil society and to a large extent even the media now wear the cloak of some hue of politics. Lately, all government set-ups have been forced by design and default to act as the extended wings of the UCPN (Maoist). Democratic forces of the country remain defensive and indifferent to growing aggressiveness intrusion of the Party invariably into all state organs of the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>The Question of Constitutionality&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	The prevalent Interim Constitution of the Country doesn&rsquo;t provide for an incumbent chief justice to become the chief executive of the country as well. The Supreme Court still headed by Regmi has the ultimate authority to interpret the constitution. But, at this juncture, any interpretation of the provision that is completely absent in the constitution would tantamount to nothing but a blatant conflict of interest, since such an interpretation, technically presided by Regmi himself, is only likely to justify his decision to take-up the top job. The press statement issued by the Supreme Court in the last week of February, apparently at Regmi&rsquo;s will and design, already demonstrated the overall tilt of what it could be possibly like. The entire objective of the statement was that, he is only willing to go on &lsquo;deputation of duty&rsquo; from chief justice to the chief executive, without resigning from his present post. This is more of an ominous than welcome sign, both in view of judicial independence and concept of balance of power in democracy.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Controversial Beginning&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Let&rsquo;s suppose Justice Regmi is assigned to head the election government. He would be taking up the job not as a much-touted-about &lsquo;consensus figure&rsquo; but amidst a sharp division regarding his choice for the job. Not only the opposition parties, but all four largest parties -- ruling UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madheshi Morcha -- are vertically split into two factions each, on Regmi&rsquo;s pick. And, some of the arguments of the dissenting factions in each party are worth pondering. Firstly, the move would directly prove that political parties are grossly incompetent and not trustworthy to head an election government. Second, they are oblivious of the very concept of balance of power among the major three organs -- executive, legislative and judicial -- of the state. And thirdly, what miracle could Regmi alone demonstrate as the country now languishes in a serious nature of constitutional vacuum. The institutions like Nepal Bar Association have voiced serious concern over the Chief Justice&rsquo;s lust for power at the cost of judicial independence. There are apprehensions that the UCPN (Maoist) has plans to rig the next polls by misusing the state-power yet would validate results by making the chief justice the head of the election government. Regmi&rsquo;s appointment automatically blocks the other parties to seek judicial remedy in case of electoral malpractices. These points of view definitely hold waters and cannot be glossed over instantaneously.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Crisis of Management&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Regmi&rsquo;s appointment requires a series of important makeovers under the guise of the constitutional provision of &lsquo;Power to Remove Difficulties&rsquo; by the President of Nepal. The constitution has not envisioned an incumbent justice becoming the prime minster (in whatever name, the chief executive of the country). This would require a special decree form the President, citing the political consensus among the major parties, which again looks a pure farce with so much discontent fumed around. Even if the appointment hurdle is cleared, there are several other constitutional issues that warrant a speedy sorting out. The positions in the Election Commission, including that of the chief commissioner, are vacant. Does Regmi want to play this role as well, as he is officially likely to be titled as the chief of Election Council? What happens to the positions of the chief justice itself whereas the constitutional spirit is that both the head of the government and the judiciary represent separate, independent capacities in several crucial institutions like the Constitutional Council, that make appointment of the heads and office-bearers of several constitutional bodies including the Election Commission. Incidentally, almost all constitutional bodies like Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Auditor General&rsquo;s Office and Election Commission are without the chiefs or office-bearers, for years in some cases. Even in the Supreme Court, three-fourth of positions of justices remains vacant. To fill these all would require a separate arrangement as there is no possibility of fulfilling the constitutional provisions through parliamentary hearing in absence of the legislature.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Competence and Delivery&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whether Regmi would be able to hold fresh elections by November this year is the cardinal of all questions here. This requires a lot of political work that begins from the point where he starts to choose the kind of people to fill in the positions in his government. The impartiality issue of himself and his picks will be crucial. And, worst of all he will be functioning under a situation where all major constitutional positions will have already violated to pave the way for his appointment and only resort to move ahead will be the kind of political support he gets as he moves ahead. This implies that there will be forces on the ground who would be constantly challenging his actions. As the nation has not decided on the number of constituencies for new elections, their modalities and, whether it would be an election for both Constituent Assembly and Legislature or only for the former, to propose a formula agreeable to all is impossible and purely a political rather than a bureaucratic exercise. Regmi has yet to try his art in this trade.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is too early to say anything whether he is competent enough and would be successful to deliver what he is expected of. But his track record is not very encouraging. The latest allegation is that he paralyzed the justice delivery system by not taking any initiative to appoint the judges in the Supreme Court in time. It was the Court verdict that had barred the extension of the then Constituent Assembly tenure beyond May 27 last year. Despite the fact that he knew the parliamentary hearing of new judges would be impossible beyond that date, he failed to initiate the action of extending the term of existing justices or to appoint new ones when there was adequate time left. At present, the result is that the Supreme Court is left with only six justices whereas in high times it used to have as many as two dozen justices. This indeed have made justice delivery difficult, and, at the same time put Regmi&rsquo;s credibility under huge interrogation mark.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>The Last Optimism&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whatever the cost or difficulty in the process involved for his appointment, the only hope is that Regmi as the accepted figure by four or five largest political parties could hold elections and those polls would be free and fair at an acceptable degree. Every party though has viewed Regmi&rsquo;s installation as their convenience for entirely different reasons than this, which again could complicate the situation in future. For Maoists, it was a great achievement to be able to stop Nepali Congress from heading an election government and it hopes that Regmi would duly oblige the party for surprisingly picking him to head the next government. Congress and UML are contended only at the ouster of Baburam Bhattarai from the prime ministerial position, who otherwise seemed unrelenting to relinquish the position. Other forces, including the international community wanted to trust on Regmi&rsquo;s legal credentials and his largely maintained non-corrupt image during a long legal career.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, interestingly again, even if new polls could be held within a year or so and a new Assembly is instituted, Nepal&rsquo;s political challenges will still be where they were immediately after April 2008 elections. Therefore, there is no point being over ambitious at this very moment about anyone heading another government or holding polls. Unless, political rationality, read it metamorphosis of parties from authoritarian to democratic mindset, prevails among the major political players the country, Nepal&rsquo;s political crisis will only deepen regardless of any drama we orchestrate, be that drama of government headed by the chief justice.&nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2013-11-08',
			'modified' => '2013-11-08',
			'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal,  current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events,  ongoing  political news of nepal',
			'description' => 'If no extremely dramatic events unfold in Nepali politics overnight, the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi, may have sworn in by the time this writing reaches to our readers. He, or whoever for that matter, will be the tenth chief executive of the nation in as many years, which exposes the gravity of the political instability and difficult transition the country is reeling under.',
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	(int) 14 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2084',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Manifesto Recast At Hetauda Commune',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The UCPN (M) truly wants to remain in the mainstream of Nepali Politics. It, therefore, has ventured into a dramatic change in policy paradigm through its Seventh National Congress. The seventh Congress was a hundred and eighty degree shift in the party&#39;s policy stand, from its Sixth Congress twenty-one years ago. The previous one had adopted the policy of raising arms against the state and the recent one has formally proposed to relinquish them altogether -- a changed face of revolution, as the party has baptized it.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>The Paradigm Shift</strong></span></div>
<div>
	UCPN (M)&rsquo;s Seventh General Congress held in Hetauda from February 2-7 undoubtedly heralded a new era in Nepal&#39;s politics. Thanks to a complete &nbsp;departure from the doctrine of &#39;bullets for political change&#39;, which had been the political mainstay of the party for the last two decades, to a fairly convincingly documented commitment to embrace &#39;the politics of ballots and open competition.&#39; With this development, the much needed optimism to restore a peaceful competitive democracy in Nepal has &nbsp;now revived, more reassuringly than ever before. Skeptics there are, but when the largest political force of the country resolutely announces that it would strip away the hangover of &#39;establishing the &nbsp;people&#39;s republic&#39; by all possible violent means, the country must give them a chance, at least for once. And, Nepal has no alternative to that for now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Understandably, this recast was not easy for the party which fought a ten-year long guerrilla war, sent its fighters home largely discontented with the resettlement arrangements and suffered a split recently. But the new policy paper crafted jointly by Chairman of the party, Puspa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) and Prime Minister Dr. Baburam &nbsp;Bhattarai who is also the senior vice-chair of the party needed to gather massive guts to face the present day reality and come out of the longheld revolutionary hegemony.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As evident at the Congress venue, it indeed was a daunting endeavour for the party leadership to rein in and satisfy the cadres about this change rather unexpected for many of them, who were initially indoctrinated, rather foolhardily, to establish a proletarian dictatorship before they would be asked to put their guns down. They were not ready to believe the claim that whatever the party could achieve politically from the 10-year &#39;revolution&#39; was optimum for now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In this context, the Dahal-Bhattarai duo deserves a real acclaim for not only making this ideological change possible, and that too relatively smoothly, but also for accepting the fact that there is no polity beyond political co-existence with other forces and a rule-based competition with them in polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It was not in a very distant past that the whole party rallied behind a highly mystified dogma of Prachandapath. But over the last seven years, when Prachanda himself has been at the centre of national politics, Prachanda-path emained a neverexplained political term and now it is completely out of the party&#39;s official literature. This is indicative of the urgency felt by Prachanda to come out of the violent legacy of the insurgency era. In addition to this, to the surprise of many, he has started to publicly criticize summary execution of his opponents by former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and cautiously negate Maoism for being &#39;not replicable in our different context.&#39; (It is a great irony though, for both Dahal and Bhattarai deliberately wore special hair-do to look like Stalin as early as a couple of years ago and the party&#39;s official banner still carries Stalin&#39;s portrait).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&#39;s meticulously crafted paper makes every effort possible to sound credible to both- his cadres by using lexicons akin to communist glossary and to the world by practically accepting the ground realities. &#39;Nepal no longer is a semi-feudal and semicolonial state, but rather a new comprador bourgeoisie capitalist one,&#39; &nbsp;reads his main policy paper suggesting that another armed rebellion under any pretext would be unjustifiable under these realities. His assessment that &#39;Nepal is also under the influence of a neo-colonialism of globalization is not much different from the standpoint taken by the underdeveloped world in the world arena, albeit with a bit different diplomatic decorum. He has repeatedly tried to reassure that the party would no longer indulge in a killing spree in the name of physically eliminating the class-enemy, as it has changed plank from the abolition of social classes to capitalistic growth leading to socialism.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This transformation is essentially not much different from the &#39;people&#39;s &nbsp;multi-party democracy&#39; (jantako &nbsp;bahudaliya janabad) propounded by late general secretary of the CPN-UML, Madan Bhandari, some 23 years ago. Dahal&#39;s detractors have even gone to the extent of calling him &lsquo;nothing but a mere shadow of the UML&rsquo;. Regardless of anything, this a was much-needed change in the Maoist fold for Nepal to &nbsp;resolve its political impasse peacefully and it was duly heeded by the Maoists, which is a welcome development.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&#39;s policy paper, finally adopted as the 7th Congress Resolution with some ritual modifications, at times is unexpectedly mild and flexible. As reason for this, Dahal has tried to vindicate that all inflexibility, irrationality, dogmatism and impractical policy rigidities had gone with the party&#39;s break-away Mohan Baidya faction and what now remains in the UCPN (M) is a political organization with modern, 21st century outlook and vision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Grip Not Loosened</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Despite all odds, Dahal has emerged quintessentially an unchallenged leader from this Congress as well. It appears that as long as Dahal and Bhattarai can work together, a third person is &nbsp;unlikely to claim the topmost position in the party, for the foreseeable future. At least, this looks like a smooth sail at the centre. But the situation at the</div>
<div>
	grassroots is much different as reported by the respective local representatives of the Congress. They complained that the party had failed to assign political responsibility to the entire rank and file in the organizational structure. Former cadres who returned home dejected are hardly under party discipline and a large &#39;garbage lot&#39; of socially discarded people who were used during the armed rebellion are proving a nuisance to entire party. These factors can erode Dahal&#39;s grip on the party in the long run. When the party actually goes to the polls sooner or later, Dahal is likely to face a steeply uphill task of differentiating his party with the one like the CPN-UML and establishing the rationale of killing so many thousands of people at the cost of the country&#39;s great opportunity for development and growth, ultimately, just to become another UML. But for now he is the helmsman, which in turn is an opportunity to keep his grip intact with tactical moves like the present one.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Confession Drama</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Dahal has confessed that his resignation from the prime ministerial position over the tussle with the then Chief of Nepal Army, Rookmangud Katwal, was a na&iuml;ve and unnecessary emotionalism. Though not explicitly expressed, his remorse was apparently for the anti-Indian tirade he belched out while leaving the post; perhaps in hope of placating the power blocs in the southern neighbour that he believes have gone against him since. In a bid to be seen as a &nbsp;mature political force, he has omitted all traditionally used vocabularies such as &#39;Indian &nbsp;expansionism, American and Russian imperialism, Chinese revisionism&#39; etc from the official party literature. &#39;The differences now should be dealt &nbsp;through mature diplomacy,&#39; he argued to pacify the cadres. But, that is what exactly should be done, &nbsp;practically.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Economy First&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The party&#39;s new policy paper has put the economic agenda in the forefront of its &#39;vision&#39;, so to speak. Its policy paper on harnessing the country&rsquo;s water resource by mobilizing the local and domestic resources and setting up a production and development brigade are testimony to this. But, these propositions lack maturity and need a gross &nbsp;overhaul that suits to the ground realities of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Developing hydropower projects on a commercial scale with only local resources is a sweet but impossible dream. It is not like a cooperative farming where labour-intensive production can be adopted. Capital, technology and market - all three have to be explored and traded across the national borders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to understand that Dahal needed some mechanism to adjust the party&rsquo;s erstwhile armed members. So, he proposed a production and development brigade. It sounds like a good idea from the supply side, but as a responsible political party, UCPN (M) needs to adequately consider the demand side of it as well. What to produce? How and where to produce? Where to sell it? And, will his cadres be willing to be in another labour camp of a sort for this purpose? These are a few example- questions to argue that the UCPN (M) needs further clarifications in these propositions to remain in the political forefront in future Nepal. Nevertheless, the party has made a good beginning by the cardinal policy change through its recently concluded 7th Congress.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite a good and encouraging beginning to transform his party into a contemporaneous force, Dahal has left many crucial unanswered questions which still cast doubts over his intentions. He has mentioned Nepali Congress as the &#39;prime enemy&#39; but has failed to enumerate the reasons. There is no mention of what the party would do to the land and property forcefully occupied by its cadres during the insurgency period. How will the party view the private property rights, civil &nbsp;rights and individual as well as press freedom? Until these questions are answered satisfactorily, the proposed transformations from the margins will not yield the benefits as aspired by Dahal and his party. But again, transformation is a continuous process and momentum is more important than the event.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/polt.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 168px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px;" /></div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2013-11-07',
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			'description' => 'The UCPN (M) truly wants to remain in the mainstream of Nepali Politics. It, therefore, has ventured into a dramatic change in policy paradigm through its Seventh National Congress. The seventh Congress was a hundred and eighty degree shift in the party's policy stand, from its Sixth Congress twenty-one years ago. The previous one had adopted the policy of raising arms against the state and the recent one has formally proposed to relinquish them altogether -- a changed face of revolution, as the party has baptized it.',
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			'id' => '2813',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Oli’s Climb, Prachanda’s Fall',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<div>
