Democratic Or Undemocratic Alliance

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

“Our alliance is holy, yours is not,” political leaders used to say in the past but they never said, “Our alliance is democratic, yours is not.” Now, NC leaders have been mad at the alliance between the UCPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML to form a new government, and have said that it is against the democratic norms and values.

NC legislators in a meeting of the Parliamentary Party of NC held at Singh Durbar on Monday, February 07, 2011 have decided to call the seven-point agreement the UCPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML have reached, a conspiracy against democracy and peace and constitution writing and not to allow them to enforce it.

At the meeting, NC former candidate Ram Chandra Poudel for prime minister has said that Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda and Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal have signed a secret deal at the last moment of the election to a new prime minister on February 03, 2011 to grab power according to the state-run newspaper, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of February 08, 2011. Mr. Poudel has said that it goes against the past agreements, Comprehensive Peace Agreement the Government of Nepal reached with the UCPN-Maoist and the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007.

Speaking at the eighth Annual General Meeting of Nepal Hotel Entrepreneurs’ Association in Kathmandu on February 07, 2011, former prime minister and NC leader Sher Bahadur Deuba has said that the dispute over power sharing had already delayed the peace process and the constitution writing; so, the collaboration between the two communist parties: UCPN-Maoist and CPN-UML should get continuity to expedite the peace process and the constitution writing; his party would support the coalition government of the UCPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML sitting on the opposition bench in the parliament ‘The Rising Nepal’ of February 08, 2011 writes .

Speaking to the reporters after the meeting with Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda held at the office of the CPN-UML parliamentary party in Singha Durbar on Monday, February 08, 2011, newly elected Prime Minister Jhalanath Khanal has said that the seven-point agreement he has reached with the Chairman of UCPN-Maoist is a basis for a broader agreement among the parties for moving ahead the peace process and the constitution writing, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of February 08, 2011 writes.

Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda and Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal have signed the seven-point agreement on power sharing on February 03, 2011 just before the election to a new prime minister. The agreement has paved the way for the support of the legislators of the UCPN-Maoist for electing Jhalanath Khanal to a new prime minister on that day.

The standing committee of the CPN-UML at the meeting held at the official residence of Prime Minister on Monday, February 07, 2011 has endorsed the seven-point deal chairmen of the UCPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML have reached, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of February 09, 2011 writes. However, the UCPN-Maoist leaders have said that they will join the Khanal government only after the CPN-UML endorses the seven-point agreement.

Now, we can see that for the leader of the NC parliamentary party Ram Chandra Poudel, the seven-point deal, Chairmen of UCPN-Maoist and CPN-UML has reached, is against the democratic norms and values and destructive to the peace process and the constitution writing but for former prime minister and senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba, it is constructive, and his party needs to support it for expediting the completion of the peace process and the constitution writing.

Cycle of events has shown that the history of the hung parliament has repeated after the elections held on April 10, 2008. None of the political parties have secured a majority to run a government independently in the general elections held on April 10, 2008. The UCPN-Maoist has scored 240 seats, the NC 114, the CPN-UML 109 and the UDFM 83. So, the UCPN-Maoist can form a government in coalition with anyone of the remaining three parties, or the remaining three parties together can form a coalition government.

The elections to the Constituent Assembly-cum-legislature held on April 10, 2008 has clearly indicated that Nepalese voters want all political leaders to work on the consensus politics not on the majority game. Unfortunately, leaders have gone to the extent of amending the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 to remove the provision for working on the consensus politics and then accommodate the provision for the majority rule.

Then, they have started playing the dirty political game of numbers even at the first round of the presidential election. The three major parties such as NC, CPN-UML and UDMF have formed an alliance among themselves for electing the NC candidate to the president, UDMF candidate to the Vice-president and the CPN-UML candidate to the speaker of the House sidelining the UCPN-Maoist: the winner of the majority seats in the parliament. The UCPN-Maoist leaders have called the alliance an unholy one. The so-called democratic leaders laughed at them for that matter.

This alliance has been possible due to the immature politics the UCPN-Maoist leaders have played at that time. They could have formed an alliance between the UCPN-Maoist and UDMF for all the elections and for all other practical purposes, too. Then, they could elect the candidate of the UCPN-Maoist for president, and of the UDMF for the vice-president. The alliance between the Maoists and the Madheshis could have lasted longer and have worked for the majority rule for completing the peace process and the writing of a new constitution but that did not happen because the Maoists have been short-sighted, too and could not read the then political situation correctly.

However, the alliance among the NC, CPN-UML and UDMF could not remain intact for all other purposes indicating these guys have also not been matured politicians for steering the country safely to the federal democratic republic. Their alliance has ended with the completion of the election to the three major elected positions such as president, vice-president and speaker.

Then, the CPN-UML and UDMF have started looking for a new alliance. They wanted to have an alliance among all political parties but the NC leaders have categorically rejected the alliance between the UCPN-Maoist and all other political parties. At the same time, the NC leaders did not show the courage and skill in forming a new alliance sidelining the UCPN-Maoist. Then, their leader interim Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala did not want to leave the office of prime minister, and became a hurdle to form a new elected government. International community including the Indian ambassador Rakesh Sood has been in favor of forming a coalition government led by the majority-seat holder in the parliament UCPN-Maoist. Consequently, after four months of uncertainty, belatedly an alliance among all other parties except for the NC has formed a new government headed by Prachanda.

