Dr. Baburam Bhattarai Stays On-Part 33

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Head of State President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav has been holding the authority of issuing presidential ordinances hostage for the ransom of forcing the prime minister out of office, clearing taking the side of the opposition coalition of NC and CPN-UML for removing the prime minister out of office, ignoring the possibility of the worst outcomes of such stand taken. NC made the decision on going to polls for electing a new CA rather than opting for reviving the dissolved CA. So, President Yadav needed to issue several presidential ordinances including the budget ordinance for running the administration smoothly, and for holding the elections to a new CA if any disastrous political consequences were to avert. How long President Yadav would be able to hold these ordinances hostage for the ransom of ostensibly for building a political consensus on all thee ordinances but obviously for forcing the current government out of office, as a political consensus had been next to impossible.

The government has been running out of the budget; soon, the government would not have any money to pay the state employees; so, the ruling coalition of UCPN-Maoist and UDMF had decided to submit a full fledged budget to President Yadav for issuing a presidential ordinance authorizing the government to use the budget by mid-November 2012 no matter whether the president would issue a presidential issue or not. If the president were to refuse issuing a presidential ordinance authorizing the government to use the budget for smoothly running the administration until the prime minister would build a consensus on the budget, then the chance was there that the government would need to shut down the whole administrative mechanism, as the opposition coalition of NC and CPN-UML would not let the prime minister build a consensus until the prime minister would quit the office. The prime minister said that he was ready to quit the office if the opposition coalition were to build a political consensus on everything they had disagreed on the issues of a new constitution in the past. The opposition insisted on the prime minister quitting the office rather than attempting on building a political consensus on everything they needed to promulgate a new constitution.

The NC central working Committee decided to go to polls for electing a new CA rather than reviving the dissolved CA for promulgating a new constitution despite the opposition of senior leader Sher Bahadur Deuba and Vice-president of NC Ram Chandra Poudel. It was a clear victory of NC President Sushil Koirala over Poudel and Deuba; both of them were opting for reviving the dissolved CA, and both of them were aspirant to the office of prime minister. Thus, the politics of NC had been the politics of achieving the individual ambition rather than of the nation and the people. Both Deuba and Poudel had opted for the revival of the dissolved CA in the hope of taking the office of prime minister whereas Sushil Koirala could not claim the office of prime minister, as the voters rejected him in the elections to the CA in 2008. Nepalis did not want another unelected persons to be a prime minister again. As the president of NC, Sushil Koirala pushed the central working committee to opt for elections to a new CA rather than revival of the dissolved one.

However, the NC leaders did not want to cooperate with the current government but wanted to remove the government and take the power before going to polls. The question was whether such proposition was appropriate or not given the current political polarization. Such a proposition would be acceptable if the NC were to garner a majority of the political parties. The reality was that the NC had neither a majority nor could garner a majority in the current polarized political situation. The opposition coalition of NC and CPN-UML needed the support of both the ethnic groups and the Madheshis to have a majority. But the leaders of the NC and the CPN-UML had kept away the ethnic people and the Madheshis taking the negative stand on federalism and federal states. So, the NC was holding the elections to a new CA hostage for the ransom of getting the power. Nobody knew whether the NC would hold elections or not even after getting the power. Thus, the NC leaders were pushing the country to the political instability, disregarding the people’s aspirations for institutionalizing the achievements made by the people in the people’s movement in 2006.

Meanwhile, one of the CPN-UML leaders Bharat Mohan Adhikari said in public that his party would support a new government headed by Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda. From where he got this notion but it was clearly childish expression. UCPN-Maoist leaders had been showing the political maturity not talking like Mr. Adhikari, and becoming more civil than used to be in comparison to the leaders of the opposition coalition. Most likely UCPN-Maoist leaders would not fall into such a snare set by the CPN-UML leader. In addition, nobody has the rights to change the current government, and set another one before the elections to a new CA. Elections are the only options for all the political parties following the constitution.

Head of State President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav needed to cooperate with the government in holding elections to a new CA rather than holding all ordinances proposed by the government hostage for the ransom of the prime minister building a political consensus on all ordinances that was not possible in view of the opposition coalition doing nothing but trying to grab the power. Saying he would not issue any ordinances without a political consensus, President Dr. Yadav had clearly taken the side of the opposition coalition. Taking the side of the opposition, President Dr. Yadav would certainly provoke the conflict between the ruling coalition and the opposition. If the Head of State were to be a referee then he needed to issue presidential ordinances for paving the way for smoothly holding elections to a new CA, as there was no alternative to holding fresh elections. Therefore, the head of state needed to be instrumental in holding elections to a new CA to avoid political disastrous that could ruin the country for some years to come. The head of state should stop taking side of one party or another rather strictly follow the rule of law and the constitution to shepherd the political leaders to the polls for electing a new CA.

