Nepal Heading Toward A Failed State

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

Political leaders have already started off thinking the need for extending the term of the Constituent Assembly (CA), as the promulgation of a new constitution on May 28, 2010 is practically impossible if all the formalities of writing a new constitution are to be followed. The parliamentary party leaders have bullied the basic principles and values of democracy on the pretext of the Maoists capturing the state power, and put the man defeated in two constituencies in the elections held for the Constituent Assembly cum legislature at the helm of the government. So, he also has been bulling the rule of law and pushing the country to a failed state.

In the parliamentary meeting of the legislators belonging to the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML), the CPN-UML legislators have demanded to extend the term of the CA for six months in view of the current political situation. They believe that in no case, the CA can promulgate a new constitution on the deadline set for it, as the CA members have to take the draft to the people and get their views on such a draft and then prepare a final draft of a new constitution incorporating the people’s view into it; so, the time available now; one month and 10 days are not sufficient to do so even if all the political leaders agreed on the contentious issues.

Out of 11 subject-matter drafts on a new constitution, the CA could pass only two subject-matter drafts and send them to the Constitutional Committee for preparing a draft of a new constitution. The nine drafts on a new constitution have been pending at the CA, as the political leaders have not agreed on the contentious issues.

The parliamentary leaders particularly of the Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML have blamed the Maoists for not agreeing on the contentious issues whereas the leaders of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-Maoist) have charged the parliamentary leaders with not agreeing on discussing the contentious issues and then come to the consensus on those issues, if possible, if not then follow the majority rule on such issues.

Amending the Interim constitution of Nepal of 2007 for making the provision for the majority rule instead of the consensus politics, the legislature has paved the way for playing the dirty game of the politics of numbers.

Following the amendment to the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 for making the provision for the majority rule, the crook and expert-players in the parliamentary game of numbers have seized the opportunity of manipulating the political situation and got elected the man that has not made any significant contribution to the Nepalese politics to the first President of Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal sidelining the man called Ram Raja Prasad Singh that has devoted his whole life to the cause of republic.

Similarly, the parliamentary politicians have elected the man that has the record of a scandal on corruption while serving at the Supreme Court of Nepal to the Vice-president sideling the most suitable persons for the position. He has created another scandal of language taking oath of office in Hindi. The ruling of the Supreme Court of Nepal has settled the dispute over the language issue for taking the oath of offices of the elected high offices.

The term of Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Nepal expires almost every six months; the potential candidates look at the politicians for favor to be on the position of the Chief Justice. So, the Supreme Court could not be immune from the political influences. Consequently, the Supreme Court of Nepal could not give its ruling on the nationally important case on the President’s undemocratic move on directly writing a letter to the then army chief fired by the democratically elected Prime Minister. If the Supreme Court has given the ruling on this politically hot law suit most probably Nepal would not have the current political deadlock.

The current government has not been serious about completing the peace process integrating the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into the Nepal Army as foreseen in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) the Government of Nepal has reached with the Maoist in 2006. During the last ten months of the Madhav government, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has done a little to integrate the PLA.

In the meeting of the Army Integration Special Committee (AISC) on April 16, 2010, Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has proposed to integrate 3,000 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into the Nepali Army and provide others with the relief amounts of ranging from Rs 175,000 to Rs 250,000 saying Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda has reached an agreement on this number of PLA integration into the Nepal Army with late NC President Girija Prasad Koirala.

Speaking to the anchor of the morning program called ‘antar sambad’ of the state-run Radio Nepal on April 17, 2010, the conflict expert has said that the government has simply put forward the proposal for PLA integration just to show the public that it has been doing something to the peace process; in fact, it will not be acceptable to the UCPN-Maoist, so, it will not make any sense. The expert has said if the government is really serious about the peace process it needs to take up other issues such as return of seized property, relief to the victims of conflict, and the whereabouts of the disappeared people during the conflict; however, the government has done nothing to this end.

Prime Minister proposes for the army integration but his Defense Minister opposes it. Prime Minster Madhav Nepal has called the meeting of the AISC and has made a proposal for the integration of the PLA into the Nepal Army. At the same time, his Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari has said that she is not going to allow anyone of the PLA to the Nepal Army as they have been politically indoctrinated. However, Mr. Nepal neither calls for explanations from his Defense Minister nor fires her from the ministerial position.

Some parliamentary leaders particularly of the NC and CPN-UML have been categorically rejecting the promulgation of a new constitution before the integration of the PLA into the Nepal Army. So, they have found various excuses for not moving ahead the constitution writing process, and they have successfully put on hold the constitution writing process.

At the same time, the UCPN-Maoist leaders have been saying that the writing of a new constitution and the integration of the PLA into the Nepal Army need to be done simultaneously. They have the fear of the parliamentary party leaders not agreeing on timely completion of a new constitution once the PLA is integrated into the Nepal Army.

