Political Anarchism In Nepal

Siddhi B. Ranjitkar

Some political leaders have openly started off talking about the need for imposing a presidential rule and holding elections for a legislature to end the current political deadlock in Nepal; others have continued to say the President’s move on directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff is unconstitutional and need to correct it; the so-called democrats have been telling the public that the President’s move is constitutional and no need of talking about it anymore. They are in no mood of correcting the rupture of the constitutional order caused by the President’s unconstitutional action.

On October 26, 2009, speaking to the anchor of the state-run Radio Nepal in the morning program called ‘antar sambad’, Chairman of Nepal Workers’ and Peasants’ Party Narayan Man Bijukchhe has said that solution to the current political deadlock is to impose a presidential rule and then hold elections for a legislature keeping the current Constituent Assembly intact. The Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 has the provision for imposing a presidential rule but nothing for holding elections for a legislature before writing a new constitution. Mr. Bijukchhe is for clearly causing political anarchism advocating for holding elections for a legislature without first writing a new constitution. Mr. Bijukchhe is one of the leaders of the syndicate of the eighteen political parties.

On May 3, 2009 almost at midnight, President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav has directly written a letter to the Chief of Army Staff ordering him to stay on in the job. The Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 has made the provision for the President to do everything on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, as the President is a ceremonial and cannot do anything wrong. Disregarding the constitutional provision, obviously on the recommendation of the so-called leaders of eighteen political parties, President Yadav has abused the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff, and have made it a scrap of paper despite his oath of safeguarding it.

On May 3, 2009, Prime Minister Prachanda has fired the Chief of Army Staff for not following the government’s order and appointed the second-in-command to the Acting Chief of Army Staff giving a notice to the President. Some legal experts say that the Prime Minister needs to go through the President to fire the Chief of Army Staff, so the President has directly written to the Chief of Army Staff to stop the unconstitutional act of the Prime Minister.

The President could have stopped the Prime Minister directly telling him that the Prime Minister needs to pass the decision on firing the Chief of Army Staff through the President then only it would be valid otherwise not. If the Prime Minster does not listen to the President then the President needs to take it to the Supreme Court of Nepal to decide whether the Prime Minister’s decision on firing the Chief of Army Staff is constitutional or not. Such an action of the President would have been the most democratic and honorable and would have saved the country from the current political deadlock.

On May 4, 2009, Prime Minister Prachanda has resigned protesting the President’s move on directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff and ordering him to stay on in the job overriding the decision of the Prime Minister on firing the Chief of Army Staff, and saying the President has clearly abused the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 and his ceremonial position. Since then, former Prime Minister Prachanda and his party colleagues have been demanding the correction of the unconstitutional action of the President.

The Maoist legislators have registered a special motion on debating the President’s unconstitutional move on directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff at the secretariat of the legislature. However, the Speaker of the legislature did not put it to the debate at the legislature obviously under the pressure of the leaders of the Nepali Congress (NC) and of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML). So, Maoist legislators have been holding the legislature hostage demanding the debate over the President’s unconstitutional move on directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff and leading to the current political deadlock.

In the past, the Madheshi legislators have held the legislature hostage to force the government meet their demands, the NC legislators did the same to force the government to meet their demands, and then the CPN-UML legislators also did the same to force the government to meet their demands. Currently the Maoist legislators have been doing the same to get their demands met.

The legislature has been the helpless hostage for anybody to hold and get his/her demand met. The practice of holding the legislature hostage is wrong. So, the legislature needs to pass a bill making the holding of the legislature hostage is illegal otherwise the legislature becomes a useless institution anybody can hold hostage for anything s/he wants.

The so-called top leaders of three major political parties such as UCPN-Maoist, NC and CPN-UML have been saying that they would reach an agreement on ending the political deadlock tomorrow, the next day or the next week, after Dashain and then after Tihar and so on. How could these guys claimed to be the top most leaders of such major parties when they could not even correctly predict what they have been doing? How would they run the government if they could not precisely say when they are coming to an agreement? They have been simply trying to fool the people while fooling themselves.

Recently, Speaker Subhash Nemwang has said in public that the smooth running of the legislature is not only the duty of the government but also of the opposition; the legislature is the place where the people’s concern is addressed, so, it should not be stopped even for a minute.

Speaker Nemwang is correct in saying that nobody should hold the legislature hostage and also correct in saying that the legislature is the place where the people’s concern is addressed, but his action has been wrong as he has not allowed the Maoist legislators to debate the Presidential move on directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff. If the legislature is the place where people’s concern is debated, as Speaker Nemwang has correctly said, then he should have allowed debating the President’s move. Unfortunately, he did not do so thus becoming one of the main characters responsible for creating the current political deadlock.