		<em><span style="font-size: 14px;">By the magnitude of his &lsquo;flexibility&rsquo; shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year.</span></em></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<strong>--By Akhilesh Tripathi&nbsp;</strong></div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Bikram Samvat 2072, the new Nepali year which started about two weeks ago, is going to be interesting. There are telltale signs of that. Consider the following incident!&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		On the eve of the New Year, Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Chandra Nemwang called a meeting of the top leaders of the major political parties to discuss the thorny issues of the new constitution. CPN-UML Chairman KP Oli was absent. The reason was he was climbing Dharahara! On this conspicuous absence, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda grumbled, &ldquo;For Oli, Dharahara is more important than the new constitution.&rdquo; Later, Oli, whose Dharahara climb was aided by an oxygen cylinder, retorted, &ldquo;It is difficult to climb up like the UML, but quite easy to go down like the Maoists!&rdquo;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Why did Oli ignore an all-party meeting to climb the Dharahara? There are two possible answers. One, Oli, who is said to be playing the final innings of his life wanted to accomplish his wish of being atop the historical monument (Had he waited for 12more days to fulfill this wish of his, he wouldn&rsquo;t be able to do so because the historical monument built by Nepal&rsquo;s first prime minister Bhimsen Thapa was grounded in the April 25 earthquakes). Two, he deliberately ignored the meeting of the major parties to pile more pressure on the opposition parties, mainly the Maoists. Who says he doesn&rsquo;t aspire to become the next Prime Minister at the earliest possible? After all, he climbed the Dharahar to dismiss a major allegation against him that he is sick and unfit.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Nepali politicians speak in different ways. Oli climbs Dharahara, all 213 steps. By doing so, he is sending three clear messages: I am strong enough to climb; I can see the view from the top; the New Year is going to be beautiful.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Prachanda, while talking to the media, says he&rsquo;s willing to take any risk for the sake of delivering a constitution on time. In a meeting of the three major parties &ndash; Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) on April 20, Prachanda agreed to resume the constitution writing process. It&rsquo;s a big example of flexibility shown by him.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		By the magnitude of his &lsquo;flexibility&rsquo; shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year. Or at least, greater things are at stake that justify his move to alienate the Janajatis, anger the Madhesis, and shutting the door to unification among the six Maoist parties.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		But why did Prachanda change and became flexible? Prachanda has lost a lot of political ground in recent times. The Nepal bandh called by the 30-party front led by him could not win public support. So it fell flat on the very first day. Similarly, Prachanda&rsquo;s party&rsquo;s candidate faced a humiliating defeat in the CA by-elections held recently. That is also a measurement of the people&rsquo;s support to the Maoist agenda. By now, Prachanda understands that he is not backed by any kind of popular support. All these factors have forced the UCPN (Maoist) leadership to review their position and become flexible in the political give and take.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		So, it&rsquo;s been a common knowledge in recent months that the Maoists have backtracked on their position on federalism. It may not have been just a coincidence that the Maoists&rsquo; softening of stance followed Baburam Bhattarai&rsquo;s India visit and Prachanda&rsquo;s China visit.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		By now, it seems, the Maoist leadership has understood that a general strike or a trip to the neighbourhood seeking help (intervention) will not help. That is perhaps why the three major parties &ndash; NC, UML and UCPN (Maoist) &ndash; have agreed to allow the constitution writing process to move forward. Oli&rsquo;s Dharahara climb has helped in this process. Oli cannot climb the Dharahara again because there si no Dharahara now. &nbsp;But the opposition parties, mainly the Maoists, now know that the UML chief can engage in any other similar undertaking to mount further political pressure on them. &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		<strong>Making Institutions Inclusive</strong></div>
	<div>
		Another thing we learned from the year gone by is that institutions, once designed, are difficult to change.</div>
	<div>
		The April Uprising of 2006 sought to change the way the state and political parties respond to the people&rsquo;s needs. But it did not have a clear vision of what new institutional structures might look like. Parties like the Nepali Congress and UML define this change in their own way while, the Maoists, Madhesis, and Janajatis, on the other hand, have their own agenda for reforms, including the form of government, federalism, and electoral system. The failure of the Maoists and Madhesis to push forward their agenda shows how entrenched and entangled existing institutions are in the Nepali society.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Restructuring of institutions is required at two levels: at the level of political parties, and at the level of the state. At the level of the political parties, the internal party structures allow a few leaders to extract from the ordinary party members and unions that have penetrated all levels of the society. The recent Supreme Court verdict trying to limit the role of employee unions is an example. Most employee unions are extractive institutional structures. They serve their members by lobbying for their promotion and transfers, especially when their party leaders are in power. Therefore, a meritorious government employee, if he or she is not a member of these extractive unions, has fewer chances of getting a promotion or a good position.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		Given the existing state structure, top political leaders who have control over parties like the NC or the CPN-UML have few incentives to restructure the party and the state. Making the party and the state more inclusive means giving up on their monopoly of power and privileges. Reforming state and party structures, therefore, is a difficult proposition for almost all top politicians. As many studies have shown, once institutional structures are in place, it is difficult to change them in favour of the ordinary people.</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		One of the implications of such a situation is that political divisions have crystallised at the local level also. Nepal is a deeply divided society. Nepal&rsquo;s political parties have created a social chasm that runs vertically, from the highest level to the community level. At the community level, the divisive political allegiance has more to do with getting access to state resources and opportunities than to development and ideology.&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		&nbsp;</div>
	<div>
		As a result, allegiances are usually made to political parties that have a greater prospect of getting to power. Without such political allegiance, which is something more than just an affiliation, people rarely get access to state resources or even entry into the marketplace.</div>
</div>
<p>
	&nbsp;</p>',
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			'created' => '2015-06-01',
			'modified' => '2015-06-07',
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			'description' => 'By the magnitude of his ‘flexibility’ shown in recent days including the withdrawal of the three-day Nepal bandh after the first day and taking the constitution writing process forward, it would appear that Prachanda has greater things in store for the New Year.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2803',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Democracy  Vs Minority Diktats',
			'sub_title' => '',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If the ongoing irresponsible behaviour of some of the key political players of the country doesn&#39;t come to a halt, it is certain that the Constituent Assembly-Two (CA-II) will also not be able to deliver a new democratic constitution for the &#39;federal new Nepal.&#39; The major impediment to the new constitution writing process has two folds: the first, no party is adhering to the mandate and processes of the CA, and crucial political bargaining are taking place out of the constitutional and the CA ambit. The second, smaller parties in and outside of the CA still rule the roost by forming a twenty-two party alliance to oppose any stand that the main two political parties in CA --Nepali Congress (NC) and UML --are likely to take with regard to potential provisions for the new constitution and its writing process. This al-liance led by UCPN Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal is resorting to tantrums akin to that of a pressure group -- organizing street protests, flexing muscles and causing disruptions to CA proceedings, in some pretext or the other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If a public meeting organized by this alliance in the mid-October at the open-air theatre in Tundikhel, Kathmandu, is any indication, the Maoists are again determined to ruin the second CA as they did to the first, rendering it hostage of blatant indecision at the high-level political committee (HLPC). The speakers in that meeting declared a number of daring things that are aimed at rendering the very authority of the CA non-existent and prevaricate the democratic mandate and process. It raises fears of another cycle of violent politics. This is because, Dahal made three crucial revelations: he would not respect the arithmetic of CA, no constitution could be written without incorporating his agenda of &#39;identity&#39; and he repented on agreeing to the &ldquo;management of his Red Army and the arms before the constitution of &lsquo;his choice&rsquo; was written&rdquo;. &nbsp;As can be recalled, the process through which some of the former Maoist rebels were given employment in the Nepal Army and rest were sent home by paying generous gratuity, is normally referred to as &ldquo;management of former Maoist rebels&rdquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to repeat, all these are clearly anti-democratic postures. His refusal to accept the &#39;numbers&#39; as they stand in the present CA disregards the people&#39;s mandate expressed through the last ballots. His adamance not to comply with the universally accepted democratic practice to decide every contending agenda by majority votes in CA would leave all major political differences undecided indefinitely, in absence of any other feasible alternative process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the issue of identity, Dahal has been successful to rally the support of other eleven fringe parties that are present in CA and equal number of others without any representative in the House. His insistence is that the earlier CA had somehow agreed to &#39;identity-based federalism&#39; and the current CA too shouldn&#39;t deviate from those understandings, written or unwritten. But the fact is: the identity agenda largely got defeated in the CA-II elections and electorates gave completely new verdict, pushing the Maoists into the third position and giving a two-thirds majority to the NC and the UML combined. The manifestoes of the latter two emphatically reassures the voters to write a pluralistic constitution with possible least number of provinces, above all, on the basis of their economic viability. But Dahal&#39;s deliberate intention seems to undermine this reality and try to thrust his agenda by exerting force to disrupt the CA proceedings and effecting road blockades. It is worth recalling that Dahal&rsquo;s party UCPN-Maoist too has mentioned in its election manifesto that voting will be resorted to if the efforts for consensus fail. Moreover, the CA-II has also adopted a rules book in which it mentions that issues in which no consensus could be reached shall be decided by voting.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&rsquo;s repentance on &#39;early surrender of arms and army&#39; also smacks of his ill intentions to use that guerrilla force as the tool to political blackmailing, as in the past. His partners in protests, the Madhesi and Janajati parties are more than enthused by the political patronage of the UCPN-Maoist and also by the fact that their agenda defeated in popular votes is now shouldered by the Maoists, the third largest party in CA. It is not difficult to understand that Dahal is now desperate as he is very fast losing his political ground. Not only his party got reduced to the third largest in the CA-II from the first in CA-I, it currently commands bare 14 percent of total votes in the House. That is why he is against of the CA arithmetic. Also, his party is at the verge of further division after the main ideologue Dr Baburam Bhattarai has challenged Dahal&#39;s authority from within and intensified the efforts to create a &#39;new force&#39;. For, all these reasons, Dahal is experimenting on any possible political adventurism to save his existence as leader to be reckoned with. This is understandable. What is completely incomprehensible is why other two larger parties, NC and UML, are succumbing to these tantrums of Dahal, resorting to one after another undemocratic moves and decisions. Why can&#39;t they say that no political decision regarding the constitution writing could be taken outside the CA and beyond the popular mandate?</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the overused platitudes of Dahal has been &#39;consensus in constitution writing.&#39; On the surface, this appears as a benevolent idea. But, in essence, it is implicit design to take the constitution writing process away from CA to HLPC. Since the country has expensed so much to ensure diverse representation in CA, it is impossible to arrive at consensus at every motion mooted in the CA. Therefore, accepting to resolve all contentious issues through already defined CA rules and processes, including voting, is absolutely within democratic values and norms. Dahal and his allies has problem in this, because it is surely a losing game for them as they simply lack the number of members in CA to pass their agenda. But, if they believe in democracy, instead of exerting to disrupt the processes, they should accept the outcome by explaining their point of view such that can woo the public support in the next polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But that needed patience Dahal clearly lacks and he is now wielding a double-edged sword -- simultaneously leading the street protests and holding the convenorship of HLPC that was dug out last month off the grave of the last CA, merely to placate Dahal&#39;s ambition of chairing it. Interestingly, he successfully capitulated the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML leadership to form this apparently unconstitutional &#39;superpower centre&#39; that is often practically portrayed as above all the political mechanisms of the country -- including the prime minister, the CA and the parliament. Or, at least, Dahal wanted HLPC to function in that fashion. This too is an undemocratic demeanour.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Naturally, the voice of other allies in Tundikhel was more aggressive. Sadbhawan Party leader Rajendra Mahato said he would not let the constitution be finalised on the basis of &#39;majority vote in the CA&#39; and Ashok Rai of Federal Socialist Party warned of &#39;pulling the NC and UML leaders by their collars&#39; to agree to their demand of identity-first federalism. What all this means is: there is every effort going on not to recognize and treat the CA as the only constitutionally validated body to write the constitution. This is perhaps the gravest danger that Nepal&#39;s political process faces at this moment. For the UCPN-Maoist and other smaller parties, their action might be justifiable to the extent to make their presence felt in the national political spectrum. But it is highly surprising to see that the NC and UML are readily agreeing to the demands of these parties without considering their consequences and not working enough to deliver a timely constitution despite their clear majority in the CA-II that allows them to write the constitution themselves.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At this juncture, three political personalities have performed far short of their responsibilities and expectations from their respective public positions. First is Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who has failed to deliver the governance in every possible field you may name. His ministers are working berserk. His slogan of &#39;clean government&#39; has hit rock bottom in every appointment in the constitutional bodies, judiciary to executive branches. It took four months for the House to pass the appropriation bill. When issue of poor governance is raised, he retorts with saying &#39;the focus is on constitution writing.&#39; When the mayhem in constitution writing is pointed, he just vents anger on the people who dared to ask. His lacklustre performance is only costing the country very dear in every front, mainly as coupling hindrances in constitution writing process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The second person who could have changed the things for the better but doing very little or nothing is Subhash Chandra Nembang, the CA Chairman. When House was disrupted continuously for five weeks in September, his presence was nowhere felt. He kept on urging the political parties &#39;to agree&#39; on certain things. But, his responsibility was not to urge for agreement but to run the House business according to the already laid-down laws, rules and precedents. His failure is more acutely felt in his inability to &#39;educate&#39; the CA members in the processes and contents of the constitution writing. He even failed to inculcate in the minds of the CA members that they are representatives of the sovereign people, not the stooges of the political bigwigs. Over and above, he himself appears to be acting as the stooge of big leaders, waiting for signals to come from the quarters like HLPC.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The third personality who failed to deliver up to the expectation is Dr Baburam Bhattarai, Chairman of the Constitutional Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (PDCC) in the CA. He kept on jumping around to appear as if he is honestly trying to extract some magic consensus, but without doing proper homework particularly to finalize the agenda of state restructuring. He tried to forge the so-called consensus in the vacuum. One of the main bones of contention among the political parties has been the number of provinces that the new constitution should delineate to federalize Nepal. But these parties have all in unison failed to come up with the basic logic of any particular number they have picked to propose as their agenda. As such, Bhattarai should have been able to come up with data on economic and political viability of the possible provinces and presented them dispassionately to the political parties. Instead, he himself ventured to propose some eight, nine or ten provinces, without any database to support his proposal. This was naive move both as the Chairman of PDCC, who should have ideally remained neutral in all these bickering and, also as a learned man, he must have come with alternative data-supported analysis such as &#39;if we go for eight provinces, the per capita income of Nepalis will rise in X-rate while with eleven it goes up/down by Y-rate.&#39; But, alas, nothing of the sort is happening.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This is to conclude that, until and unless we revert back to essence of democracy from pressure tantrums, allow CA to function as the only legitimate place to discuss everything regarding the constitution writing and provide some factual basis to ascertain the number of provinces as well as the administrative structure of the &#39;new&#39; state, the new constitution will continue to remain a mirage, for unforeseen time to come.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-11-21',
			'modified' => '2015-06-01',
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			'description' => 'If the ongoing irresponsible behaviour of some of the key political players of the country doesn't come to a halt, it is certain that the Constituent Assembly-Two (CA-II) will also not be able to deliver a new democratic constitution for the 'federal new Nepal.' The major impediment to the new constitution writing process has two folds: the first, no party is adhering to the mandate and processes of the CA, and crucial political bargaining are taking place out of the constitutional and the CA ambit.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2809',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Derailing Democracy',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Throughout Nepal&#39;s seven decade long modern political history, the biggest problem to institutionalize democracy has been sheer absence of democratic essence among the political actors - political parties and politicians, both. &nbsp;It has been true for all twists and turns in the history. Experience has it, those countries that could stabilize the democratic polity in relatively short period of political transition, say in two or three decades, enjoyed two common features. One, there was only two way fight between the democratic and autocratic forces, or colonizers and freedom fighters. Once the democrats outweighed the autocrats, the system got functionally stabilized. Second, at least for the initial transition, some charismatic and learned leader spearheaded those processes into an irrevocably functionalized and largely institutionalized form of democracy, before it could derail and eventually degenerate to anarchy or mayhem.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But Nepal&#39;s democracy has persistently been victim of a triangular instead of bipolar traction among the ultra-rights led by the palace, ultra-lefts led by Maoists or Leninists, and democrats. In fact, democracy has been invariably sandwiched between other two forces. To recall the history of common knowledge, for this very reason none of political changes in 1951, 1961, 1981, 1991 or 2006 could institutionalize Nepal&#39;s democracy. The country has been a constant victim of political uncertainty and hopelessness, which has taken toll not only on economy and development but has also teetered the age-old social cohesion and coexistence. Thanks again primarily to the three-way pulls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The recent turn of events also does not present any different picture. The political rhapsody of UCPN Maoist Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal certainly reflects his desperation in a bid to save his political existence in the light of rapidly eroding political clout of his party, but it is hardly limited only to that. As a person brought up as the Maoist, he is fundamentally against this country writing a democratic constitution. &nbsp;And, this is not a secret, but his commitment, vowed umpteen times in public. He still harbours dreams that one day this country could still be ruled by a communist dictator, perhaps himself at the helm, like North Korea and Cuba. He wants the new constitution to be written with those aims in mind. But he too is clueless on the way outs that clear the nasty debris of the civil war, en-route to that unreachable summit.