The ruling coalition of UCPN-Maoist and UDMF decided to present the full fledged budget for the fiscal year 2012 to the head of state for issuing a presidential ordinance authorizing the government to use the budget for running the administration no matter whether the opposition would like it or not. The opposition coalition of NC and CPN-UML was not for cooperating with the government in anything except for the current government to quit. The current government was not likely to quit and likely to fall even though the opposition had been putting high pressure on the head of state to tear down the government illegally. The head of state now has been the centerpiece. He needed to act wisely and legally no doubt about that. If he were to step out of the boundary of the constitution for the sake of the opposition coalition the head of state would certainly provoke a conflict the result of which would be profound negative. No Nepalis want such consequences.

Spokesman for UCPN-Maoist Agni Sapkota said that the current government would remain in power to hold elections to a new CA in absence of a parliament indicating there was no provision made in the Interim Constitution for changing the government in the current political situation, and if the head of state were to fire the current government then his party would go to the people and everything would be decided from the streets. The spokesman also stated that the government was going to present the budget for the FY 2012 to the head of state for the presidential ordinance whether the ruling coalition and the opposition would build a consensus on the budget or not. Thus, the ruling coalition was ready for a head-on collision with the opposition.

The opposition coalition argued that the current government had no authority to present a full-fledged budget and had no authority to hold elections, too; only a consensus government had such authority to do so. At the same time, the opposition coalition was not for building a political consensus on all issues concerning a new constitution, and was not preparing for a consensus government to form. Then, what is a consensus government they foresee is the government of the opposition coalition. For the opposition coalition, only such a government would be authorized to present a full-fledged budget, and hold elections. The question is whether such a government is a reality or not. The opposition leaders could make it a reality building a consensus on all issues concerning a new constitution if they were sincere to the nation and to the people, and were ready to institutionalize the achievements made by the people in the people’s movement in 2006. Unfortunately, the opposition leaders had not shown an iota of sincerity to this end.

Unreasonably, the opposition coalition leaders had been putting pressure on the head of state to fire the current government and transfer the power to the opposition rather than building a consensus on the matters concerning a new constitution. The head of state had told some of the leaders that went to see him at his official residence in Kathmandu that he would issue presidential ordinances on the subjects the government had built a consensus in other words the head of state was not cooperating with the government in introducing a full-fledged budget and not cooperating in holding the elections but cooperating with the opposition in tearing down the government by force rather than by the rule of law. Elections to a new CA were the only alternative to change the current government following the rule of law. So, the head of state needed to play by rules if he were really to be a good referee in the current political game.

The country had been bracing for a political storm that could be a decisive one. So far, the regressive forces had been successful not to fully institutionalize the achievements made by one people’s movement after another. Currently, the opposition coalition of NC and CPN-UML has been pushing the country one step back not institutionalizing federalism and federal states. Because of their negative stand on federalism and federal states, both the NC and CPN-UML have lost the support of the ethnic people and Madheshis that have been fighting for federalism and federal states to ward off the centuries old centralized administrative system that had excluded the ethnic people and Madheshis. So, if ethnic people and Madheshis had to fight for their inclusion in the state mechanism, the fight would be decisive and final.

On November 2, 2012, the Nepalese secretary to ministry of finance said that the government would not have enough money to keep running the administration unless a budget was approved by mid-November, but the opposition parties said that the caretaker administration had no authority to approve a budget. Finance Secretary Santa Raj Subedi said that the government would not be able to sustain security forces, run hospitals and pay salaries to teachers and tens of thousands of state employees after November 15. Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has been trying to get President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav to approve the budget through a presidential ordinance, but President Yadav has made it clear Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai needs the support of opposition parties first. The opposition wants the caretaker prime minister to resign for a new government to have representation from all the major political parties. Spokesman for the main opposition NC party Dilendra Prasad Badu said that the Bhattarai-led government had no legitimate rights to present the new budget. "As a caretaker government, it has no right to push through something as important as the fiscal budget. We will oppose if the government attempts to do so," Spokesman Badu said. Pradeep Gyawali of CPN-UML said that his party also would not accept the budget by the Bhattarai government; the opposition parties would begin street protests if the government were to bring the budget without reaching an agreement with them. Currently, Nepal does not have a functioning parliament, so the budget can only be brought through a presidential ordinance. Elections were scheduled for this month but disagreements among the parties delayed the polls and a new date has not been set, yet. The CA elected in 2008 and doubled as a parliament, expired in May 2012, and Bhattarai has been running the caretaker administration since then. (Source: Indianexpress.com, November 2, 2012)