Speaker Nemwang is more responsible for running the legislature than anybody else, as he is the Speaker in other words a responsible person for running the businesses of the legislature however he has so badly failed in doing his businesses. He has been a helpless spectator of the Maoist legislators holding the legislature hostage; he has not been able to do anything except for calling off the business of the legislature, as the Maoist legislators start shouting slogans against the President’s unconstitutional move on directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff. Morally, he needs to quit the job of the Speaker and let somebody run it.

Speaker Nemwang has made the mockery of democracy. Following the democratic principles and values, the people’s representatives have rights to debate about any issue concerning the people. However, Speaker Nemwang has overstepped the norms of democracy and denied the people’s representatives debating the unconstitutional action of the President.

Leaders of the NC and CPN-UML have been very scared of losing the current President. So, they have been extremely against debating the President’s undemocratic action in the legislature shamelessly defending it as constitutional even though they clearly know that it has been their mistake to push the President to abuse his ceremonial position for directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff. They know that if they debate it in the legislature, the President’s action would certainly prove to be undemocratic following the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 then the President would be morally bound to quit the position.

Somebody has filed a case in the Supreme Court of Nepal stating the President’s action of directly writing a letter to the Chief of Army Staff has been unconstitutional and then urged the Supreme Court annulling the letter of the President. However, so far, we have not heard of the Supreme Court holding a hearing in this case.

Minister for Irrigation Balkrishna Khand has been trumpeting in public that if the Maoists do not let run the legislature the government will pass the budget through the ordinance. It is not only a funny thing to say for the minister that the government would pass the budget through ordinance when the legislature is running but also the minister’s mindset of anarchism. The minister has not shown any respect for the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 saying such an unconstitutional matter. Such ministers have developed the mindset that while they are in the government they could say anything they like.

Minister for Defense Bidhya Bhandari has been saying that she is for amending the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) the government has signed with the Maoists in 2006, and she is not for integrating the Maoists’ combatants with the Nepal Army provoking not only all peace-loving Nepalis but also the Chief of UNMIN. Who has given her an authority to go on saying for amending the CPA and for not integrating the combatants with the Nepal Army? Any minister with a normal mindset would not say such thing.

Prime Minister Madhav Nepal has assured the Chief of UNMIN that the government would strictly follow the CPA and the government has no plan on amending the CPA, in addition, the integration of the combatants with the Nepal Army would go ahead.

One another unprincipled character in the current government is Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Gacchedar. He has bullied Prime Minister Madhav Nepal into making him Deputy Prime Minister as did NC President Girija Koirala into making his daughter Sujata Koirala Deputy Prime Minister. Both of them frankly told the Prime Minister they would take back the support for him if they would not get what they wanted. Mr. Gacchedar has also successfully sidelined the most sincere politicians of his party and took with him the most opportunists splitting the party into two factions. He has also water downed the demands of the Madheshi people for their rights for which a number of people have sacrificed their lives and many others have suffered from injuries during the Madheshi movement.

Most of the NC and CPN-UML leaders have been very scared of the UCPN-Maoist leaders toppling the current government. They know that the UCPN-Maoist leaders can form a government next day if they are for buying the number of legislators for this purpose.  So, NC and CPN-UML leaders have been challenging the UCPN-Maoist to garner a majority of the legislators and then form a government. Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Gacchedar has been so nervous of toppling of the current government that he has started saying if the UCPN-Moist forms a new government, then his colleagues and he would seize the legislature until the UCPN-Maoist government falls. Most of the unscrupulous political leaders have a major say in the current government.

On October 30, 2009, the worldwide media have reported that the de facto government of Honduras has agreed on returning deposed President Manuel Zelaya to office under the pressure of the US officials. If the US can restore the constitutional order returning the ousted President back to office why not in Nepal putting pressure on the Nepalese President to correct his unconstitutional action and restore the Prime Minister to office and enforce the firing of the undisciplined Chief of Army Staff for repairing the rupture of the Constitutional order and ending the political logjam. This will be a slap on the face of Indian Ambassador Rakesh Sood that had bought Bijaya Gacchedar and his colleagues for getting the majority in the legislature for the syndicate of the 18 political parties that have caused political anarchism. This might be the only way of stamping out the political anarchism of the syndicate of the 18 political parties.

Another political anarchism that the NC and CPN-UML leaders do not want to realize is that the person defeated in two constituencies is the Prime Minister and the person defeated in one constituent is the Deputy Prime Minister. It indicates that the NC and the CPN-UML have no able persons than those defeated in the elections for running the government. It is not only shame on them but also on all the democratic minded Nepalis.

Taking the consideration of all political events and the opinions of various political leaders publicly expressed, the scribe of this articles thinks that all Nepalese political leaders are almost like the funniest characters of the Nepalese national carnival called ‘Gai-jatra’. They do not care about following the Interim Constitution of Nepal of 2007 but use their discretion for prescribing what to do next for resolving the current political deadlock. So, the Nepalese politics has been ‘Gai-jatra’ but it is not amusing the people but causing suffering to them. Nepalis could not laugh at them but curse them for causing such a political situation going against the people’s aspiration for peace, political stability and prosperity.

October 31, 2009.