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	At the other end, there are monarchists who want to resurrect the religious fundamentalism to the extreme of considering the King, again, as reincarnation of Lord Vishnu. The movement of Hindu fundamentalism is slowly gathering momentum as not-so-insignificant chunk in the ruling Nepali Congress has also found solace in taking refuge to this political perversion. There are other hybrid elements born out of marriage between the royalists and leftists who have dedicated their energies to defame and undermine the popularly elected parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The most recent example is the blatant disobedience of several parliamentary committee summons by Lokman Singh Karki, chief of the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA). It may be recalled that it was Puspa Kamal Dahal who engineered the appointment of Karki, an ardent royalist who served as chief secretary of the government during king Gyanendra&#39;s absolute rule, in CIAA position. The disgruntlement of some of the parliament members towards recalcitrant Karki was also meaningless as his appointment was formally approved by the chiefs of all major political parties &ndash; Sushil Koirala of Nepali Congress, Jhala Nath Khanal of CPN-UML, Dahal himself and other Terai-based forces while Khil Raj Regmi was heading the caretaker government a year ago. The career graph of Karki was a public knowledge but that surprisingly didn&#39;t bother these &#39;big&#39; leaders and they awarded him the position he deeply craved for, for some unexplained reasons. After such a big blunder, it is but natural that the cries of &#39;small fries&#39;, like members of parliament, go unheard. To extend the argument, the discretionary abuse of the constitutional bodies like CIAA also constitute a great degree of test case on the impartiality of these institutions that are expected to function compatibly with the norms and values of the democratic dispensation. &nbsp;These are definitely some sure signals that even the &#39;structure&#39; of democracy is being gravely in peril now, let alone essence.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Ideally, the alliance of Nepali Congress and UML should have been able to steer the process of constitution writing and institutionalizing democracy given the strength of popular mandate they have and their largely tested credentials to multiparty, ballot-based democracy. But, persistence of &#39;sickness&#39; and performance dysfunction of the ruling alliance has indeed been a major impediment to any outcome that helps to the cause of democracy. The chiefs of both the parties, KP Oli of UML and Prime Minister Koirala, also the Congress chief, are sick in literal terms. And, deplorably ineffective role of Constituent Assembly (CA) Chairman Subash Nembang has rendered this supposedly most crucial institution in present day Nepal as good as dead.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The government has been oblivious to a number of its public commitments which, had they been executed, would have consolidated democracy at least by a step or prevent it from boiling down to vacuum of popular representation. One of such derelictions was government&#39;s imperviousness to hold the elections to the local bodies. On the contrary, the ruling political cartel has engaged heavily in appointing controversial names in many crucial positions, including the judiciary. Nevertheless, the joint stance taken lately by Koirala and Oli to take the constitution writing process ahead and promulgate the new constitution by January 2015is no doubt appreciable. But, given the fact that they have hardly been credible in the past and apparent challenges that need a great deal of political dexterity to surpass, hopes of smooth sail are still very grim, to say the least.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another very alarming signal that democratic forces would be pushed to further relegation is: the influential members among ruling elites are blatantly engaged in the acts which are morally indefensible. The Nepali Congress Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel&#39;s avarice to appoint his near and dear ones to lucrative public positions, Finance Minister Dr. Ram Saran Mahat&#39;s machinations to transfer a highly controversial civil servant into his ministry and above all K P Oli&#39;s design of giving ministerial berth to his henchmen defeated in recent elections give ground for both Left and Right forces to disregard the &#39;high talks&#39; of democratic forces. There are several other such decisions that only undermine the transparency and accountability parameters, which are cornerstones of democracy.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As such, the CA has been rendered completely ineffective. There are public speeches made repeatedly, challenging to dishonour the arithmetic of CA; a crucial phenomenon as consensus is always elusive as is the case now. The political polarization has intensified. The political undercurrents are such that given the provision that the constitution needs to be ratified by two-thirds majority in the House, there could be some defectors from the ruling alliance who may dig holes in the ship.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No doubt, Dahal is ruining his political prospects due to his own activities outside of CA and repeated flimsy announcements like &#39;initiating another revolution&#39;, &#39;forming the government from outside of parliament&#39;, &#39;writing new constitution from the street,&#39; etc. Worse, his irresponsible politics has provided much needed springboard to fringe parties, with some abstract agenda of identity and regionalism-based politics that were badly defeated in the last CA elections. They are particularly enthused by Dahal&#39;s patronship to these agenda.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Anything said and done, Nepal seems to be heading towards another constitutional crisis. The stage is being gradually set for that. There is not even a marginal possibility of promulgating a new constitution by 22nd of January, the deadline set by the political parties themselves. The ongoing unrest in the eastern part of country is perhaps deeper than it is generally perceived. Whatever federal structure one may propose, at least without any factual basis but by bare political imposition, is sure to be rejected by one section or another. Managing these discontents stemming in many forms and guises are likely to push the country to new phase of unrest and violence.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As of writing these lines, the drama of signature campaign &#39;to moot the proposal of ruling coalition&#39; into the Constitutional Dialogue Committee headed by Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai suggests that the era of politics of consensus has been over. Democracy essentially is less about consensus but more about the rules of the game. But, here, rule breaking has been the first norm of politics. And, the politics of consensus generally endows better payoffs to weaker than the stronger. That is why Dahal and his 22-party opposition brigade is &#39;dying&#39; for this ever elusive consensus in the constitution making process. But, on the other end, Nepal now is not in a situation where it can afford to relegate potentially destructive forces from the mainstream political process. The journey from completion of drafting to promulgating the new constitution, even if takes place at all in near future, is going to be treacherous. The thought over another crucial phase of actual federalization of the state is yet to begin. Setting up new bureaucracies, reallocation of resources and dividing powers and authorities amongst the different layers of administration are the task that are going to be far more difficult than writing &nbsp;one set of generic document called &lsquo;constitution&rsquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Before any tall talk on any big issue, we have but no choice to begin from the basics -- putting the derailed democracy back on track. The point of departure for one and all is; to unconditionally express faith on the rule-based game of democracy, respect for the people&#39;s mandate and in essence adopt a forward looking approach, not in a sense as touted by communists but as per the best and time tested democratic practices adhered to by the world for several centuries now.</div>
<div>
	The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-12-23',
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			'description' => 'Throughout Nepal's seven decade long modern political history, the biggest problem to institutionalize democracy has been sheer absence of democratic essence among the political actors - political parties and politicians, both.  It has been true for all twists and turns in the history. Experience has it, those countries that could stabilize the democratic polity in relatively short period of political transition, say in two or three decades, enjoyed two common features. One, there was only two way fight between the democratic and autocratic forces, or colonizers and freedom fighters. Once the democrats outweighed the autocrats, the system got functionally stabilized. Second, at least for the initial transition, some charismatic and learned leader spearheaded those processes into an irrevocably functionalized and largely institutionalized form of democracy, before it could derail and eventually degenerate to anarchy or mayhem.',
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			'id' => '2798',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Games To Delay The Constitution',
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Akhilesh Tripathi</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As it happened to be, the much-awaited all-party political conference or round table conference &ndash; to use a more popular phrase- which was supposed to see a dialogue take place among the three major parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and the parties outside it, on the contentious issues of constitution drafting, fell flat. The reason was, as we all know, the 33-party alliance led by Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist which is not represented in the CA and which had been demanding such a conference for a long time rejected to participate in the conference in the eleventh hour. The leaders of the CPN-Maoist and the 33-party alliance outside the CA never turned up for the conference. The CPN-Maoist communicated its decision not to attend the conference when Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and other political leaders had taken their seats at the planned venue inside the CA building. Thus, the politicians&rsquo; latest effort to seek consensus on contentious constitutional issues went in vain. But thankfully, as the conference failed to take off, it became clear that the Maoists had thrown the conference card only to delay the new constitution by affecting the CA calendar.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Some people might think that this was bad for the country and the constitution drafting process as an opportunity to forge consensus on thorny issues of constitution drafting inside as well as outside the CA was missed. But in fact, this was good for the country and the constitution drafting process as the real intent of the CPN-Maoist and other dissenting parties outside the CA was exposed without losing any further time. Their real intent was to delay the constitution drafting process by the CA under one or another pretext. In fact, Baidya and company have, time and again, publicly expressed their disenchantment with the constitution drafting process by the CA. After all, they boycotted the second CA elections terming it &ldquo;a meaningless exercise&rdquo;.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One political game to affect the CA&rsquo;s calendar and delay the constitution drafting process was exposed in the form of the failed all-party political conference. But other such games continue - some within the CA itself - in the name of seeking consensus on the key issues including form of governance and restructuring of the state, election system and judiciary. One serious blame is leveled against the very Constitutional-Political Dialogue and Consensus Committee (CPDCC) of the CA that was formed to hold discussions on the thorny issues of constitution drafting and build consensus on them. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The blame is that the CPDCC has been trying to delay the constitution drafting process to find the mirage called consensus. The CPDCC led by UCPN (Maoist) leader and former PM Dr Baburam Bhattarai has already missed a deadline of September 6 to forge consensus on the prickly issues of constitution drafting. Then it was given another deadline of September 30 to build such consensus. As things stand now, the CPDCC will not be able to forge consensus on the contentious issues within this deadline as well. Now voices are emerging that it should be given another chance to forge such a consensus which has proved elusive so far. One such voice has been floated by the UCPN (Maoist) which thinks the CPDCC should get one more month, even if that means the amendment of the CA calendar, to forge consensus.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That should not be done. All lawmakers who had registered to speak on the contentious issues have spoken their mind at the deliberations organized by the CPDCC and consensus still looks a very far cry. So, extending the CPDCC &lsquo;s deadline would be just a waste of time and resources.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the other hand, it&rsquo;s been quite some time since the three major parties in CA II &ndash; the Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and UCPN (Maoist) are trying to form a High Level Political Mechanism (HLPM) in the name of facilitating the constitution drafting process. It is said that UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Prachanda is eying the post of coordinator of this proposed mechanism. To put the truth bluntly, there is no need for such a mechanism. It is also a game to delay the constitution drafting process by weakening the sovereign CA&rsquo;s role in that process. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The word consensus sounds very sweet to the ear. Everybody&rsquo;s consent on the key crucial issues of the constitution would be an ideal situation. No one would disagree that it is best to settle the contentious issues through consensus. But what if it is not possible? Can the country be kept a hostage for an indefinite period if consensus on contentious issues continues to elude us? &nbsp;Politicians have already squandered seven years in the process of statute drafting, mainly because they tried to forge consensus on the so-called thorny issues. In fact, trying to forge consensus on the contentious issues was the main reason why the first CA was dissolved without delivering the new constitution.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal tried to forge consensus among all political parties on the contentious issues of constitution drafting during the first CA. Series after series of negotiations were held. Marathon meetings were held. But it simply did not work. The country reached nowhere perhaps because we tried to please all forces in the name of finding consensus. This should be why the major parties agreed, even before the second CA elections were held, to follow due process if they failed to reach consensus on contentious issues in CA II. &nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	That due process means deciding the contentious issues of constitution drafting through voting in the CA, which is the sovereign body to decide such matters. Or, alternatively &ndash; if a more democratic measure is to be adopted &ndash; we can hold a referendum to decide these issues. Here, the politicians can take some lessons from the recent Scotland voting where the Scots decided their fate through a referendum. It is still possible to hold such a referendum on the contentious issues as there still remains more than three months to promulgate the new constitution. But the decision has to be taken swiftly, if the country is to go the referendum way.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	However, the bottom line is no more precious time should be wasted in the name of forging a consensus.</div>',
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			'description' => 'As it happened to be, the much-awaited all-party political conference or round table conference – to use a more popular phrase- which was supposed to see a dialogue take place among the three major parties represented in the Constituent Assembly (CA) and the parties outside it, on the contentious issues of constitution drafting, fell flat. The reason was, as we all know, the 33-party alliance led by Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist which is not represented in the CA and which had been demanding such a conference for a long time rejected to participate in the conference in the eleventh hour.',
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			'id' => '2792',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'UML's Transformation : Leninism To Panelism',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) passed yet another acid test to vindicate its democratic credentials by electing the entire 159-member Central Committee (CC), including the new chairman through ballots, in the ninth general convention (GC) held in Kathmandu, July 3-10, 2014. In a closely contested bid to chairmanship, KP Sharma Oli defeated Party&#39;s former, two-time, general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal by a narrow margin of forty-four out of two thousand and two hundred votes of the GC delegates.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Democratic Domain&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	There is no dearth of cynics who claim that bitter factionalism that surfaced during the contest for chairmanship would further divide the party that is already mired by groupism. But what must be appreciated here is: UML is the only political party of the country that has developed best internal democratic practices. Unlike many communist outfits who choose to break-away as the separate entity once some differences crop-up within the group, the UML has exhibited tremendous level of resilience to save it from fragmentation; thanks to the democratic space it created to vent the differing views and ideologies. For this reason it has withstood the test of time as the mainstream left force amongst some three dozen odd communist &#39;parties&#39;. It must not also be forgotten that it is a communist party that has painstakingly and by now convincingly transformed itself to a credible democratic alternative of the country. More importantly, it has set a practical contemporaneous formula for democratic transformation of any communist force that is originally indoctrinated to rise to power of &#39;people&#39;s republic&#39; by using the &#39;bullets and barrels&#39;to a force that readies itself to multi-party competition through ballots. No doubt, for this party, metamorphosis of greater magnitude is still inevitable to shake-off many dogmas and nostalgia of Soviet era. But, whatever it has achieved and maintained itself is in no way instantly dismissive. The ninth GC too has proved to be a new milestone as it elected mainly new set of younger leaders in CC, who have firmer belief in democracy than the older generation.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that the Party&#39;s polity has now shifted from &#39;Proletarianism&#39; or &#39;Leninism&#39; to Panelism, which from a democratic perspective is a welcome dimension of change. The political sportsmanship and democratic spirit was clearly demonstrated by the leaders at the official closing ceremony of the GC on July 17. Both the victor and vanquished, Oli and Nepal respectively, along with other elected central body members vowed to work for the party unity, terming the vertical division during the CC election mere &#39;democratic exercise&#39;. Not only both the factions won equal number of members as the office-bearers, the representatives seem to have guided to votemore by the quality of the candidate than the factional affiliation, electing a completely mixed panel. Any &#39;bright&#39; person from both panels got place in the new CC.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Road Ahead</strong></div>
<div>
	If the mood of the Declaration made at the UML headquarters on 17th of July, is any indication, the party would soon enter into an era of a joint-leadership of many influential leaders. The chairman-elect Oli in very clear terms, with tears in his swollen eyes, declared that he did not have many days to live, and extended his arms for unity. It was momentarily a piece of emotional melodrama, unique to political cruelty. He couldn&#39;t even complete his short written speech. It is his eighth year running since his kidney transplant and, of late, the infection has now spread to his whole body, with septic deep wounds and swellings. There was a whirling question in the minds of the entire rank and file, why did he at the first place choose to run for chairmanship despite such precarious health condition? There is a strong school of thought which believes, there were mischievous minds like that of Bamdev Gautam who harboured dream of running the party as officiating chief as Oli is already a dilapidated figure. But, this possibility is clearly thwarted by the &#39;ideologues&#39; belonging mainly to Nepal faction, who changed the party statute such that now there are five second men (vice-chairmen) in the hierarchy after the chairman. This is the very statute the GC ratified, albeit with some resistance. And, incidentally, Gautam ranked second among these five in terms of popular vote, behind Bhim Rawal, a Nepal loyalist. In any event of Oli&#39;s absence, there would be moral pressure (as there is no clear statutory provision) to handover charges to Rawal, not Gautam, or Bidya Bhandari, another vice-chair elect and the most trusted aid of Oli.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What the UML&#39;s change in leadership means for the nation, is another issue widely debated in the political circles after Oli&rsquo;s victory. Again, effectively it depends on the health of Oli. Should his health permit, he naturally dreams of becoming the next prime minister of the country. &nbsp;If the things move according to agreement between the Nepali Congress and UML to promulgate a new constitution by the end of January 2015, under the turn-key clause of the agreement, the premiership would automatically come to the UML candidate, as things stand now, to Oli as the Party&#39;s parliamentary party leader. There are newly emerged political equations within that party such that no single person, except the chairman given his current level of comfortable majority in CC, is likely to hold the sway in any decisions. The ambitions like that of Gautam are dampened as such, once the power gets transferred to lower ranks from the chairman.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Policy Paradigm</strong></div>
<div>