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/nepal-government-seeks-new-budget-to-avert-crisis/1025747/2

In the meeting of the major four political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF held on Friday, November 2, 2012 as part of their attempts to seek a possible way out of the current political impasse, Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda proposed to name a candidate for a new prime minister after the leaders of NC and CPN-UML refused the proposal of UCPN-Maoist for making the current government a national consensus government, according to CPN-UML leader Bhim Rawal. "We rejected their proposal to convert incumbent government into national consensus government. And, Maoist chairman Dahal told us to name our PM candidate," he said. Emerging from the meeting NC vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel said that NC would not accept the full budget introduced by the Maoist party-led government. (Source: Nepalnews.com)

On Friday, November 2, 2012 at a meeting, the ruling UCPN-Maoist has decided to bring a full-fledged budget within mid-November if the major political parties were to fail in building a consensus on the budget. "The government is obliged to bring full budget as it was facing problems to manage funds for administrative expenses," said Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun after the meeting. The opposition has been saying that the current government has no rights to bring the full budget, and also has urged the President not to endorse any budget-related ordinance forwarded by the government without their consent. (Source: nepalnews.com)

In the second meeting with top political party leaders at the Sheetal Niwas presidential office, Maharajgunj in just two weeks on Friday morning, November 2, 2012, President Dr Ram Baran Yadav again urged the top leaders of four major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC, CPN-UML and UDMF to forge a consensus on wide-ranging thorny issues at the earliest and break the political deadlock prevailing in the country. President Yadav told the political leaders that the parties were left with no alternatives but to forge a consensus on contentious issues including the upcoming budget, elections to a new CA, and a unity government. He urged the leaders to reach an understanding on these matters at the earliest and break the political as well as constitutional deadlock. Drawing the attention of the leaders to the partial budget for the current fiscal year brought by the presidential ordinance would not even be enough for this month, the President urged the government to forge a consensus on the full budget. The president also warned the political leaders of not endorsing the budget whether partial or full without a consensus of all the political parties on it. In response, the top leaders of political parties said that they were closer to forging a consensus on contentious issues including the budget, and expressed confidence in their efforts on ending the political stalemate. (Source: nepalnews.com)

On October 31, 2012, the CWC of the NC officially decided to go to polls for fresh elections to a new CA-cum-parliamentary against the dissent of key party leaders including Sher Bahadur Deuba, Ram Chandra Poudel and Prakash Sharan Mahat. Though the leaders close to party President Sushil Koirala claimed that the CWC "unanimously decided" to lobby for fresh elections by May 2013, other leaders challenged the claim. Spokesperson for NC Dilendra Prasad Badu said that no leader registered a note of dissent on the decision. However, NC leader Prakash Sharan Mahat informed that former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, Vice-president of NC Ram Chandra Poudel and he had fervently lobbied for keeping the option for holding elections to a new CA after promulgating a new statute open. "There is no dispute in holding fresh election but we [Deuba, Poudel and Mahat] were for keeping the option open in case the Maoists express readiness to seal a deal on the new statute based on the May-15 agreement reached among the major parties," Mahat told Republica. "Our argument is that if we keep the options open, we will have strong grounds for launching anti-government protests." However, President of NC Koirala remained firm in his stand against the CA revival arguing that keeping the options open would only dilute efforts made on holding fresh elections to a new CA. According to participants in the CWC meeting, both Deuba and Poudel had lobbied hard for keeping the options open throughout the meeting. "If the options are not kept open, I will register my dissent against the decision," Mahat quoted Deuba as saying. Then, party General Secretary Krishna Prasad Sitaula and Spokesman Badu assured that they would incorporate Deuba’s spirit in the minutes of the decision. The official decision, however, stated that the political parties have already wasted five months debating the options even after the demise of CA. "Further prolonging the debate on the option means not holding elections even in May 2013 - six years after the CA was elected in April 2008," read the statement. "Therefore holding fresh CA-parliamentary elections is the only appropriate step in favor of democracy, the country and the people." Also, former finance minister Ram Sharan Mahat said that he emphasized using flexible wordings in the minutes of the decision so that it would not obstruct building a consensus with other political parties. (Source: myrepublica.com)

In a joint press statement issued on Thursday, November 1, 2012, majority of the former CA members belonging to the NC said that they were shocked by the party's decision to go to the polls by making a constitutional amendment even in absence of a parliament. Saying that they were not against the election as such, the former CA members also reiterated their demand for reinstatement of the CA for a brief period to amend the constitution. The CWC took the decision through a majority. In the meeting, some influential leaders such as Sher Bahadur Deuba, Vice-president Ram Chandra Poudel and Bimalendra Nidhi spoke in favor of CA reinstatement. (Source: nepalnews.com)