Now, the same story is repeating; the Chairman of CPN-UML Jhalanath Khanal leads the government this time. Most probably, a new government will be the coalition of all political parties except for the NC as in August 2008. At that time, the NC leaders have not declared a combat with the government but this time, NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel has declared a war on the new government stating the NC will not allow the coalition partners to enforce their seven-point agreement.

If the political leader that could have claimed for the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing the 10-year conflict to an end setting a lasting peace and promulgating a new constitution had not sacrificed all those gains simply for selfish short-term benefits, he could have been the tall political figure and Nepal would have been a model for others to follow in the world. Unfortunately for Girja Prasad Koirala and certainly for the Nepalese people, Girija and his party leaders could not work for the country. Just squabbling for power disregarding the benefits the nation could have, they have simply squandered the achievements made by the people in the past movements.

Certainly, these leaders of NC have shown the low level of the political moral otherwise they would not have said that our alliance is democratic but yours is not. Actually, Nepalese people want to see all political leaders working on the consensus politics for completing the peace process and for writing a new constitution. However, NC candidate Ram Chandra Poudel has run for 16 rounds of election to a new prime minister without feeling shame. And on the 17th round of election, the NC has fielded the same candidate that has lost 16 rounds of election anticipating winning the 17th round of election; what a great joke that does not make laugh anybody.

Senior NC leader and former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has said in public that he has had a good chance of winning the election to a new prime minister, as he has received the signal from the leaders of the UCPN-Maoist of supporting him in the 17th round of elections to a new prime minister but his party boss Sushil Koirala has been adamant to stick to the same losing candidate Ram Chandra Poudel. Only after the NC has filed the same candidate Ram Chandra Poudel for a new prime minister, the chairmen of the UCPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML have struck a deal to form a new alliance between them to elect a new prime minister and form a new coalition, Mr. Deuba said. Thus, Deuba has clearly stated that the NC leaders have been self-centered and don’t care about the party and other leaders that could lead the party to a better position.

In the democratic system of governance, political parties working in alliance with each other is quiet natural when one political party or another does not have a simple majority in a parliament to form a single party government. However, political parties need to follow the people’s aspirations for forming an alliance among them. We have seen political parties working in alliance with other political parties that people don’t want but they did not form the alliance with the political parties the people want after the general elections in 1994. Then, we have seen the various political alliances after the elections to a constituent assembly-cum-parliament in 2008. None of the political parties have complained them as undemocratic except for as an unholy alliance. However, currently, the NC leaders have been saying the alliance between the two communist parties has been undemocratic.

After the general elections in 1994, none of the political parties could secure a majority in the then parliament. The CPN-UML secured the highest number of seats in the parliament but not a majority to form a government. At that time, voters wanted the two major political parties such as CPN-UML and NC form a coalition government to run the country smoothly rather than fighting against each other. The third party called Rastriya Prajatantra Party (RPP) of former Panchas secured 20 seats. Either one of the two major parties such as CPN-UML and NC could have formed a government in coalition with the RPP but both the major political parties treated the RPP as untouchable initially believing that people would curse the party if it would build a coalition with the RPP. However, after the fall of the nine-month old minority government of CPN-UML, RPP became the bedfellow of first NC and then of the CPN-UML. Both the large parties made the leader of the RPP the prime minister of the coalition government.

After the fresh general elections in 1999, the NC managed to secure the majority again. Krishna Prasad Bhattarai became the prime minister but the faction of NC headed by Girija Prasad Koirala did not allow poor Bhattarai to run the administration for long, and forced him to step down and let Girija be the prime minister again. Thus, the most unscrupulous faction of the Girija group has regained the power lost in the 1994 elections.

After the palace massacre on June 01, 2001, the political scene has drastically changed in Nepal. The Shahs wanted to set up their absolute rule whereas the rebel group called the Maoists wanted to move them out of the palace. The Shahs attempted to repeat the history of the Shah dynasty appointing one puppet prime minister after another disregarding the political situation in Nepal, too has entered the twenty first century. The political parties such as NC and RPP in their party statutes had the provision for the constitutional monarchy but the Shahs did not want to be the constitutional ones. So, the Shahs wanted to destroy even those political parties that have been monarchical for running the administration with the power absolutely in their hands. The result was the coalition of the Seven Party Alliance and the Maoists for making Nepal a republic forcing the Shahs out of the palace.

NC parliamentary leader Ram Chandra Poudel might be able to stop the UCPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML leaders from enforcing the seven-point deal they have reached for electing a new government, for completing the peace process and the writing of constitution. However, the two major parties such as UCPN-Maoist and CPN-UML together have the strength for the majority rule and they might garner the two-thirds majority required for the promulgation of a new constitution if they work with the UDMF leaders. So, Mr. Poudel would need to apply all his energy and efforts to break the coalition of the UCPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML and might even need to go against the will of senior leader of his party Sher Bahadur Deuba that wants to see the continuity of the coalition of the UCPN-Maoist and the CPN-UML for expediting the peace process and the completion of the writing of a new constitution. If Mr. Poudel succeed in stopping the peace process and the writing of a new constitution because he did not get elected to a new prime minister, his name would be recorded in the history of Nepal and Nepalis would not never forgive him for that matters. An option is still there for the people’s revolt, as one of the vice-chairmen of UCPN-Maoist Dr. Baburma BHattarai has said, “if political parties fail in accepting the political changes, then the people’s revolt will be the only course of actions.”

February 12, 2011