	During the run-up to the ninth convention, there was a sort of euphoria created by a &#39;club&#39; of party&#39;s young &#39;thinkers&#39; that Party&#39;s socio-politico-economic policy paradigm would be redefined and formalized through the GC. But, the entire GC was so much consumed by the fight for the posts that it hardly could undertake much deserved discussions with due seriousness on any policy document. At the end, when it came-out with the thirty-three point Declaration on July 17, many of the same old communist verbose again found the place in it. &#39;Awarding land-ownership rights to tillers&#39;, &#39;protecting trade union rights&#39;, &#39;deploring of infringements on human rights&#39; in some weird part of the world etc. were repeated, rather artlessly. Some of the hasty conclusions like the &#39;global economic crisis like that of 2008 justifies the rationale of socialism&#39; were also incorporated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Interestingly though, this Declaration has very carefully avoided over use of redundant communist jargons and jingoisms. Not only it doesn&#39;t carry terms like &#39;Indian expansionism&#39;, &#39;American imperialism&#39;, it also cautiously reduces the frequency of the words like &#39;revolution&#39;, &#39;struggle&#39; or &#39;class struggle&#39; that are invariably and clumsily thrusted into policy papers of almost all communist formations. The ninth GC Declaration instead proposes interesting separate economic prescriptions for their cadres and the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&#39;This GC urges all the local committees of the party, affiliated sister organizations and all members of the party to devise concrete plans for their respective locality to augment economic development, productivity and employment and involve in the production functions so as to establish themselves as the leading-lights of the economicprosperity,&#39; says the point number 23 of the Declaration. The Declaration has also &#39;appreciated&#39; the &#39;improving&#39; relations between India and China and has wished to make Nepal beneficiary to the impressive economic growth of both the neighbours.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Opportunities and Challenges</strong></div>
<div>
	Perhaps the biggest opportunity for the CPN-UML is the growing compulsion for all other communist forces to follow its &#39;janatako bhudaliya janbad&#39; or multiparty democracy route, should they opt to remain relevant in modern day pluralistic politics. It is becoming increasingly difficult for parties with Maoist tags not to follow the exact process the UML did for the last two and half decades. If the party wereto equip itself to harness this opportunity, it could provide a major fillip to its organizational strength. Certainly, its increasing global recognition as trustworthy democratic force is another very powerful factor that helps to retain it as a major player in Nepali politics. Its gradual policy shift from Left to the Centre is crucial to ensure the outfit&#39;s long lasting relevance.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are challenges too, mostly emanated from three sources - policy confusions, organizational efficiency and &#39;class&#39; shifts. The ninth GC also could not change its name by dropping the &#39;Marxist-Leninist&#39; tag and the term &#39;Communist&#39; from its official name, despite the fact that there is a widespread realization of this need within the Party. The psychological divide in the mandarins is debilitating -- they often times love to retain communist identity and yet want to change this &#39;as soon as possible&#39; for public interface. &nbsp;The Party has failed to bring into effect a much-needed departure from three the decade-old nostalgia of &#39;classless society&#39;. &nbsp;Instead the Party itself has become the &#39;class&#39; of riches with &#39;too many, too big&#39; leaders. The only reason the Party substantially increased the number of office bearers from six to fourteen was to accommodate these &#39;big&#39; names with suitably high-sounding positions. Generally, those who have been prime ministers, deputy prime ministers and ministers in the past have sought those &#39;elitist&#39; titles. This is resulting into overlaps and duplications on responsibilities and duties, and ego clashes at every decision points. The cumulative effect of all these is sure to have telling effect in organizational efficiency and cadre-leader relations, not in so distant future.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Effectively, the UML has graduated from the party of &#39;proletariats&#39; to &#39;new riches&#39;, not only in terms of policy-base but as the class representation. &nbsp;To borrow a phrase from the communist literature itself, &#39;the class division&#39; within the party has been strikingly vivid in recent years. In many cases, its leaders have protected criminals just to extract money in return. There is not any binding ideology available in any political literature that can accommodate all these extremes. The task of managing all these paradoxes, the sooner the better, comes on the shoulder of the new leadership. But, unfortunately, the shoulders of the commander are now sick, severely.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'created' => '2014-09-08',
			'modified' => '2014-11-21',
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			'description' => 'The Communist Party of Nepal-United Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) passed yet another acid test to vindicate its democratic credentials by electing the entire 159-member Central Committee (CC), including the new chairman through ballots, in the ninth general convention (GC) held in Kathmandu, July 3-10, 2014. In a closely contested bid to chairmanship, KP Sharma Oli defeated Party's former, two-time, general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal by a narrow margin of forty-four out of two thousand and two hundred votes of the GC delegates.',
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			'id' => '2787',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'UML’s Throb To Democratize',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) exhaustively braces up for its ninth general convention, July 3-9 that is perhaps likely to see the fiercest battle ever to take the reins of this four decade-old outfit. The good news is, unlike in any archetypical communist organization, the chairman and other major office bearers will be chosen democratically through the ballots of the party cadres.The Party over the last two and half decades, since the successful reinstatement of democracy in 1990, has established itself not only as a quintessential political force of the country but also a relatively credible democratic alternative with left-to-the-centreideologies. It is now the second largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), which is also the legislature parliament, and the major coalition partner in the Nepali Congress-led government.</div>
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<div>
	This transformation from an out-and-out communist to largely a democratic force has definitely not been a cakewalk and yet far from complete. Thanks to late General Secretary of the Party, Madan Bhandari who coined a transitional lexicon &#39;janatako bahudaliya janabad (JBJ)&#39; or people&#39;s multi-party democracy that facilitated it to become a reckoning force in multi-party polity. In essence, except one seemingly unequivocal commitment to remain in the &#39;politics of ballots&#39;; forsaking the dogma of the &#39;power from the bullets&#39;, the task of redefining other philosophical foundations of the Party is still pending and currently undergoing a rigorous discourse. This is what going to be one of the characteristic features of the upcoming Convention as well. The pain experienced in the process of refurbishment of a force that carried over the legacy of Jhapa andolan of early 1970s, a naive killing spree of landlords to eliminate the class enemy andwith its cadres indoctrinated to &#39;establish a proletariat dictatorship&#39; or &#39;new people&#39;s democratic republic&#39; ostensibly through violent over throw of &#39;old regimes&#39; to a disciplined political party believing in a peaceful process of change is not unnatural. But, the most worrying factor is: it is taking too long a time to accept the changing realities of the world and declare that the party no longer remains &#39;a communist&#39; one. And, the debate also has been too fluid to shape a convincing new &#39;doctrine&#39; with a double edged sword which preserves the face of the communist party and, at the same time, adapts itself as a credible democratic force.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	To borrow the word from communist lingo, the &#39;class struggle&#39; within the party is at its height, but it is not two directional - between the exploiting and exploited classes as explained by Marx. It is in fact innumerably multi-directional and cover everything by a single &#39;blanket principle&#39; is requiring it to be too large to manage. There is still a fine dividing line between the factions that accept the JBJ as defined by Bhandari as a complete principle and that takes it only as one of the &#39;many&#39; components of philosophical evolution of the Party. KP Oli and Madhav Nepal, who are the two contenders for the post of chairman in the ninth convention, now represent these two factions respectively There is yet another traditional school that is not vocal but still considers JBJ hastened the aberration of the Party from a true communist force to operatives of &lsquo;comprador bourgeoisie. &#39;The current Party Chairman Jhalanath Khanal lost party leadership to Madan Bhandari in the fifth convention in 1993, as he campaigned in this potential aberration plank. By now, Khanal seems to be compelled to change as there is no escape from the vote politics, but the reservation to accept the JBJ as &#39;only&#39; guiding principle of the party still appears to be a bitter pill for him to swallow.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	There is also a tangible difference in opinion between the so called &lsquo;old school&rsquo; and the &lsquo;new school&rsquo;. The old school represented by the hawks of pre-panchayat underground era are persistent not to give-up the communist tag. The septuagenarian leader Bharat Mohan Adhikari categorically said, &lsquo;There is no need to change the party name to something that doesn&rsquo;t carry the word communist and the universal communist standard, hammer-and-sickle flag, should be retained.&rsquo; The new school, which calls itself a pragmatic left is keen to change the both, just limiting it to convey a &lsquo;socialistic&rsquo; meaning - far more softline approach than being a communist. The confusion has run long. So long that immediately after the UML formed a minority government in 1994, the Party dramatically removed the portraits of Marx and Lenin from the Party HQ meeting hall when the then US ambassador to Nepal visited UML headquarters. The act though was subject to acute mockery then but had a symbolic personification of confusion. First, it signified, the Party leadership had realized the redundancy of these figures but was unable to get rid of their hangovers. Second, from the inner self, it wanted to convey that the party doesn&rsquo;t want to be identified and viewed as the communist in classic sense of the term. And, the third, it wanted to interact with the world as liberal democratic or a social democratic force.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, over all these years, party has hardly been able to embark on this wishful direction it had then contemplated. All these confusions still persistently gnaw the party and all the policy debates still revolve around the same confusion &ndash; whether or not to remain a communist and how to keep-up with the pace of openness the world is now moving with. It is for this reason, different &lsquo;think tanks&rsquo; within the party are working to give a functional shape to their ideological basis such that it fits to modern-day political parlance.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	One of such recent exercises of the party has concluded that Nepali society has essentially become a capitalist one leaving behind the traditional agro related feudal production and productivity relations. This in fact is the theoretical basis to do away with the politics of proletarian supremacy and misery due to mass exploitation. However, the entire &lsquo;philosophical&rsquo; discourse suffers from a mindset that party cannot function without such &lsquo;grand narrative&rsquo;. The party very tactfully removed the anti-Indian and anti American diatribes as soon as it rode to power saddle in 1994, forming the first communist government in the world after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, that too through elections.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	At present, the issues of the centre-stage debate include the massive criminalization of the party politics by protecting and promoting goons and underworld operators, colloquially known as dons&ndash;the word borrowed from taekwondo. This began with when Bamdev Gautam was made Home Minister in 1997 under Rastryia Prajatantra Party-led coalition government. He allegedly opened all smuggling channels and protected them using the security establishment. KP Oli did the same when he was Home Minister and now many noted dons are in party rank and file. Madhav Nepal faction has devised its campaign strategy focusing on the theme of &lsquo;cleaning the party from goons.&rsquo; But the weight in the balance gradually appears to be tilting to the kings of the goons. Therefore, it will not be a surprise if Oli wins the race.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	Perhaps the greatest potential for the party to benefit arises from the fact that UCPN-Maoist is now forced to follow the same path the UML has traversed since its fifth convention. This can give a righteous sense of direction to the UML in making timely policy choices as a communist force that wants to survive in the competitive pluralistic politics. Theoretically speaking, UML should have been able to take great advantage given the vindication &nbsp;of timeliness JBJ. But, internal wrangling and factionalism has marred all its potentials of organizational growth.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the ninth convention inches closer, the campaign becomes nasty. The official manifestos of both Oli and Nepal do not differ much, which is an indication that there is not much differences in principles and policies. But when it comes to practical politics, the competition on mudslinging has crossed all possible decencies. Oli commands very strong organizational support and as an additional advantage Deputy Prime Minister BamdevGautam is in his favour. Oli&rsquo;s illness is debated in both the camps. Oli has tried to bank on his illness requesting to vote him for the last chance and Nepal faction has asked him to take &lsquo;rest&rsquo; on health grounds.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It would not be a practical assumption to expect UML to reincarnate by changing its name and revamping all of its communist ideologies . But the throb of need for this change is intensely realized, in more than one spheres &ndash; in ideology, organizational orientation, external relations and internal democracy. This certainly gives better hope for overall consolidation of country&rsquo;s democracy, sometime in near future.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) exhaustively braces up for its ninth general convention, July 3-9 that is perhaps likely to see the fiercest battle ever to take the reins of this four decade-old outfit. The good news is, unlike in any archetypical communist organization, the chairman and other major office bearers will be chosen democratically through the ballots of the party cadres.',
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			'id' => '2778',
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			'title' => 'Political Process: Tardy, Taxing And Tattered',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The leaders of all major political parties, including the Prime Minister Sushil Koirala are artlessly repeating the same statement: &#39;We will complete the drafting of the new constitution within a year&#39;; as if it is just the next day of the second Constituent Assembly (CA II) elections. They do not seem to realize a bare fact that exactly a good half of the year since these elections in the November last has elapsed without scoring any success in any front -- governance, diplomacy, legislation or constitution writing. The worst of all, lately things are hopelessly falling apart so as to making both the government and the CA once again hostage to essentially unnecessary bickering at the highest political level. Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Every possible executive decision is postponed without any tangible reason. In six months, the cabinet couldn&#39;t pick up twenty-six names to be appointed as CA members from among putatively the national &#39;elite&#39; personalities. The process of appointing of more than one and half dozen of ambassadors in important missions including New Delhi and Washington DC couldn&#39;t even begin. In absence of timely decision of Constitutional Council headed by the prime minister himself, the Supreme Court is left with mere five judges out of almost normally functional twenty positions. Ironically, the appointments in the prime minister&#39;s secretariat and National Planning Commission were not made in time. Almost all constitutional bodies too remain vacant. The advertisements published to fill in those constitutional positions like the commissioners in the Public Service Commission, National Human Rights Commission and the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, by a sort of free competition is not attracting any dignified figures. They are most likely to be filled by typically clerical minded ex-bureaucrats rendering these crucial institutions, once again, retrograde.</div>
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<div>
	The government is backtracking from the vowed commitments like holding local elections by this month (May). The parliamentary party leader of the major coalition partner CPN-UML, K P Oli from the hospital bed in New Delhi in mid-April declared that the local body elections will be held only after &#39;promulgating the new constitution&#39;. Apparently, his statement didn&#39;t come in consultation with the prime minister who still reiterates, though not convincingly, to hold these elections, may be by June end. The reasons cited not to hold the polls are clearly unpalatable. &#39;There is not enough time now to hold them before monsoon,&#39; said Oli. But nothing had stopped the government announcing it right after taking the oath of office. Clearly, there was no political will to take-up this issue in the right earnest. The second argument, which is abetted by the UCPN (Maoist) too, is that the concentration in the local elections would take the focus off the constitution writing process. It sounds as if the CA proceedings are now going at the right direction as per the popular expectation. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which, thus for all practical purposes smells rat in very faith of democracy of these leaders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	And, more importantly, it will not be as easy to hold local elections immediately after completing the draft of the constitution as claimed by the UML and UCPN Maoists. The reasons to it are obvious. First, it is highly unlikely that the constitution drafting process will be completed anytime soon. Even some form of draft is agreed upon, say in a year from now, the most likely scenario is that it cannot be promulgated without going into more costly exercises like referendum. Therefore, postponing local elections now means that they are postponed again for an unforeseeable future, which indeed is highly unfortunate. The common people now need the local democratic institutions in place far more than the constitution, which indeed is the largely esoteric proposition for them compared to the elected local government next door. Once again the democracy has been ditched.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The public speeches of the Deputy Prime Minister Bamdev Gautam from UML sound as if his party is not a junior partner but a majority government that has &#39;mercifully&#39; appended the Nepali Congress to be its partner. In all these orchestra of fools, the Prime Minister Koirala remains as faceless as ever. When the country desperately awaits his bold and speedy decisions in more than one front, he seems to have chosen to cover his absolute non-performance by cheap publicity stunts of forsaking some allowances and perks and avoiding five-star hotel accommodations. Such tantrums cannot be substitute to the aspired effective delivery of goods from the chief executive of the nation. If Koirala had real intentions of giving a clean and effective government to the nation and upholding the democratic practice, he should have guts to tell his coalition partners not to nominate ministers that were not the elected members of parliament and those who are the kiths and kins of the influential leaders of the fringe parties.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Both the CA and legislature parliament have been rendered equally non-functional. In over four months, CA has failed to elect the subject committee conveners that are supposed to be key to formulate and moot respective constitutional provisions for discussion in the House. The chair of the crucial constitutional committee in CA remains vacant as of these lines were written. The CA virtually has not been given any business. Attendance in the scheduled meetings is so low that many of scheduled House sessions are often cancelled for lack of presence of minimum required number of members known as &#39;quota&#39;. Even the orientation of the (new) CA members about their roles, responsibilities and duties was not thought necessary.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The legislature parliament too is equally ineffective. Not only it has fallen short to ponder over the bottlenecks that the country is faced with in absence of laws in many spheres, it has also failed to pass a number of important bills that are gathering dust in wait of votes for years. The new bill on Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) has further estranged the Maoists from supposedly collaborative political process. The former jungle warfare Maoist guerrillas who are in favour of nothing less than blanket amnesty to them in the guise of &#39;wartime issues&#39; are highly apprehensive of legal action on many of them if the bill is allowed to pass as proposed by the joint committee of political parties. If the bill is made law as in the spirit spelt out by UML leader Oli, the Maoists&#39; rank and file may crumble like house of cards in legal battle on crime against humanity. &#39;Except for the deaths at the frontline, those involved in killings by dragging out persons from their beds at the midnight, killing them by plucking out the eyes, amputating the body parts and hanging or burying them alive cannot be put off the legal purview&#39;, he thundered a few weeks ago. He sounds fairly reasonable. But will that bring about solution to the political stalemate? Or, will this bill actually become an Act and implemented accordingly? These however are more pressing questions altogether.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Maoists have already begun their non-cooperation by boycotting even entirely unrelated political processes in protest of the current form of the TRC bill. It may be recalled that such a commission was part of the Comprehensive Peace Accord of 2006, thus a crucial part of the peace process. The formation of it was deliberately avoided during the past CA tenure of four years when the country saw two Maoist prime ministers in the period.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	The another bone of contention has become the so called High Level Political Committee (HLPC) that was in existence during the last CA, and was considered largely responsible for derailing the due CA process; making it hostage to ever-elusive political consensus. Interestingly, the three major parties -the Congress, UML and Maoists did appeared to have agreed about a couple of months ago to revive it. But, when the UCPN (Maoist) supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal insisted on being the convener of it, other parties took it as his ambition to be a &#39;super&#39; prime minister and wanted to thwart the process. The constitutionality of this mechanism has always been under the interrogation mark and its actions in the past surely undermined the elected House.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	All forms of slackness, inactions, procrastinations, machinations and squabbles have been highly taxing for the country. The perils are pronounced. The economy is in absolute tatters. New investment is not even trickling in. Governance and public service delivery have collapsed. People are exasperated for unnecessarily prolonged political transition. The hope of at least relative consolidation of democratic institutors after the Congress and UML jointly got majority in the House is now waning rapidly. The constitution writing process is still precariously fragile. Only solution to all these ailments is to act and act fast. The lead should unquestionably be taken by the ruling alliance and the prime minister in particular.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'Thanks to dysfunctional prime minister, over-bullying major coalition partner CPN-UML and non-cooperative, ever-apprehensive and confused main opposition UCPN Maoist.',