The parliamentary party leaders have had hallucination of the Maoists capturing the state power just to abuse the rule of law. They set aside the basic principles of the rule of law and have forced the ceremonial president to abuse the power and write a letter to the then army chief violating the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007, and have abused the rule of law. However, they have not stopped voicing for the democratic rule. They have understood democracy and the rule of law differently. They have believed that they could safeguard the democracy abusing the rule of law. So, democracy has been in crisis in Nepal. The parliamentary party leaders: so-called saviors of democracy have been leading Nepal to a failed state not following the rule of law.

The current government put in place abusing the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 has never followed the rule of law. For example, following the rule of law, the government needs to appoint a new governor one month before the incumbent governor retires but the Madhav government has appointed a new governor well after one month of the retirement of the incumbent governor, as Prime Minister Madhav Nepal could not reach a deal with his Deputy Sujata Koirala on this matter.

The Madhav government has broken any past records on misusing the state money. Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has distributed the taxpayers’ money from the fund of Prime Minister to his sycophants for doing nothing to the welfare of the taxpayers. He has been asking more taxpayers’ money from the Ministry of Finance to his fund for distributing the money to the cadres of his party for supporting him and his government.

Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has spent millions of rupees on foreign visits. He has included his relatives, friends, and cadres of his party on his entourage while going for foreign tours. He has even ignored to keep the account of his expenditure on his foreign visit. His office has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the reimbursement of Rs 10 million spent on the visit to Copenhagen, Denmark for attending the world climate-change summit held by the UN. The Foreign Ministry has rejected to reimburse for the expenditure stating valid vouchers and bills are missing. So, the Prime Minister did not honor the need for following the state rules and regulations for keeping even the simple account of the money spent on his foreign tour.

Another dazzling example of how Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has bullied the rule of law is the award of the contract for printing machine-readable passports (MRPs) given to the Indian state-run company disregarding the suggestions of the Public Account Committee of the legislature on following the Public Procurement Act of 2006 for awarding the contract for printing MRPs. The Madhav government has annulled the contract for printing MRPs in India after the UCPN-Maoist has threatened to take the issue to the streets.

Deputy Prime Minister Sujata Koirala has been saying that the Government of Nepal needs to apologize to the Government of India for annulling the contract for printing MRPs in India. Some political analysts say that the Deputy Prime Minister and her government need to apologize to Nepalis for not following the Public Procurement Act of 2006 for awarding the contract for printing MRPs in India for not doing the state business transparently provoking the criticism. The Nepalese and Indian media have been full of the reports on the Nepalese ministers and Indian officials making a lot of money out of the MRP-printing deal.

The Nepal Army and the Nepal Police have continued to kill innocent Nepalis with impunity. Home Minister Bhim Rawal of the Madhav Government has patted the armed police force for killing innocent Nepalis in Atariya in the name of ejecting the people encroaching on the forestland. Similarly, Defense Minister Bidhya Bhandari has said that the Nepali Army personnel have killed the three women including a twelve-year-old girl in an encounter at the Bardiya National Park on the night of March 10, 2010. The Sub-Committee On Investigation Into Killing Of Three Women in Bardiya formed by the Legislative Committee On Women, Children And Social Welfare in its reports has stated on April 7, 2010 that the three women the Nepal Army has killed in Bardiya National Park on March 10 were not poachers, but they were simply collecting tree barks in the park for their livelihood. The National Human Rights Commission has also found that the three women killed by the Nepal Army are not poachers and are not armed as stated by the Nepal Army and endorsed by the Defense Minister, and has recommended the government to bring the Nepal Army culprits to justice. However, the Madhav government has done nothing to punish the criminals and killers encouraging impunity.

Abut one hundred men of the battalion of the Nepal Army stationed at Chhauni in Kathmandu has surrounded the office of the Sub-department of Metropolitan Police at Lainchaur in Kathmandu even blocking the traffic on Sunday morning, April 18, 2010 for about five minutes for taking revenge on the Nepal Police for arresting the major, captain and some other officers of the battalion of the Nepal Army for getting drunk at Thamel in Kathmandu on April 8, 2010. A man called Rajesh Vikram Shahi claiming to be a Nepal Army ranger has even threatened by SMS message to shoot Police Inspector Rugam Bahadur Kunwar. However, Defense Minister Bidhaya Bhandari of the Madhav government has done nothing against the criminal activities of the Nepal Army personnel. So, the criminals have been going around with impunity.

The NC and CPN-UML leaders have already floated the idea of extending the term of the Constituent Assembly or take the country to fresh elections clearly indicating that they are not for promulgating a new constitution on May 28, 2010. They are making a political gai-jatra means a large mess. These guys have no faith in the rule of law; they just want to sideline the rule of law and in the name of democracy they want to impose their own style of rule of their decision. This is a tragic symptom of Nepal going to be a failed state.

April 23, 2010.