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Game Of Power Politics Again In Nepal
BY KTM Metro Reporter
January 10, 2012: when all Nepalis need a new constitution, political stability and peace, the political parties have started playing the power politics again. NC and CPN-UML leaders have held a series of meeting with the so-called small parties yesterday and the day before yesterday to ascertain how to topple the current government. They have successfully pulled Madheshi People’s Rights Forum-Nepal out of the coalition of the UCPN-Maoist and UDMF. They would try to pull some other Madheshi parties that have not been happy with the coalition government for not finding the positions of their choices in the government.
NC parliamentary party leader Ram Chandra Poudel has said that they have been holding meetings with the small parties not for grabbing power but for putting pressure on the UCPN-Maoist to follow the past deals they have signed, ‘The Rising Nepal’ of January 9, 2012 writes.
However, another NC cadre Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat has told that if his NC party could garner majority in the parliament, his party is going to register a no-confidence vote against the current coalition government, as the government has lost legitimacy to run the administration, ‘gorkhapatra’ of today writes. Dr. Mahat also has said that the current government has made a mistake of making decision on removing the statue of Tribhuvan from the Sahidgate; he has insisted on keeping the statue intact as Tribhuvan has contributed to democracy. Dr. Mahat has either ignored or does not know several things about Tribhuvan at all. For example, Tribhuvan has spent his whole life on prostituting and boozing. He took shelter in India only after the Rana family rule had been on the verge of collapse. He signed off the deal with the Rana rulers bypassing the then NC that had led the people’s movement against the Rana family rule. How could Tribhuvan contribute to democracy in such cases? His statue over the statues of the four martyrs at the Sahidgate has been insulting not only to the martyrs that gave lives for democracy but also to democracy. The statue of Tribhuvan should go somewhere. A few weeks ago, Dr. Mahat and his party had shut down the whole Nepal demanding to declare a man put in a jail on the murder charge and killed in the gang fights in the jail, a martyr and pay one million rupees to his family. Thus, the definition of martyr in the dictionary of Dr. Mahat and his party is probably anybody belonging to his party no matter whether they are criminals or not, and killed in a gang fight or in a road accident are martyrs.
These unscrupulous politicians have been after the power rather than institutionalizing the gains made by the people’s movement. They have been engaged in the blame game. The NC and CPN-UML leaders have blamed the UCPN-Maoist for not honoring the past deals. The UCPN-Maoist in turn have blamed the NC leaders for backtracking from the constitution writing not moving even an inch from the stand they have taken on keeping the parliamentary system as the system of governance.
Due to the recent unhealthy political development, the Constitutional Committee has not been able to endorse many issues that have been resolved by the Dispute Resolving Sub-committee. This Sub-committee had agreed on calling the parliament as the House of Representatives, and the age of eligible voters is 18 years. However, one faction of the UCPN-Maoist has rejected it and wants to call it a lower house and the age of voters reduced to 16.
This faction of the UCPN-Maoist wants to go back to the people’s revolt. Members of this faction are not for writing a new constitution in cooperation with the parliamentary political parties such as NC and CPN-UML. They blame the faction going along with the parliamentary political parties for surrendering most of the achievement made by the people in the people’s movement and in the 10-year people’s war.
NC and CPN-UML leaders also don’t want to surrender most of the things they have gained in the past particularly the parliamentary system, and keep most of the corrupt systems intact. Naturally, they also don’t want to compromise on a new constitution that makes sweeping changes in the governance system and federalism.
The uncompromising position, NC and CPN-UML leaders have taken pushed the two factions developed in the UCPN-Maoist to patch up and made them to go along to counter the stand taken by the NC leaders on state restructuring and federalism. Chairman of UCPN-Maoist Prachanda and Deputy Chairman Mohan Vaidya Kiran had submitted two different versions of the political paths the UCPN-Maoist needed to take. Now, they have agreed on setting aside the two different versions of the policy and go along with a common policy.
NC and its collaborators blame the UCPN-Maoist for stalling the peace process and the constitution writing not honoring the past deals whereas the UCPN-Maoist blames the NC for not compromising on any changes in the governance system and federalism. If they continue to blame each other for the stand on their beliefs and don’t backtrack even an inch from their respective stand means they are putting the peace process and the constitution writing at risk.