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			'title' => 'Mirage Of A New Force',
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	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On May 15th, 2014, the senior deputy prime minister and, at that point in time, acting president of the ruling major coalition CPN-UML, Bam Dev Gautam, was happily dancing on a folk tune at a public function. On the same day, Nepal Human Development Report was released in another public function in a five-star hotel that ranked Nepal the lowest in the Human Development Index (HDI) even among the South Asian countries; let alone the global rank. The next day, the so called mainstream media placed Gautam&#39;s news on the front page with picture as if it were a major national happening while the HDI news was pushed asa routine filler to 9th or 17th page as if it were amere ritual.This is Nepal&#39;s eco-political reality personified, reflecting the degree of (in) sensitivity of both politics and media to the development and prosperity related issues of the country.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	What is it that makes politicians like Gautam so happy while country is at absolute political mess and economic stagnation, if not recession, for decades? It is unambiguously sheer apathy and ignorance of gravity of the situation that is coupled with vested interests and remnants of feudal psyche of a ruler. The current set of Nepal&#39;s all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s. Their last philosophical reorientation had taken place perhaps in the 1990, for the movement to reinstate the multi-party democracy by toppling the panchayat oligarchy. This 60-above generation has been left far behind in updating the knowledge required to run a country. They have been untouched by mesmerizing revolution mainly in information and communication technology, transportation and emerging new world order in power politics. For this reason, these leaders have failed to understand the aspirations of time and the generation that represents here-and-now. They have not even learnt the art to dream for the better future of the country and her people.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	All these realities together, the persistent poverty and backwardness and apparent vacuum in leadership that is still willing to strive for ameliorating them, warrants a new political force that hopefully possesses desirable qualities like right kind of motive, integrity, energy, vision and willingness to serve the nation. Until such a new force replaces the existing parochial order, things too are obvious not to change for the better.</div>
<div>
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<div>
	The need for such a force was acutely realized when the first constituent assembly (CA) despite its four year-long tenure ended without delivering a draft for a new constitution. The incessant blame game among the parties for the failures and their uniform adamancy to transform themselves with time multiplied the public disenchantment on them. The need of displacing these parties was more intensely felt after the current incumbent government formed even after the second CA elections appears completely dysfunctional and, mostly averse to the democratic norms in whatever little move sit is making. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala&#39;s unwanted &#39;lobbying&#39; to save the Judicial Council&#39;s controversial nominations to Supreme Court Judges is one of glaring examples of such aberrations. On fulfilling his own responsibility he has miserably failed, not even able to nominate 26 CA members through a cabinet decision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Nepal&#39;s political history has witnessed literally hundreds of incidents of leaders or would-be leaders trying to form &#39;new&#39; political force at different junctures of time. But all of them in due course proved to be either protest outcomes to the mother partyby a dissenter or a newer interest group serving to a small circle of its constituents. Dozens of breakaways of communist parties and recent similar divisions in Terai-based parties may be everything as they claim but surely not the political parties of the quality that the country is desperately looking for, for long time now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Lately, the UCPN Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai took the debate on the topic to newer heights by proposing a &#39;need of a new political force to address the new challenges the new Nepal faces.&#39; This initially appeared to be a statement aimed to fill the overarching gap of the national political vacuum by establishing a new, forward-looking, dynamic and democratic outfit. It created ripples too, at least among the left ideologues. But eventually, after much ado, Baburam&#39;s proposition of new force, at least for now,turned out to be nothing more than a trump-card to bargain barely some more space within the party from his party chief Puspa Kamal Dahal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The current series of debate also revealed a philosophical dichotomy in articulation of needs of such a new force. The more aggressive advocacy, or to some extent endeavours to form such a force from the communist ideologues, borne out of worries to contextualize their own existence in multi-party competitive politics that is inevitably going to be the political mainstay for the future. This sphere of debate therefore has focused more on rewriting archaic communist dogmas and replacing arcane vocabularies like &#39;power only from the barrel of the gun,&#39; &lsquo;dictatorship of the proletariat,&#39; &#39;class elimination&#39; etc. with more contemporaneous political jargons. Clearly, for those indoctrinated under Marx, Lenin or Mao-developed literatures, this simple departure has been difficult and piecemeal, yet inadequate to democratize themselves even at par of existing, relatively democratic forces like Nepali Congress. Therefore, birth of a true new force that is capable of addressing nation&#39;s overall governance and deemed prosperity considerations, through this slanted process is absolutely unlikely. However, if this process at least could transform some of communist outfits to reasonable democratic forces that too would be a desirable outcome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another sphere of the debate is, rather should have been, to explore the possibility of creating such a force that has some blueprint to address Nepal&#39;s multi-faceted problems which have rendered the country to a virtual brink of becoming a failed-state. Crisis of governance, deficit of democracy, bleeding economy and pervasive hopelessness of the common masses are some of the immediate concerns which, if not addressed soon, may in fact degrade the country to anarchy, unmanageable even in the long run. But, the current expanse and depth of the debate do not seem enough to give rise to such an all-encompassing political force. Surely, some of rational thinkers from academia and media tried to take the current discourse beyond the cocoons of the communist jargonism, but the triggerers of it from the Left band seemed unwilling to step out of Marxist philosophical umbrella.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Coming back to Bhattarai again, he appears to be less-than-ready to completely forsakethe UCPN Maoist at present. Understandably, it is difficult to desert political Alma Mater. But, at times it is more difficult to mould it to fit to the contemporary need, which justifies conception of the new force. Despite hiccups, Bhattarai has been reiterating the need of such a force. &#39;It may take a few years for such a force to take a shape&#39;, he said in an interaction in the third week of May. His recent China visit was also reported to be to gauge the pulse of Beijing on his plan, without jeopardizing his &#39;warm&#39; relations with New Delhi. For this reason, he dubbed his visit as &#39;pilgrimage to Mansarovar&#39; and chose to set the travel camp not in Beijing but Lhasa, the capital of Tibet autonomous region of China. But, the Chinese authorities left no stone unturned to accord his visit an official status fitting to a former prime minister of a neighbouring country. A number of high officials made a point to travel from Beijing for political discussions with him.With change in guards in New Delhi, he probably has to strike a different chord to attract attention from India&#39;s ruling rightwing Bharatiya Janta Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. If Modi could prevail over India&#39;s bureaucracy, he would perhaps like to see Nepal still a Hindu state, in contrary to Bhattarai&#39;s brandishing of Nepal as a secular state. This may need further fine-tuning of his new plans.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&lsquo;Why should only Bhattarai be at the centre of discussion for this new political force under consideration&rsquo; is a valid question. The common masses still consider him perhaps the most talented persona currently active in Nepali politics. While in government, particularly when he was the finance minister, he came out untainted in shady financial dealings. And, he is the one who is now unambiguously advocating of the need to transform the communist forces to democratic ones, which indeed is crucial component for the democratic future of Nepal. But, Bhattarai doesn&#39;t fully seem to realizehis strengths and perhaps lacks confidence to renounce the ideology that he has so far kept so close to his chest. But, still he could be the best choice to lead such a force if he dares to drop the old cloak and readies himself to lead a new Nepal.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Again, regardless of whether Bhattarai can exhibit enough courage to spear head a new force or not, the relevance and importance of it has been realized more intensely than ever before. The rampant criminalization of politics by the existing parties, their out of date &nbsp;- out of place leadership, sheer apathy to the needs and priorities of the country, widespread corruption on public resources and increasing culture of impunity, among many other malaises, are unlikely to be corrected by the existing forces. Or, just correction may not be enough. The culture of irresponsibility has become the norm in exercising, misusing to be precise, the state power.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For a rational and functional political force to come into being, Nepal undoubtedly needed a more systematic discourse on the topic involving all ideologies and all possible identities. For last seven decades, Nepal as a nation has chased the dream of such a nationalist democratic force, but it still remains a game of chasing a mirage. The current debate has reignited hope, but just hope is not enough. Therefore, we only have leaders dancing in a wrong tune at the wrong time.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
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			'description' => 'The current set of Nepal's all influential politicians, generally all across the parties, were indoctrinated during late 60s or early 70s.',
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			'title' => 'Undemocratic Overtures',
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	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections. But there is still doubt on the possibility of these elections being held by end of June this year. It has been sixteen years since these elections were held last and the term of the office bearers expired some twelve years ago. In the absence of democratically elected local bodies, the public service delivery, grassroots public works and institution of democracy have faltered to the hilt. The consequences are apparent -- the capital expenditure for years has been far less than the allocated targets, the GDP growth has stagnated at yearly average of 3.5 percent for last eight years despite the fact that country has enjoyed relative political peace during this period, and the emergence of new generation of leadership in any possible political formation has been nipped in the bud.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even now, the dampener to the call to these crucial polls comes as a single voice of both factions of the Maoist parties that parted ways some three years ago, led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Mohan Vaidya respectively. From the ideological prism, the opposition to the polls by the Maoists looks all natural. And, it was expected from the Vaidya group given the fact that it remained out of the second Constituent Assembly (CA) elections held in last November. But, by contrast, the move appears rather anachronistic for Dahal and his party (UCPN Maoist) that has vowed to remain in competitive politics of ballots despite all odds. The political plunder the Party is now venturing into may well turn out to be a mammoth blunder not only for Dahal and Co. but for the entire country and the democratic process itself.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to decipher Dahal&#39;s calculations to oppose these polls. He is apprehensive of poor outcome for his party if it goes to polls without uniting the Vaidya faction. On top of it, not only Maoists, every party other than UML is fearful of the local polls conducted when Bamdev Gautam is at the helm of Ministry of Home Affairs. However, the opposition to these polls from Vaidya comes as entirely different reason: this group is determined to go against any proposition made by the parties in CA and under the present scheme of political arrangements. It is in fact Vaidya&#39;s chosen plank since it separated from the mother party UCPN Maoist.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But to hide real shortcomings, Dahal has adopted a new but unambiguously anti-democratic stance in the form of opposing these polls. &nbsp;His formal premise of this opposition is: the inevitable engagement of the government and political parties in the local elections would divert the focus away from the constitution writing. He has also trained his party rank and file to rant out that the poll competition among the parties would bitter the differences that could be reflected in constitution writing. &#39;It hardly causes any grave damage if we defer the polls by seven or eight months for these local bodies that have remained vacant for last sixteen years,&#39; Dahal has unequivocally said.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Apparently, Dahal&#39;s statement lacks creativity and craftsmanship. Every politician who wanted to procrastinate on the local elections through all these years has used the same platitude, pointing to some larger political urgency or priority to be addressed before these &#39;trivial&#39; polls. When the term of the local office-bearers expired, the Maoist insurgency had swept the country. The priority was &#39;saving democracy from terrorism&#39;. When the peace deal was sealed in 2006, agenda of saving the peace process overshadowed the local polls. Then, in 2008, the CA elections were natural priority. The Interim Constitution 2007 didn&#39;t even incorporate a provision for local elections, which is a real shame on our constitutionalism and so-called experts who drafted it. When the first CA came into existence, influencing experts had a take, &#39;since entire nation were to be federalised, the local elections would only be a nuisance in the larger process of restructuring the state.&#39; When the extended tenure of the first CA expired without writing the constitution, sense of national loss was so overwhelming; no leader had time to ponder over these &#39;unimportant&#39; local elections. Then came the second CA elections and existence. The change in political equations gave birth to NC-UML coalition in government that fortunately has begun at least the talk of these polls. But, unfortunately, efforts are already on to stall them.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The crucial questions here are: Were all those cited reasons both necessary and sufficient conditions to procrastinate the local elections at different political turning points? Were these &#39;local&#39; elections so unimportant at the face of other &#39;national&#39; agenda? And, do they still deserve to be pushed further away in this or that pretext? Answer to all these questions is one big NO, but the background that leads to this simple NO is excruciatingly painful and treacherous.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The first and perhaps the most powerful of all explanations is that the central leadership of any party strongly hated these elections. After 1992 local elections, the NC and UML saw that many articulate, learned young cadres elected as local leaders attracted national and international attention. They were the first to woo the public confidence as they had resources, public position and closest contact to the grassroots population. This created a very real threat of displacement to the national leadership if such a &#39;mass manufacturing&#39; of young breed of leaders were continued. A simple example to vindicate it could be enough to compute the proportion of members in current or past CAs that were elected in those local bodies during 1990s. The best way to allay this threat of &#39;big&#39; leaders was to stop this practice altogether wherever and whenever possible. The Maoist who came to mainstream through Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) 2006, were no different from NC or UML in this regard.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If that were not the case, there was not any convincing reason to not hold the local polls at least after the CPA. Had local bodies come into existence then, it could have been a great vehicle to bring the local political leadership of different parties at the same political platform. It could also have been the most effective mechanism to deliver the putative &#39;peace dividend&#39; to the people in general. These polls could have been conducted at the sidelines of both CA elections without much additional logistical and security costs. But, to repeat, leadership of no major party was honestly interested to hold these elections. Even the CA members were (still are) against it. Their naive complaint used to be &#39;DDC chairman, or a mayor, with all facilities and resources at his disposal is more powerful than a member of CA or legislature.&#39; These are real impediments&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	to these polls than any fabricated political logic.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Otherwise, these local elections on their own merit are very important from every possible paradigm of democracy, development, decentralization and true devolution of power. One can also convincingly argue that inputs to the constitution writing, state restructuring and political reconciliation would have come in more institutionalized fashion had these local bodies with elected representatives remained functional.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The argument that the local elections would derail or deviate the constitution writing process is extremely preposterous to say the least. First, the CA couldn&#39;t draft a constitution in four years of last CA where such polls were not even contemplated. And, there is no real trade-off between these two goals - namely, the constitution writing and holding the local polls. The CA can without aberration continue the process of writing the constitution. The Election Commission (EC) and the government can handle the logistics and other preparations for the local polls. The argument that local elections impair the possible political cooperation among the political parties is outright unpolitical. All the forces who believe in the rules of democracy cannot harbour animosity just for the fact that people voted for one party against other.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On the contrary, local polls and the constitution writing, if managed wisely, can be mutually reinforcing and complementary processes. It is repeated in uncountable instances that without a framework of state restructuring incorporated, the constitution writing process cannot be completed. These local democratic bodies can serve as the real feedback institutions for delineations of the provinces and other administrative and electoral units. More importantly, these institutions will be the real tool to manage unrealistically spiraling ambitions of people with largely misrepresented notions of rights, inclusiveness and reservations, among many other.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It appears that all contentious issues on constitution writing will not be resolved by the sitting CA and all major leaders have categorically said that these issues will be resolved through a referendum if required. This is a clear hint that completion of constitution writing may take several years. If such a scenario is imminent, it is illogical to stop the local elections from taking place now. Suppose, even if this CA completes the constitution drafting process, the promulgation of the same is not going to be easy. But, if these legitimate institutions are in place, they can help to create an atmosphere for relatively smoother promulgation. An elected political leader is far more responsible apparatus of the state mechanism than the one left in the streets just to protest on every petty issue.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even in the worst case scenario, say, the local elections delay the constitution writing by a few months; it is still a risk worth to be taken. With the local bodies in operation, people can feel the real strength and utility of the democracy than the distant CA or a vague constitution. It is however not to mean to undermine the importance of the constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is good to know that EC has reportedly started preparation for all required legal backdrop, including the amendment in the Interim Constitution 2007 to include the provisions for local polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Everyone should be convinced that no democratic exercise of any fashion would weaken the democracy. A pragmatic rethinking is required on the part of the Maoists and real courage in government to translate its own promise of holding local elections into reality, sooner.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