The NC suggested a “Special Transitional Provision” only for elections. “The President, on the recommendation of the national consensus government, can announce the election date and related provisions and the first meeting of the elected CA will endorse the provision to give the polls legitimacy,” said NC spokesperson Dilendra Prasad Badu. As the interim constitution has no provision either for CA revival or fresh polls, the only provision in the interim constitution is: “move ahead on the basis of consensus”. “So, polls held on the basis of consensus will not be extra-constitutional. As there is no provision in the interim constitution for managing the complex situation, deciding through consensus is the only legitimate way,” Badu said. (Source: thehimalayantimes.com)

In a statement issued in Kathmandu on Saturday, November 3, 2012, NC has cautioned its party leaders and cadres not to indulge in any activities in public against the party's unanimous and institutional decisions. Serious attention of the NC has been drawn to the activities of 78 former CA members raising voice for the CA revival going against the decision made by the party's Central Working Committee, said spokesperson for NC Dilendra Prasad Badu. He also made it clear that the party decided to go for fresh CA/parliamentary elections, as there was a slim chance of the revived CA, which could not deliver a constitution even during the protracted period of around four years and five months, making any concrete results. The party made the decision on going for elections considering that opting for fresh elections to CA would be the most proper action for the country, people and democracy rather than getting stuck to meaningless discussion, stated a press release issued by Badu on behalf of the NC. (Source: RSS/thehimalayantimes.com)

Opening the Revolutionary Journalists Association Tharuwan state level first conference in Nepalgunj on Saturday, November 3, 2012, Spokesman for the UCPN-Maoist Agni Sapkota has alleged that the CPN-UML has been involved in the game of instigating the President for taking power. "First the prime minister's resignation and then only consensus, that is not possible. The prime minister would not allow the opposition parties' conspiracies to capture power to be successful by tendering resignation," the spokesman for UCPN-Maoist said. (Source: RSS/thehimalayantimes.com)

Speaking at the Reporters Club on Wednesday, October 31, 2012, Spokesperson for UCPN-Maoist Agni Sapkota said that the Bhattarai government would remain in place in absence of the parliament to elect a new Prime Minister; and the current government would hold fresh elections; the country would see a dire situation if the Prime Minister were to quit the office. "It will be unfortunate if the President ousts the Prime Minister," he said, warning that the Maoist party "will go to the people" and decide things from the streets. He also said that the government was going to present the full budget to the President if no consensus emerged at the four-party meeting on Thursday, November 1, 2012. "The government will present the full budget if there's no consensus. We will see what the President does." (Source: nepalnews.com)

On Wednesday, October 31, 2012, leaders of the UCPN-Maoist and UDMF meeting at the Prime Minister's residence in Baluwatar decided to bring the government's annual budget through an ordinance by mid-November, regardless of the outcomes of the talks with opposition parties; and also assigned coalition chief Prachanda to hold 'decisive' talks with opposition parties from Thursday, according to Spokesperson for the coalition Prem Bahadur Singh. He added that the coalition expressed concern over the delay in the full-fledged budget and vacancies in key constitutional bodies. "There is no point in holding talks for the sake of talks. We need to sit for decisive talks now," said Singh. (Source: nepalnews.com)

A meeting of the ruling partners in the current government held at the Prime Minister's official residence at Baluwatar on Wednesday morning, October 31, 2012 has turned over the responsibility of holding decisive talks with opposition parties to Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda within the next two days on whether to go for reinstating the dissolved CA or go for elections to take fresh mandate to end the political stalemate forging a political consensus on either of the alternatives in a package. Prachanda also the Chairman of the Federal Democratic Republican Alliance (FDRA) has been entrusted the responsibility to find a clear way by holding talks in package, said Prem Bahadur Singh, Spokesperson for the FDRA. He said, "The nation has been facing constitutional vacuum, and vacuum created by lack of budget and in such a condition we have seen necessity to take decision and handed over the responsibility to hold talks by fixing a deadline." Singh said the ruling coalition has prepared to expand the cabinet, bring full budget, announce the dates and places for the mass meetings on federalism, and decide on the continuity of the incumbent government including others if the talks within the two days failed to forge a consensus on the disputed issues. (Source: RSS/thehimalayantimes.com)

Speaking at a press conference held by the Press Chautari at Bidhur in Nuwakot on October 31, 2012, CPN-UML standing committee member Bharat Mohan Adhikari has said that his party would accept the leadership of UCPN-Maoist led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal, if they were to get an opportunity to lead the next consensus government; Adhikari opined for the formation of a new elected government. (Source: thehimalayantimes.com)

November 3, 2012