	<em>The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.</em></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-04-09',
			'modified' => '2014-06-08',
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			'description' => 'The national debate on holding the local body elections -- for the Village Development Committees (VDCs), Municipalities and District Development Committees (DDCs) -- is at its high after one and half decades, but the very prospect of the same actually taking place still whirls in the rough waters. No doubt, one of the most positive outcomes of the Nepali Congress (NC)-CPN UML coalition government is that it moved positively to hold the local body elections.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2760',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Retreat Of The Meek Fellow',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, the new coalition government has taken a shape. But it took complete three months since the second elections to the Constituent Assembly (CA-II), on 19th of November, 2013. Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered and temporarily back-tracked on this commitment; once he got sworn in to the post. It invited a nasty public exchange of diatribes between the leaders of the ruling Nepali Congress and major partner, the UML. But, if he wanted to save his government, Koirala had no other viable alternative to succumbing to UML demands of Home Ministry to be led by none other than the &#39;big muscled&#39; &nbsp;UML Vice-chairman Bamdev Gautam. Koirala&#39;s space of political maneuvering was further tapered by complete non-cooperation from his own party colleague Sher Bahadur Deuba which compounded the task of giving a complete shape to the government. The perception of insecurity in Koirala was not unfounded. He indeed was apprised of the potential danger by those who have knowledge of informal level of intimacy between Deuba and UML Parliamentary Party leader K P Oli. Unlike Koirala, who hardly suffered any mention-worthy length of jail term during the panchyat days, Deuba and Oli for years spent in the same prison cell. And, now they share same wavelength of banter and modus operandi of &#39;practical politics&#39; of money, muscle, maneuvering and machinations.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As the bare arithmetic in the House has it, Nepali Congress doesn&rsquo;t have any other option than placating the UML unless it had chosen to appease both UCPN (Maoists) and Rastriya Prajatantra Party Nepal (RPP-N) to sum up to the magic number of three hundred and one to save the government. But, the latter option to materialize involved a lot of ground-work and maneuvering, yet disposing the possible coalition always to walk on the razor-edge. Nonetheless, given the track record of the UML, the Maoists and the RPP-N would perhaps have been relatively easier bed-fellows for Congress. Yet, it is mere a conjecture.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unpleasant episode of Home Ministry row at the very initial days of the Koirala-led coalition has three clear indications. First, Koirala as the prime minster has very little flexibility than resorting to the politics of give-and-take. Second, he takes hard stances at wrong turnings, the only consequence of which is to back-track rather humiliatingly, virtually in no time. Third, no party is reading the crucial arithmetic of the House before resorting to high-pitched verbal bashing in a political reality that is mandated for nothing but a coalition rule.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Why is the Home Ministry such a big controversy in every stage of government formation? Not only in the cross-party power sharing as is now, there are instances even when a single party majority rule, the portfolio is contested to the extreme among the aspirants. There may be some political arguments forwarded by its minister-aspirants to bag the post, but the craving is rather a political anti-thesis. This time around, Gautam could convince his party that the party would perform better if he became the home minister. The Congress aspirants who stopped Koirala from conceding the ministry to UML have had similar claims. Essentially, these were just the premonitions to destabilize and debase democracy by advocating straight rigging in the elections, misusing the state machinery. But the current political values of Nepal seem to have, unfortunately, accepted is as part of the game. If we evaluated history, any such impact of altering election results or adding the political clout of the party awarded with this portfolio, however, are mere perceptive fallacies. The reality is something different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The Home Ministry is a marrying point of politics with crime. Apart from possible corruption avenues, the minister will have unhindered access to unearmarked security expenses under titles like &#39;for intelligence operation&#39; and &#39;FADA&#39; (financial assistance, donation and awards). Being the joint head of the civil administration with extensive quasi-judicial rights at the district level represented by the chief district officers (CDOs) and of two police organizations ensure the incumbent a stream of incomes in enormous sizes. Such lucre comes from every source you can think of, or may be even beyond that, including the contrabands, counterfeits, smuggling, extortion and human trafficking. Therefore, it is not any surprise why every ex-home minister has a noted underworld operator under his protection and some parties have even given them seats in the party central committees. That is that.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In his entire political career, Koirala&#39;s main working strategy has been the procrastination of the crucial decisions. This old habit of his doesn&#39;t seem to have died, even though he is the prime minister now. At his personal level, indecision comes in two forms; he doesn&#39;t read any file to be decided upon, it depends on some of his &#39;trusted&#39; lieutenants to do the job and brief him. And, he doesn&#39;t &#39;trust&#39; those briefings too and begins to investigate whether there could be any vested interest involved of the person who briefed thus. And, the safest he finds is not to decide anything. This is not a desirable quality in any chief executive, that too of Nepal in these pressing hours when many important agenda await decisions, rather sooner.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The phrase &#39;within one year&#39; becomes a wont in tongue of all major politicians in the coalition. The initial promise was to write and promulgate the new constitution within a year from the date of the CA elections-II. It is now the fourth month running since and parties are signing so called agreements to deliver a constitution again, within a year. The understanding between the two major coalition partners, Congress and UML, to shuffle the prime ministership after a year makes us apprehensive. Implicitly, they are saying shamelessly, that the constitution will not be written within a year from now on. The intentions are not honest.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For now, Koirala&#39;s quest for corruption-free governance is a task impossible in view of the coalition made shaky by severe intra-party wranglings and factionalisms in both of the major ruling parties. Gautam at the helm of Home Ministry is sure to let loose all possible &#39;channels&#39; of illegal trade in gold, currencies and goods. He proudly repeats &#39;one year in the ministry is enough to finance the personal politics for a decade and even larger benefit to the party in the longer-term.&#39; It is not difficult to foresee that Koirala would helplessly witness the drama of the ministers who behave more smartly than himself, albeit merely in their vested interests. Technically, he cannot afford to break the coalition. In practice, he cannot assert designs due to his meekness. And, politically he is a redundant deadwood who doesn&#39;t enthuse with vision and mission of his own, and keeps on bungling processes as he did in forming the current government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	He has severe diplomatic drawbacks. He is not &#39;wholly&#39; trusted by the southern neighbour. There was a point in history when he was alleged of having connections with the people with dubious backgrounds like late Jamin Shah and the likes who were suspected of mobilizing funds from suspicious sources. The West is apprehensive for the same reason as India is and China knows &#39;very little&#39; about him as their official press points out. Therefore, his identity crisis couples with his crisis of confidence to run the government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to see that even the second CA election has not taught any lesson to our leaders. Therefore, the priority is still being given to power-sharing games than to writing of the constitution. As pointed out by UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal that constitution is &#39;unlikely&#39; to be written even by this CA appears to be self-fulfilling. The priorities of the coalition partners are different from constitution writing. The Oli-Gautam duo in UML wants to exploit every possible benefit of being in the government to win the party presidency for Oli in its national convention slated for coming May. There is even a widespread concern that the local elections now considered for April might be pushed further away due to the convention to elect new executive.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are enormous challenges and externalities. Leaders like Dahal and Kamal Thapa of RPP-N would be happier to see that this coalition failed, just because they wanted to prove that no one is better in terms of delivery. Being in the government is perhaps the sweetest part of the cake. When the process of finalizing the provisions of the new constitution actually begins, demands and impediments from outside of CA are likely to rule the roost. Madhesis, janjatis and pro-identity federalist have plans of forwarding their agenda through protests on streets to incorporate them in the constitution; ignoring the fact that they were largely rejected by the voters. The moves of Maoist-Baidya group could even be more irksome.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The only good sign is that the two largest parties in the CA have been able to form a coalition. A couple of other fringe parties have come to their support. Ideologically, the coalition is perhaps the closest-- best explained by their unconditional stance on ballot-based democracy. Above all, the coalition commands more than two-thirds of majority in CA and the Legislature Parliament.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But the prime minister must develop a habit of deciding things than only being a meek onlooker. And, the work on constitution writing must now begin without any further delay.</div>',
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			'created' => '2014-03-11',
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			'description' => 'Prime Minister Sushil Koirala who first allegedly agreed two weeks ago to entrust Home Ministry portfolio to its potentially unavoidable coalition partner, the CPN-UML, had flickered.',
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		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2393',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Elections Over, Not The Conflict',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>--By Achyut Wagle</strong></div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The final results of the both parts, first-past-the-post and proportional representation of the Constituent Assembly (CA)-II elections held on November 19, 2013 are now out. The fortunate part was that the polls could take place, barring some exceptions, in relative peaceful and largely fairly manner. The high-pitched verbal intimidations of poll-opposing parties, led by CPN-Maoist (Baidya) to disrupt the polls, for all practical purposes, turned out to be a hoax. The interim election government headed by the incumbent Chief Justice Khil Raj Regmi and Election Commission deserve appreciation for the effort they had put to make the polls a success, on the scheduled date. Mohan Baidya and his brigade of 33-party also deserve their due share of applause for not resorting to extreme violence which, given their strength, could have made the elections impossible. The support of international community for the elections was not in any way less important. A good silver-lining is that, Nepal slowly seems entering into an era of peaceful politics, for the groups like Baidya have too started to understand the importance of the less destructive politics.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Nepal&rsquo;s agenda of peace is far larger than the constitution itself. Lasting peace and a functional constitution in many contexts could be a &lsquo;chicken and egg&rsquo; story, but in our case, peace in the sense of non-violent politics, based on polls and opinions, has been the prerequisite to create a meaningful ambience and debate to begin to write a constitution; and ultimately to functionalise it. The entire objective of holding the second CA elections was in fact centered on Nepal&rsquo;s desire to transit from conflict to a constitutional era.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, what about the prospect of ending this conflict? It is the most excruciating of all questions and the answer is not yet emphatically affirmative. The only path to ending conflict is to respect the popular political mandate expressed through these ballots by all political forces of the country. And, the culture of such respect comes only out of unflinching faith on democracy and adherence to its true norms. This unfortunately, has long been one big black-hole in Nepali politics. The politics here is dominated by the &lsquo;opportunistic democrats&rsquo; in the guise of the left forces of all names and hues and the some regressive rightists. As long as they can exploit legitimate constitutional means they would utilise that and, the moment their constitutional might is in the receiving end, they, particularly the communists, would immediately resort to violent tactics to capitulate the State authority. The newly emerged regional forces are no different.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	These features have become real bottlenecks to Nepal&rsquo;s democracy and peaceful politics. In addition to it, there is a cognizable force led by Maoist-Baidya which had ab initio boycotted this election process, thus posses extra challenge to the very functionality of the new CA. The forces now badly defeated in polls are also in all likelihood to resort to alternative course of violence to make their existence felt. The respect for popular mandate would be the first victim and ensured peace therefore could still be a mirage for a long time to come.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Regardless of that gloomy side of the picture, these elections have given clear mandate to write a pluralistic, democratic constitution. The people have put Nepali Congress on the lead closely followed by the CPN-UML with the duo jointly constituting almost two-thirds of the 601-member CA. The Congress as the oldest democratic force of the country and the UML by now transformed into liberal left force with faith on ballots than bullets have substantially increased the hopes of institutionalizing democracy, polity of plurality and patience for peaceful policy through the new constitution.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	These elections pushed CPN-United Maoists into the third from the first position in the last CA. People were apparently deeply apprehensive about their agenda of &lsquo;ethnicity and caste-based federalism&rsquo; which might easily boil down to ethnic tensions and violence. The rise of staunchly pro-monarchist RPP-Nepal as the fourth force in the CA, is in fact an additional retort to the Maoist agenda of &lsquo;secularism&rsquo; in place of the Hindu state and ethnicity-based federalism at the cost of national integrity. The forces in the last CA with all potentially divisive voices have been virtually obliterated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The people&rsquo;s vote to every party has a very clear message - well balanced and well defined. This in aggregate gives idea about the kind of constitution people are looking for. The near two-thirds majority jointly to the Congress and UML means that the constitution should unambiguously be democratic in its essence. On federalism, people upheld the &lsquo;capability based federalism with the state ensuring multiple identity&rsquo;. &nbsp;The relegation of UCPN (Maoists) to the third position is still an opportunity to transform itself into a credible democratic force that doesn&rsquo;t believe in provoking religious and communal sentiments to have its political ends met. People didn&rsquo;t prefer the concept of all-powerful president proposed by the UCPN (Maoists) but have favoured to the idea of ceremonial president with elected prime minister with all executive powers as was proposed by the Congress and the UML to the voters.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even if the RPP-Nepal chooses to interpret its resurgence to the fourth force as people&rsquo;s increasing faith on monarchy, it is reading the wrong message. It is in fact a wish of a considerable number of &lsquo;cow-worshiping&rsquo; Hindu voters to retain the identity of Nepal as &lsquo;some sort of&rsquo; Hindu state. It is a clear serendipity that the party&rsquo;s election emblem happens to be the &lsquo;holy&rsquo; cow, which reaped an intrinsic symbolic advantage.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The regional parties, mainly from Madhesh, putatively with a separatist overture are largely sidelined by no other than the Madheshi voters. But, again, they still jointly could have been the forth force. The factionalism and petty interests in them have taken the toll on them. Therefore, their strength must not be underestimated.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Putting all these aspects together, the future shape of the constitution becomes clear. &nbsp;Nepal will be a republic with a ceremonial president and elected executive prime minister. The federalism must not be based on single-ethnic identity alone but first on capability and them multiple identity. The division of provinces cannot be like the one of &lsquo;one-Madhesh-one-province&rsquo; as those manifestoes are clearly rejected. People want some form of religious &lsquo;Hindu identity&rsquo; than being unconditionally secular state.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, all these mandates could translate into constitutional provisions only if the constitution drafting process is not trampled by sheer non-respect to the popular mandate. Its ominous signs are already at the doorsteps. The UCPN (Maoist) along with other forces failing to fare as expected in elections are alleging &lsquo;structural rigging&rsquo; of the polls and threatening to boycott the CA process. &nbsp;Such politics of violence and blackmailing is not only likely to jeopardise the whole prospect of a truly democratic constitution but also distort and disturb the entire process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The onus of taking the entire process to ensure a democratic yet implementable constitution unquestionably lies on the shoulders of the Congress and the UML. They have the strength and the mandate and international support. But the danger is, their priority and efforts might just be limited to grab or share the state power and constitution writing might be pushed to shadow again, like in the past.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The rampant tri-forked factionalism in these both parties could pose a real stumbling block to the smooth sail of the process. The CPN-UML President Jhala Nath Khanal has already proposed that the two parties should lead the government on turnkey basis. But in both parties it is going to be a herculean task to select their prime ministerial candidate at first. Each of them has at least three front runners for the job. In Congress, the Party President Shushil Koirala, Senior Leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Party Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel are vying for, actually dying for, the post. Similarly, in UML, President Khanal, Senior Leader Madhav Kumar Nepal and powerful faction leader KP Oli have claim with their own logic of respective suitability. The natural democratic way out could be electing a parliamentary party leader in them and assigning the responsibility, but it is surely not going to be this simple; as even the defeated ones would continue to move their pawns for a checkmate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If the practice of premiership on turnkey is adopted between the Congress and the UML, why not even smaller parties got proportionate duration of time to head the government according to their strength? At least, they will not fall short of claiming it. All this means is, entire exercise might just be concentrated in making and unmaking of the government. The politics of consensus, no doubt, is imperative to make constitution writing a reality, but the need of consensus shouldn&rsquo;t be a tool to blackmail power, against the popular mandate.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Needless to say, this CA election has not been very instrumental to put the potential political conflict at the backburner for it excluded some potentially violent forces from the election process itself. The new political equation is more likely to give space to new form of frictions. In view of massive international financing to make Nepal &lsquo;secular&rsquo; and ethnic boiling pot and voters&rsquo; clear mandate against it, this is going to be a real source of conflict afresh. When Congress leads the process and the RRP-Nepal led by Kamal Thapa becomes a balancing force, it might repeat the infamous &lsquo;horse-trading&rsquo; episode of 1996.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<em>(The writer is former editor of Aarthik Abhiyan National Daily.)</em></div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2014-01-04',
			'modified' => '2014-01-04',
			'keywords' => 'new business age  nepal politics news & articles, nepal politics news & articles from new business age nepal, nepal politics headlines from nepal,  current and latest nepal politics news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali nepal politics economic news and events,  ongoing  nepal politics ne',
			'description' => 'The final results of the both parts, first-past-the-post and proportional representation of the Constituent Assembly (CA)-II elections held on November 19, 2013 are now out. The fortunate part was that the polls could take place, barring some exceptions, in relative peaceful and largely fairly manner.',
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	(int) 11 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2087',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Govern Like A Government',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	One of the influential leaders in the United CPN Maoist Party -- UCPN (M), Barsha Man Pun has recently alleged that present government has started to behave like a &lsquo;political government.&rsquo; If that is the case, it is doing the right thing. The government must behave like a political than technical government, which can only solve political problems. It is irrelevant by now to keep hammering on the very nature of its structure just because a special kind of political equations that led to form this.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Once formed, it is the government of the country and it should function like a government, not as puppet show. Moreover, it is the government awarded with wider political legitimacy in the form of &lsquo;first consensus government in years&rsquo;. Every other petty detail automatically gets pushed to the background.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is no longer a news, rather a foregone conclusion, that the polls are impossible, at least, until November. Of course, it would still be a grand success story if they could be held by the end of this year, 2013. The growing inaction of the government has redoubled the doubts that are already thick in the air as regards real possibility of holding elections.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No doubt, it was perhaps one of the greatest mistakes that Nepal&rsquo;s political leaders made by choosing the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Khil Raj Regmi, to head the election government. To add to the woes, leaders of the four political parties through the High-level Political Mechanism are trying to control the government. It must be mentioned here that any such mechanism doesn&rsquo;t have a constitutional validation. Anything the Mechanism forwards can only be recommendatory, not mandatory for the government to adhere to. And if certain political parties are capable to continue to exert such pressure, how could the elections held by this government be free and fair?&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This unnecessary practice has given rise to a double-fold nuisance. First, it has greatly affected the performance of the government. It sometimes appears as waiting for the &lsquo;direction&rsquo; from the Mechanism and, sometimes tries to assert its own course of actions. The end result is: it has lost its direction and pace. Second, it has created a situation where for all the failures of the government, it can directly put blame on the Mechanism and for any success it can claim its own.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Therefore, the political leadership should now come out of the mindset of plying a guardian angel to the government. It is only way that this government can be made responsible to its national duties and accountable to political contract of holding the Constituent Assembly elections sooner. But this rationality doesn&rsquo;t seem to have dawned upon the political top-hats of our country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The world has taken well into account that these four political leaders jointly declared themselves incapable of leading this country. They doubted their own level of integrity such that heading an election government by one of them would not produce impartial poll results. This was what led the situation of Regmi becoming the head of the government, virtually out of the blue.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It looks rather clumsy on the part of same set of leaders to act as the true &lsquo;drivers&rsquo; of the government. One of glaringly gauche example is the UCPN (M) Chairman Puspa Kamal Dahal&rsquo;s posture while departing for the &lsquo;official&rsquo; tour of China and then to India in the second and the third week of April, respectively. He tried to portray himself as a virtual head of the government going for a state visit, particularly in his dealing with media at home. But it is now a public knowledge how these countries matched the protocol to this visit. Outcome of course is limited to him, if any at all. But these things don&rsquo;t seem to have deterred our set of leaders feigning as grand saviours.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For this behaviour of our political leaders, Regmi and his cabinet colleagues have found more excuses, and, ironically, time to inaugurate painting exhibition, release some second-graded books or pose with gawky smiles in prize distribution ceremony of some primary school. The real business of governing the country is largely ignored.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The governance dysfunction was somewhat a foregone phenomenon as Regmi refused to resign from the post of Chief Justice to head the government. It was the message that he didn&rsquo;t want to be fully responsible. His greed to go back to the old position, just for a few remaining months, after heading the government, speaks in volume how calculative he would be in taking decisions. This is undesirable on the part of the country&rsquo;s chief executive. And, it must be corrected. He should govern, not dither.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Only remedy for all these ills, surfaced even in the day-to-day business of the government is to make this government entirely responsible for what it does and what it should do. It is in the interest of country and also, in the interest of the political parties concerned. Only when political parties step aside to give full space for the government to work, can they conduct a sort of performance audit on the government. Equally important, Regmi and his cabinet colleagues must be able to demonstrate their ability to govern, which so far seems unimpressive to say the least.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Putatively, holding the Constituent Assembly election is no doubt the cardinal of all responsibilities of this government. But, there are hundreds of other matters that have gone out of track and government can work to restore them in the interim. It will ultimately help to create a proper atmosphere for the polls.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is perhaps right time to control organized crime, which is largely thought to be protected by the influential political leaders. These leaders now can&rsquo;t have access to the official files of these goons and once the action is taken, these leaders, technically, will not be in position to defend them in public. This indeed will help decriminalize our politics in a great way.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Another important issue it can decide is: it can bring down the number of seats in the proposed Constituent Assembly, to a reasonable level of say, one hundred fifty to two hundred. This will be both popular and wise decision. But on the contrary, it is reported to be succumbing to the political pressure to increase it again to six hundred.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The donor community is surprised by lack-luster performance of this learned bunch in the government. The international community, for example, had asked to enlist the kind of support the government would seek from them for the new elections. But the government has even failed to coordinate a meeting of all these donors even in two months time, after it took charge.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Recently, a message was circulated that Nepal cannot hold the next summit of South Asian Regional Cooperation (SAARC) within 2013. Reason given is weird: there is no government in Nepal now. Is this government in position to react and say &lsquo;we can&rsquo;? The head of the government has not even thought it necessary to address the nation to give a sense where we are exactly heading. The list could be very long. But much needed guts is apparently lacking in every respect of the decision-making in the government.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Will this government without political will on the one hand and totally paralyzed by undue, frequent interference from the Political Mechanism on the other be able to hold Constituent Assembly elections by this year end? Doubts are high. And, only way to ensure that this government doesn&rsquo;t shirk away from this responsibility is to make it look and act more like a true government than a club of volunteers.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	For this, those political parties that think they obliged Regmi by choosing him to be the head of current government should stop interfering in the functioning of the government. And there is the role of the President, as a sole functional constitutional entity of the country, to remind this government to its duties and admonish when derailed. But, to repeat it again, this government must realize the fact that it is there to govern the country, not to appease any of the political masters. And it has true opportunity to choose than snooze.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2013-11-08',
			'modified' => '2013-11-10',
			'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal,  current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events,  ongoing  political news of nepal',
			'description' => 'One of the influential leaders in the United CPN Maoist Party -- UCPN (M), Barsha Man Pun has recently alleged that present government has started to behave like a ‘political government.’ If that is the case, it is doing the right thing. The government must behave like a political than technical government, which can only solve political problems. It is irrelevant by now to keep hammering on the very nature of its structure just because a special kind of political equations that led to form this.',
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	(int) 12 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2086',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Fears Of Polls Going Futile',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The chieftains of major four political parties -- United CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesi Morcha -- appear contended and relaxed for being able to install the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi as the head of the new interim &lsquo;election&rsquo; government. The questions related to constitutionality and conflict of interests between executive and judicial organs of the country, since the same person effectively heads the both, do yet remain unanswered.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	There are a number of cases under consideration in the court of law seeking appropriate interpretation of relevant constitutional provisions on it. Worst of all, the very first recommendation for constitutional appointment made by the government headed by the Chief Justice himself was returned by the President for &lsquo;further constitutional explanation.&rsquo; This controversy surrounding the appointment of Chief and other Commissioners in the Election Commission indeed gives some indication to the modus operandi of the new government.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	More than that, the practice of extra-constitutional imposition of the political vested interests by the &lsquo;High Level Political Mechanism&rsquo; practically makes the Regmi government a faceless scarecrow. Apparently, all the new ministers got appointed on a shared quota-basis amongst the four political parties involved. And people are told to believe that it is politically neutral coalition government. &nbsp;This is a total farce. Yet, the whole coalition looks like a coalition game in economics game theory where there is no easy &lsquo;core&rsquo; or equitable distribution of pay-offs among the parties, but still they are clinging to it.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The much touted-about political consensus appears a total mockery as there are reckonable political forces out of this &lsquo;all party&rsquo; mechanism; disgruntled and determined to create any obstacle possible if they are not listened to any time soon. Among them, the break-away faction of the Maoists party (CPN-Maoist headed by Mohan Baidya), all three parties of former panchas (Rastriya Prajatantra Party-RPP, Rastriya Janashakti Party and RPP Nepal) and Madhesi Janadhikar Forum headed by Upendra Yadav are some of those that deserve consideration to include in the so called all party mechanism.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But absolute inflexibility and ungenerous attitude of the four parties to accommodate or address the concerns of these disgruntled political outfits in some way or the other raises further apprehensions about the possibility of polls any time sooner. And, UCPN (M) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal&rsquo;s over ambitious plan of hastening to polls within June this year smells rat in his design.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	True that Nepali people want to go for ballot sooner than later. But, the polls are not instant soup-making recipe. The national polls are massive management nightmare. Still, several legal arrangements are needed to be made to enable the Election Commission to hold putatively free and fair polls. The budgetary arrangement is equally difficult. No doubt, there are several donors ready to dole out money for elections here, but they also need adequate time to process our requests through their respective home governments and bureaucracies. Our own budget for the current fiscal year needs recasting if the polls were to be held within this fiscal year, say June.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Logistics and stationery arrangements including the designing and printing of ballot papers, transportation of polling boxes and machines etc. involve a substantial amount of time and human resources. Security mobilization is perhaps going to be the most extensive and exhaustive affair.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	On top of it, controlling the violence carried-out by some fringe and purportedly political outfits, active in different part of the country, remains crucial. Whether the new government of bureaucrats and with limited technical mandate has authority to negotiate peace or, if required, will-power to obliterate them by combing operation is critical of all questions to make polls a success.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite these all obstacles evident than ever before, why Dahal is insistent on June date? Is he so keen to reestablish the democratic process sooner, which for so long has been derailed mainly because of him? &nbsp;There are suggestions that June is the month when common people hardly can find time to go to polls due to their seasonal engagement in cultivation as monsoon just begins. And, only those who come to vote are the committed party cadres of any party. Implicitly, the winning chance of UCPN (M) is likely to increase in such a scenario. Also, if polls are scheduled in such a short notice, number of international election observers arriving to monitor the polls is likely to be far less, giving room to rigging for the forces with organised and violent youth wings like Youth Communist League (YCL) of the UCPN (M), or similar outfit of CPN-UML. These arguments about Dahal&rsquo;s discrete planning are not unfounded since Dahal has been able to fill the key state positions by the people highly loyal or made so by several machinations, including the head of the election government, Regmi. All in all, Dahal wants absolute majority in new Constituent Assembly (CA) at any cost, that too without recognizing the splinted off Baidya faction and yet, legitimizing all his political moves making Nepali Congress and CPN-UML mere mute witnesses, compelled to sign on the margins of his political contract papers.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite all maneuvers and scrambling of Dahal and his party, polls within June still look a distant possibility. And the fact that seven years have passed without any significant achievement towards ending the political transition, there is no point going so hastily just to cover a few months time without proper preparations. The most rational expectation would be to hold the polls in November with adequate perseverance and nuanced management of time and resources.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	What if even the Regmi government couldn&rsquo;t hold the polls for all those reasons Dr. Baburam Bhattarai government failed to meet the two deadlines of November 2012 and April 2013? &nbsp;Interestingly, the political parties who signed the 11-point deal to enthrone Regmi perhaps have no clue about the possible next step if he failed to deliver the polls and choose to remain in power in whatever pretext.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Even if the elections are held, regardless when, as the fact of matter remains, outcomes of these new CA polls would take Nepal only to a status quo of April 10, 2008, the day when the first election for the CA was held. Despite a number of extensions, that CA during its four years in existence had failed to make any headway in drafting a new constitution. All major political parties represented in that CA failed to reach a consensus to extend its tenure for the fourth time on 27th May, 2012. If one remembers it correctly, it was the Supreme Court verdict from a bench of justices including Regmi that had barred the extension of the CA term.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Without addressing the very causes which made the last CA dysfunctional and ultimately dead, the new CA, even if it is instituted by coming November -- the earliest possibility, would not be able to deliver new federal constitution as expected by the people. The politics has become so messy with rising ethnic hatred, unrealistic expectations of regionalism and culture of using violence to capitulate the authority to meet all implausible demands of divisive and sectarian nature.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	No political party seems to be prepared to go to the polls with a concrete frame of the constitution they are planning to draft if they got elected. This in fact should have been the main basis of each party&rsquo;s CA election manifesto. It is because, people can rationalize their expectations before deciding whom to vote and what to expect when the CA takes shape. Even smaller parties with extreme demands may come up with their respective propositions and their issues could be addressed on the strength of votes they secure. It would have made things far easier to promulgate the new constitution once drafted. But the so called big parties are also not prepared to come up with any clarity on these crucial matters for the obvious ulterior motives of fishing in the rough waters. Such ill intentions are more ingrained in those parties who are inclined to one party dictatorship under the veil of democratic mandate. People again have to vote on the basis of the guesswork without knowing their distinct position on constitution drafting process.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In fact, Election Commission&rsquo;s code of conduct can regulate such things by making every party mandatory to go to the polls with complete shape of their proposed constitution. But whether the Commission will have that guts and vision is an unanswered question here.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Finally, if the parties do not plan on how they want to proceed once the CA elections are held, things are not going to change for the better in Nepal. Even if one party gets clear majority in CA, it will be impossible to move ahead without taking on board all big or small political players along both to draft and promulgate the new constitution. Therefore, this process is better if it began now. Otherwise, like in the past, we will be back to square one again after spending many valuable years for the same cause. The whole exercise of this CA election would also automatically go down the drain.</div>',
			'published' => true,
			'created' => '2013-11-08',
			'modified' => '2013-11-08',
			'keywords' => 'new business age political news & articles, political news & articles from new business age nepal, political headlines from nepal,  current and latest political news from nepal, economic news from nepal, nepali political economic news and events,  ongoing  political news of nepal',
			'description' => 'The chieftains of major four political parties -- United CPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madhesi Morcha -- appear contended and relaxed for being able to install the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi as the head of the new interim ‘election’ government.',
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	(int) 13 => array(
		'Article' => array(
			'id' => '2085',
			'article_category_id' => '167',
			'title' => 'Fall Of The Last Pillar',
			'sub_title' => '',
			'summary' => null,
			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	If no extremely dramatic events unfold in Nepali politics overnight, the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi, may have sworn in by the time this writing reaches to our readers. He, or whoever for that matter, will be the tenth chief executive of the nation in as many years, which exposes the gravity of the political instability and difficult transition the country is reeling under.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Prey to Politics&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whether or not Regmi became prime minister is by now an issue of secondary importance. The prime concern here is: the judiciary also couldn&rsquo;t resist the temptation of political indulgence at the cost of its so far largely maintained independence and respect to professionalism. In this sense, the judiciary, that was somehow saving Nepal from falling into the abyss of acute form of anarchy and was the last testimony to the remnant feature of rule of law, has been the last pillar to fall prey to political machinations. Otherwise, Nepal is by now already faced with the consequences of the institutional degeneration, almost in every spectrum of life. Every professional and state institution is highly politicized. The security apparatus like army, police, intelligence, the civil service and diplomacy, the academia and civil society and to a large extent even the media now wear the cloak of some hue of politics. Lately, all government set-ups have been forced by design and default to act as the extended wings of the UCPN (Maoist). Democratic forces of the country remain defensive and indifferent to growing aggressiveness intrusion of the Party invariably into all state organs of the country.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>The Question of Constitutionality&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	The prevalent Interim Constitution of the Country doesn&rsquo;t provide for an incumbent chief justice to become the chief executive of the country as well. The Supreme Court still headed by Regmi has the ultimate authority to interpret the constitution. But, at this juncture, any interpretation of the provision that is completely absent in the constitution would tantamount to nothing but a blatant conflict of interest, since such an interpretation, technically presided by Regmi himself, is only likely to justify his decision to take-up the top job. The press statement issued by the Supreme Court in the last week of February, apparently at Regmi&rsquo;s will and design, already demonstrated the overall tilt of what it could be possibly like. The entire objective of the statement was that, he is only willing to go on &lsquo;deputation of duty&rsquo; from chief justice to the chief executive, without resigning from his present post. This is more of an ominous than welcome sign, both in view of judicial independence and concept of balance of power in democracy.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Controversial Beginning&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Let&rsquo;s suppose Justice Regmi is assigned to head the election government. He would be taking up the job not as a much-touted-about &lsquo;consensus figure&rsquo; but amidst a sharp division regarding his choice for the job. Not only the opposition parties, but all four largest parties -- ruling UCPN (Maoist), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and Madheshi Morcha -- are vertically split into two factions each, on Regmi&rsquo;s pick. And, some of the arguments of the dissenting factions in each party are worth pondering. Firstly, the move would directly prove that political parties are grossly incompetent and not trustworthy to head an election government. Second, they are oblivious of the very concept of balance of power among the major three organs -- executive, legislative and judicial -- of the state. And thirdly, what miracle could Regmi alone demonstrate as the country now languishes in a serious nature of constitutional vacuum. The institutions like Nepal Bar Association have voiced serious concern over the Chief Justice&rsquo;s lust for power at the cost of judicial independence. There are apprehensions that the UCPN (Maoist) has plans to rig the next polls by misusing the state-power yet would validate results by making the chief justice the head of the election government. Regmi&rsquo;s appointment automatically blocks the other parties to seek judicial remedy in case of electoral malpractices. These points of view definitely hold waters and cannot be glossed over instantaneously.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Crisis of Management&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Regmi&rsquo;s appointment requires a series of important makeovers under the guise of the constitutional provision of &lsquo;Power to Remove Difficulties&rsquo; by the President of Nepal. The constitution has not envisioned an incumbent justice becoming the prime minster (in whatever name, the chief executive of the country). This would require a special decree form the President, citing the political consensus among the major parties, which again looks a pure farce with so much discontent fumed around. Even if the appointment hurdle is cleared, there are several other constitutional issues that warrant a speedy sorting out. The positions in the Election Commission, including that of the chief commissioner, are vacant. Does Regmi want to play this role as well, as he is officially likely to be titled as the chief of Election Council? What happens to the positions of the chief justice itself whereas the constitutional spirit is that both the head of the government and the judiciary represent separate, independent capacities in several crucial institutions like the Constitutional Council, that make appointment of the heads and office-bearers of several constitutional bodies including the Election Commission. Incidentally, almost all constitutional bodies like Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority, Auditor General&rsquo;s Office and Election Commission are without the chiefs or office-bearers, for years in some cases. Even in the Supreme Court, three-fourth of positions of justices remains vacant. To fill these all would require a separate arrangement as there is no possibility of fulfilling the constitutional provisions through parliamentary hearing in absence of the legislature.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>Competence and Delivery&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whether Regmi would be able to hold fresh elections by November this year is the cardinal of all questions here. This requires a lot of political work that begins from the point where he starts to choose the kind of people to fill in the positions in his government. The impartiality issue of himself and his picks will be crucial. And, worst of all he will be functioning under a situation where all major constitutional positions will have already violated to pave the way for his appointment and only resort to move ahead will be the kind of political support he gets as he moves ahead. This implies that there will be forces on the ground who would be constantly challenging his actions. As the nation has not decided on the number of constituencies for new elections, their modalities and, whether it would be an election for both Constituent Assembly and Legislature or only for the former, to propose a formula agreeable to all is impossible and purely a political rather than a bureaucratic exercise. Regmi has yet to try his art in this trade.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is too early to say anything whether he is competent enough and would be successful to deliver what he is expected of. But his track record is not very encouraging. The latest allegation is that he paralyzed the justice delivery system by not taking any initiative to appoint the judges in the Supreme Court in time. It was the Court verdict that had barred the extension of the then Constituent Assembly tenure beyond May 27 last year. Despite the fact that he knew the parliamentary hearing of new judges would be impossible beyond that date, he failed to initiate the action of extending the term of existing justices or to appoint new ones when there was adequate time left. At present, the result is that the Supreme Court is left with only six justices whereas in high times it used to have as many as two dozen justices. This indeed have made justice delivery difficult, and, at the same time put Regmi&rsquo;s credibility under huge interrogation mark.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<strong>The Last Optimism&nbsp;</strong></div>
<div>
	Whatever the cost or difficulty in the process involved for his appointment, the only hope is that Regmi as the accepted figure by four or five largest political parties could hold elections and those polls would be free and fair at an acceptable degree. Every party though has viewed Regmi&rsquo;s installation as their convenience for entirely different reasons than this, which again could complicate the situation in future. For Maoists, it was a great achievement to be able to stop Nepali Congress from heading an election government and it hopes that Regmi would duly oblige the party for surprisingly picking him to head the next government. Congress and UML are contended only at the ouster of Baburam Bhattarai from the prime ministerial position, who otherwise seemed unrelenting to relinquish the position. Other forces, including the international community wanted to trust on Regmi&rsquo;s legal credentials and his largely maintained non-corrupt image during a long legal career.&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	But, interestingly again, even if new polls could be held within a year or so and a new Assembly is instituted, Nepal&rsquo;s political challenges will still be where they were immediately after April 2008 elections. Therefore, there is no point being over ambitious at this very moment about anyone heading another government or holding polls. Unless, political rationality, read it metamorphosis of parties from authoritarian to democratic mindset, prevails among the major political players the country, Nepal&rsquo;s political crisis will only deepen regardless of any drama we orchestrate, be that drama of government headed by the chief justice.&nbsp;</div>',
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			'created' => '2013-11-08',
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			'description' => 'If no extremely dramatic events unfold in Nepali politics overnight, the incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nepal, Khil Raj Regmi, may have sworn in by the time this writing reaches to our readers. He, or whoever for that matter, will be the tenth chief executive of the nation in as many years, which exposes the gravity of the political instability and difficult transition the country is reeling under.',
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			'title' => 'Manifesto Recast At Hetauda Commune',
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			'content' => '<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	The UCPN (M) truly wants to remain in the mainstream of Nepali Politics. It, therefore, has ventured into a dramatic change in policy paradigm through its Seventh National Congress. The seventh Congress was a hundred and eighty degree shift in the party&#39;s policy stand, from its Sixth Congress twenty-one years ago. The previous one had adopted the policy of raising arms against the state and the recent one has formally proposed to relinquish them altogether -- a changed face of revolution, as the party has baptized it.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>The Paradigm Shift</strong></span></div>
<div>
	UCPN (M)&rsquo;s Seventh General Congress held in Hetauda from February 2-7 undoubtedly heralded a new era in Nepal&#39;s politics. Thanks to a complete &nbsp;departure from the doctrine of &#39;bullets for political change&#39;, which had been the political mainstay of the party for the last two decades, to a fairly convincingly documented commitment to embrace &#39;the politics of ballots and open competition.&#39; With this development, the much needed optimism to restore a peaceful competitive democracy in Nepal has &nbsp;now revived, more reassuringly than ever before. Skeptics there are, but when the largest political force of the country resolutely announces that it would strip away the hangover of &#39;establishing the &nbsp;people&#39;s republic&#39; by all possible violent means, the country must give them a chance, at least for once. And, Nepal has no alternative to that for now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Understandably, this recast was not easy for the party which fought a ten-year long guerrilla war, sent its fighters home largely discontented with the resettlement arrangements and suffered a split recently. But the new policy paper crafted jointly by Chairman of the party, Puspa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda) and Prime Minister Dr. Baburam &nbsp;Bhattarai who is also the senior vice-chair of the party needed to gather massive guts to face the present day reality and come out of the longheld revolutionary hegemony.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	As evident at the Congress venue, it indeed was a daunting endeavour for the party leadership to rein in and satisfy the cadres about this change rather unexpected for many of them, who were initially indoctrinated, rather foolhardily, to establish a proletarian dictatorship before they would be asked to put their guns down. They were not ready to believe the claim that whatever the party could achieve politically from the 10-year &#39;revolution&#39; was optimum for now.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	In this context, the Dahal-Bhattarai duo deserves a real acclaim for not only making this ideological change possible, and that too relatively smoothly, but also for accepting the fact that there is no polity beyond political co-existence with other forces and a rule-based competition with them in polls.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It was not in a very distant past that the whole party rallied behind a highly mystified dogma of Prachandapath. But over the last seven years, when Prachanda himself has been at the centre of national politics, Prachanda-path emained a neverexplained political term and now it is completely out of the party&#39;s official literature. This is indicative of the urgency felt by Prachanda to come out of the violent legacy of the insurgency era. In addition to this, to the surprise of many, he has started to publicly criticize summary execution of his opponents by former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin and cautiously negate Maoism for being &#39;not replicable in our different context.&#39; (It is a great irony though, for both Dahal and Bhattarai deliberately wore special hair-do to look like Stalin as early as a couple of years ago and the party&#39;s official banner still carries Stalin&#39;s portrait).</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&#39;s meticulously crafted paper makes every effort possible to sound credible to both- his cadres by using lexicons akin to communist glossary and to the world by practically accepting the ground realities. &#39;Nepal no longer is a semi-feudal and semicolonial state, but rather a new comprador bourgeoisie capitalist one,&#39; &nbsp;reads his main policy paper suggesting that another armed rebellion under any pretext would be unjustifiable under these realities. His assessment that &#39;Nepal is also under the influence of a neo-colonialism of globalization is not much different from the standpoint taken by the underdeveloped world in the world arena, albeit with a bit different diplomatic decorum. He has repeatedly tried to reassure that the party would no longer indulge in a killing spree in the name of physically eliminating the class-enemy, as it has changed plank from the abolition of social classes to capitalistic growth leading to socialism.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	This transformation is essentially not much different from the &#39;people&#39;s &nbsp;multi-party democracy&#39; (jantako &nbsp;bahudaliya janabad) propounded by late general secretary of the CPN-UML, Madan Bhandari, some 23 years ago. Dahal&#39;s detractors have even gone to the extent of calling him &lsquo;nothing but a mere shadow of the UML&rsquo;. Regardless of anything, this a was much-needed change in the Maoist fold for Nepal to &nbsp;resolve its political impasse peacefully and it was duly heeded by the Maoists, which is a welcome development.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Dahal&#39;s policy paper, finally adopted as the 7th Congress Resolution with some ritual modifications, at times is unexpectedly mild and flexible. As reason for this, Dahal has tried to vindicate that all inflexibility, irrationality, dogmatism and impractical policy rigidities had gone with the party&#39;s break-away Mohan Baidya faction and what now remains in the UCPN (M) is a political organization with modern, 21st century outlook and vision.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Grip Not Loosened</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Despite all odds, Dahal has emerged quintessentially an unchallenged leader from this Congress as well. It appears that as long as Dahal and Bhattarai can work together, a third person is &nbsp;unlikely to claim the topmost position in the party, for the foreseeable future. At least, this looks like a smooth sail at the centre. But the situation at the</div>
<div>
	grassroots is much different as reported by the respective local representatives of the Congress. They complained that the party had failed to assign political responsibility to the entire rank and file in the organizational structure. Former cadres who returned home dejected are hardly under party discipline and a large &#39;garbage lot&#39; of socially discarded people who were used during the armed rebellion are proving a nuisance to entire party. These factors can erode Dahal&#39;s grip on the party in the long run. When the party actually goes to the polls sooner or later, Dahal is likely to face a steeply uphill task of differentiating his party with the one like the CPN-UML and establishing the rationale of killing so many thousands of people at the cost of the country&#39;s great opportunity for development and growth, ultimately, just to become another UML. But for now he is the helmsman, which in turn is an opportunity to keep his grip intact with tactical moves like the present one.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Confession Drama</strong></span></div>
<div>
	Dahal has confessed that his resignation from the prime ministerial position over the tussle with the then Chief of Nepal Army, Rookmangud Katwal, was a na&iuml;ve and unnecessary emotionalism. Though not explicitly expressed, his remorse was apparently for the anti-Indian tirade he belched out while leaving the post; perhaps in hope of placating the power blocs in the southern neighbour that he believes have gone against him since. In a bid to be seen as a &nbsp;mature political force, he has omitted all traditionally used vocabularies such as &#39;Indian &nbsp;expansionism, American and Russian imperialism, Chinese revisionism&#39; etc from the official party literature. &#39;The differences now should be dealt &nbsp;through mature diplomacy,&#39; he argued to pacify the cadres. But, that is what exactly should be done, &nbsp;practically.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>Economy First&nbsp;</strong></span></div>
<div>
	The party&#39;s new policy paper has put the economic agenda in the forefront of its &#39;vision&#39;, so to speak. Its policy paper on harnessing the country&rsquo;s water resource by mobilizing the local and domestic resources and setting up a production and development brigade are testimony to this. But, these propositions lack maturity and need a gross &nbsp;overhaul that suits to the ground realities of the country.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Developing hydropower projects on a commercial scale with only local resources is a sweet but impossible dream. It is not like a cooperative farming where labour-intensive production can be adopted. Capital, technology and market - all three have to be explored and traded across the national borders.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	It is not difficult to understand that Dahal needed some mechanism to adjust the party&rsquo;s erstwhile armed members. So, he proposed a production and development brigade. It sounds like a good idea from the supply side, but as a responsible political party, UCPN (M) needs to adequately consider the demand side of it as well. What to produce? How and where to produce? Where to sell it? And, will his cadres be willing to be in another labour camp of a sort for this purpose? These are a few example- questions to argue that the UCPN (M) needs further clarifications in these propositions to remain in the political forefront in future Nepal. Nevertheless, the party has made a good beginning by the cardinal policy change through its recently concluded 7th Congress.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	Despite a good and encouraging beginning to transform his party into a contemporaneous force, Dahal has left many crucial unanswered questions which still cast doubts over his intentions. He has mentioned Nepali Congress as the &#39;prime enemy&#39; but has failed to enumerate the reasons. There is no mention of what the party would do to the land and property forcefully occupied by its cadres during the insurgency period. How will the party view the private property rights, civil &nbsp;rights and individual as well as press freedom? Until these questions are answered satisfactorily, the proposed transformations from the margins will not yield the benefits as aspired by Dahal and his party. But again, transformation is a continuous process and momentum is more important than the event.</div>
<div>
	&nbsp;</div>
<div>
	<img alt="" src="/userfiles/images/polt.jpg" style="width: 550px; height: 168px; margin-left: 15px; margin-right: 15px;" /></div>',
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FOREX

Currency	Unit	Buy	Sell
U.S. Dollar	1	121.23	121.83
European Euro	1	131.65	132.31
UK Pound Sterling	1	142.47	143.18
Swiss Franc	1	124.29	124.90
Australian Dollar	1	71.69	72.05
Canadian Dollar	1	83.90	84.32
Japanese Yen	10	10.94	11.00
Chinese Yuan	1	17.17	17.26
Saudi Arabian Riyal	1	32.27	32.43
UAE Dirham	1	33.01	33.17
Malaysian Ringgit	1	27.36	27.50
South Korean Won	100	9.77	9.82

Update: 2020-03-25 | Source: Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB)

Bullion

Fine Gold	1 tola	77000.00
Tejabi Gold	1 tola	76700.00
Silver	1 tola	720.00

Update : 2020-03-25

Source: Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers' Association

Petroleum

Petrol	1 Liter	106.00
Diesel	1 Liter	95.00
Kerosene	1 Liter	95.00
LP Gas	1 Cylinder	1375.00